Donald Trump pledged to cut grocery prices as soon as he took office, yet barely addressed the cost of food in the whirlwind of executive orders he signed in his first week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic lawmakers wrote in a searing letter.
The letter, addressed to Trump, accuses the president of reneging on a campaign promise to reduce supermarket bills starting on his first day in office.
“During your campaign, you repeatedly promised that you would reduce food prices ‘immediately’ if a president was elected,” read the letter, which was sent to Trump on Sunday evening and first shared with NBC News. “But during my first week in office, I focused instead on mass deportations and pardons for the January 6 attackers.”
Trump has made inflation and food costs his hallmark for a second presidential term. View everything from a small box of Tic tacs On the march in North Carolina to full Tables full of groceries outside the Bedminster, New Jersey, Golf Club to express its commitment to reducing voter bills.
But the dozens of executive orders Trump has signed since Inauguration Day only touch food, Warren, D-Mass. A total of 20 Democrats.
“Your only action on costs was an executive order containing only the most direct mention of food prices, not a single specific policy to reduce them,” they wrote, pointing to a Trump administration memo committing Cost of living assistance for Americans By eliminating forced “adverse climate” policies that “increase food and fuel costs.”
The Trump administration did not immediately comment on the letter, which comes as food prices continue to rise. Department of Labor data shows that The cost of groceries rose 1.8% From December 2023 to December 2024. Eggs saw the biggest jump in prices, increasing 36.8% during the same time frame in large part due to a Avian influenza crisis Millions of poultry have been killed.
Democratic lawmakers warned in the letter that companies “often exploit crises such as pandemics and avian flu outbreaks as an opportunity to raise prices beyond what is needed to cover rising costs.”
Warren has long advocated on behalf of consumers. Last year, she and others introduced a bill that would make it illegal to sell goods or services in “Significantly excessive price“—a term to be determined by the Federal Trade Commission. The bill has not yet advanced.
In May, I sent A A letter to then-President Joe Biden He calls on his administration to reduce food costs through better federal enforcement of price gouging.
In statements to NBC News, Warren and McGovern grilled Trump on how he will spend his first week in office.
“If Donald Trump is serious about working to lower grocery prices, he should get rid of these tools to lower egg prices and deliver on his promises,” Warren said.
McGovern added that Trump “hasn’t done a damn thing to lower food prices or help hardworking people struggling to put food on the table.”
“We are ready to work with him to actually deliver results, not just empty rhetoric,” he said.
About 9 in 10 voters were somewhat or very positive Worried about the cost of groceriesThe letter referred to Trump.
“Instead of working to reduce their grocery bills, you used the first week of your administration to try to end birthright citizenship, pardon the individuals who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and Rename MtThe message said.
Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.” Last month, his Election Day victory came down to two topics: immigration and affordability.
“I won on the border and I won on grocery stores,” he said.
But later in December, he admitted that cutting grocery bills would be “very difficult.”
“It’s hard to drop things once you get up,” he said He told Time magazine.
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Reservoir Economic Research Collaborative, said putting an end to powerful companies that have been captivating prices in recent years should be the president’s first step.
“Families expect President Trump to keep his promises. But if his first list of executive orders is any indication, he is setting himself up for failure,” Owens said in a statement to NBC News.
