Inflation speeds up, Trump makes things worse
San José, CA – On Monday, February 24, Denny’s, one of the three largest breakfast chains in the United States, announced that it would be rolling out an extra surcharge on eggs. Denny’s followed Waffle House, another large breakfast chain. Both are trying to pass along the rising costs of eggs, which are up almost 20% just since December. This is mainly because of the spreading bird flu, where quarantine measures have meant the killing more than 100 million poultry, including 20 million of chickens, just in the last three months of 2024.
The day after Trump announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico, on February 1, a Canadian utility with U.S. customers announced that their rates would be rising with the new tariffs. Outdoing this was Nucor, the largest producer of steel in the United States, which has raised the price of its steel four times since January. The company plans to get ahead of Trump’s planned 25% tariffs on aluminum and steel, which are to take affect March 12, even though their steel in made in the United States and not subject to tariffs. They are using the same playbook as in 2018, during the first Trump administration. When Trump put 25% tariffs on imports of steel, domestic steel producers raised their prices an average of 22%, boosting profits but not production.
Last but not least, the price of gasoline is about to begin its seasonal rise. On average, the price of gas hits a low in February, and then starts to rise during the spring and summer. While this is not the fault of any of Trump’s policies, it certainly goes against his pledge to bring down the price of gasoline.
Candidate Trump pledged to bring down prices as president. This was a big part of his victory last November, as voters turned away from the Democratic Party candidates, who were deaf to working people’s complaints about inflation. But like a true politician, Trump is turning away from this goal and actually acting to make it worse with reciprocal tariffs on all countries to go into effect in April.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, one of some 13 billionaires helping billionaire Trump to manage the federal government, recently said, with a smiling face, that Trump’s actions were “disinflationary.” What he meant by this is that Trump’s DOGE chief, Elon Musk was taking an axe to federal payrolls, cutting or putting on leave some 30,000 and threatening 2 million others with layoffs.
The spreading uncertainty and pain is already reducing spending, which will tend to limit price rises at the cost of disrupting the lives of tens of thousands of civil servants. Trump is stripping away the mask from the time when two-faced politicians used to assure the people while carrying out the wishes of billionaires. But now with the billionaires in charge, there is no more pretense, so they smile while wielding a chainsaw to our jobs and pocketbook.