President Trump just put one of the most politically dangerous economic comparisons in America right in front of voters.

The chart he posted Thursday compares the change in major household costs during the first 20 months of his current term with the same stretch of the Biden presidency.

Across inflation, groceries, gasoline, rent, electricity and vehicles, the Trump-era increase shown in the chart is lower every single time.

Here are the numbers Trump posted: overall inflation rose 12.3% under Biden versus 4.3% under Trump; groceries rose 15.8% versus 3.3%; gasoline rose 69% versus 12%; rent rose 7.7% versus 4.5%; and electricity rose 19.1% versus 8.4%.

The widest reversal came in new and used vehicles. The chart shows prices rising 23.9% during the comparable Biden period and falling 1.2% during Trump’s current term.

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That does not mean every price has returned to where it was before the Biden inflation surge. It means the additional increase has been dramatically smaller under Trump — an important distinction for families still living with the higher price floor Biden left behind.

The Joint Economic Committee Republicans released the underlying comparison Thursday using consumer-price data through August 2026. Its analysis estimates that the average American household faced $2,881 less in added costs during Trump’s first 20 months than it did during Biden’s first 20 months.

That works out to a 40.7% smaller increase in cumulative household costs. The committee also calculated a smaller increase in every state, with estimated savings ranging from $2,540 in West Virginia to $3,451 in Colorado.

The estimate covers a broad household basket rather than one cherry-picked item. Housing, transportation, food, medical care, education, recreation, apparel and other routine expenses are all included in the calculation.

The committee is explicit about the scope of its result. Prices increased during both periods.

The cumulative rise during Trump’s current term was far smaller than the increase Americans absorbed over the same amount of time under Biden.

That is the comparison Democrats will have the hardest time talking around.

They can correctly say that some costs remain painful. They cannot erase the enormous difference between adding 12.3% to the overall price level and adding 4.3%, or between a 69% gasoline surge and a 12% increase.

Current monthly data also show why Trump cannot simply declare the affordability fight over.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in August and 3.4% over the preceding 12 months. Shelter increased 3.0% year over year, food increased 2.7%, food at home rose 2.2% and electricity rose 3.8%.

Gasoline was the outlier, up 27.4% from a year earlier even though the 20-month Trump comparison remained far below Biden’s 69% jump. Used cars and trucks, by contrast, were down 2.3% over the year.

Those one-year readings cover a different window than Trump’s 20-month chart, so the percentages should not be mixed together. They show that inflation has slowed substantially from the Biden comparison while some categories can still flare up and hit household budgets hard.

That is precisely why the cumulative comparison matters politically. Voters do not experience “the economy” as a single statistic; they experience it at the grocery register, the gas pump, the rent payment and the electric bill.

Trump’s post also pointed to new income and poverty figures, and that part of the affordability argument has fresh federal data behind it.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported this week that real median household income reached $87,460 in 2025, up 2.6% from the previous year. Census called it the highest median household income recorded since the agency began collecting the data in 1967.

The official poverty rate fell to 10.2%, a decline of half a percentage point from 2024. Child poverty dropped to a historic low of 13.4%, while the poverty rate for Hispanic Americans also reached a historic low at 13.9%.

Those results describe calendar year 2025 and do not prove that every family is financially comfortable. They do show real income moving up after inflation and fewer Americans falling below the official poverty line.

Together with the smaller cumulative price increase, the figures give Trump a much stronger affordability case than a simple victory lap would. He can point to slower cost growth, rising real household income and falling poverty at the same time.

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Democrats spent years telling Americans that Biden’s economy was strong while families watched their buying power disappear.

Trump is now forcing a cleaner comparison: What happened to the cost of daily life during Biden’s first 20 months, and what happened during his?

The answer in every category on that chart favors Trump. Prices are still too high, but the direction has changed — and voters can see exactly who drove the original surge.

That is the affordability fight Trump wants heading into the midterms. Now he has federal numbers that make it very difficult to dismiss.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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