Trump declares ‘inflation is solved’ as Americans battling cost-of-living head to polls

Trump declares ‘inflation is solved’ as Americans battling cost-of-living head to polls Nearly half of registered voters named cost-of-living as the top issue in deciding how they would vote, according to one poll - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in President Donald Trump declared that “inflation is solved” as many Americans head to the polls with the cost-of-living on their minds. Trump dialed into Fox News on Election Day morning to make the sweeping claim. “And the toughest job I was given, the inflation is solved,” he said Tuesday on Fox & Friends. “Everything’s going good… everybody respects us again.” The latest inflation figures, released October 29, tell a different story. Consumer prices rose 3.6 percent in September from a year earlier, the U.S. Commerce Department said last week, up from 3.4 percent in August. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.5 percent, up from 0.3 percent in August — the highest figure since May. Nearly half of registered voters (48 percent) named cost-of-living as the top issue in deciding how they would vote, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The Federal Reserve’s inflation target is 2 percent, a rate not seen in nearly a decade. Even conservative analysts called out the president over his inflation claim. “This is untrue,” Joel Griffith of Advancing American Freedom, a conservative group founded by Trump’s former VP Mike Pence, posted on X. “American families are losing ground as inflation is [sic] heats up.” During a speech on election eve, Trump described the elections as “the most important midterm, I believe in our lifetime.” The president delivered the speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where he spent the first 20 minutes talking about the renovation of the landmark, which was significantly delayed due to a botched repair of the lining. Critics, including former Georgia congresswoman and ex-Trump-loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene, called out the president for not using the opportunity to talk about the cost of living. “So today for Trump’s closing midterm pitch he goes to the reflecting pool and brags all about working on the reflecting pool that 99.99999999999999% of Americans don’t care about and it has no effect on their lives like continued high inflation, high cost of living, high cost of gas/diesel does,” Greene posted on X. After much criticism of the speech, Trump fumed Tuesday that the address “wasn't a Final Midterms Speech.” “It was a NEWS CONFERENCE, nobody was invited, it was closed to the Public — Just Reporters,” he raged on Truth Social. “My Final Midterms Speech was the day before in lowa and Kansas, where we had 50,000 people. This just shows you how FAKE the News is.” Trump campaigned for a second White House term on a promise to turbocharge the economy. But his presidential approval rating has fallen in recent months to the lowest levels of his political career, including among Hispanic Americans who swung in his direction in 2024. According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, 49 percent of Americans said their household finances have deteriorated since January 2025, when Trump returned to power, compared to 13 percent who said their finances had improved and 37 percent who said things were about the same. With reporting from agencies Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments [Image text:] MAKE AMERIC GPEA