Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has argued that President Donald Trump‘s policies are actively making America less affordable, directly contradicting the president’s central economic promises.
Krugman Says Trump Policies Will Lift Inflation
When asked in a recent podcast with Hasan Minhaj about how Trump’s pledge to make the country more affordable was progressing, Krugman was blunt: “Yeah, that’s going badly.”
Krugman, who recently moved from The New York Times to writing on Substack, asserted that several administration policies are directly contributing to rising costs for consumers.
“Inflation has picked up,” he said, “it will pick up more because all of these tariffs are raising the cost of imported goods.”
Trump’s Immigration Policies Will Fuel Inflation
The economist also linked the administration’s hardline immigration policies to rising grocery bills, an area where Americans feel inflation most acutely.
“We’re starting to see food prices tick up and it’s going to get worse because of the deportations,” Krugman stated. “Because who do you think picks crops in America?”
He characterized the president’s economic promises as hollow and lacking a viable strategy. “He had no plan to do that,” Krugman said. “It was, ‘I’m going to magically make prices go down,’ and in fact most of the things he’s doing are going to make them go up.”
See Also: Peter Schiff Slams Trump’s $2,000 ‘Dividend’ Checks: ‘…Defeats The Very Purpose Of The Tariffs’
Political Leaders Cannot Promise Lower Prices
During the wide-ranging economic discussion, Krugman cautioned listeners to be skeptical of any political leader promising to lower prices significantly.
He explained that while prices for specific goods like gasoline or eggs can fluctuate, the overall goal of economic stabilizers like the Federal Reserve is to maintain a low, steady inflation rate of around 2%.
He noted that deflation, or falling prices, is generally considered “a really bad thing” for an economy.
“Any politician who promises to bring prices way down is either ignorant or lying or both,” Krugman concluded.
Benchmark Indices Tumble Amid Government Data Uncertainty
While the government is reopening after a record-long shutdown, investors await a slew of economic data that couldn’t be released during the period.
The absence of data clouds various important monetary and fiscal decisions, which caused the benchmark indices to fall sharply on Thursday.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, closed lower on Thursday. The SPY was down 1.66% at $672.04, while the QQQ declined 2.04% to $608.40, according to Benzinga Pro data.
The futures of the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq 100 indices were mixed on Friday.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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