Inflation in the US has remained above 3% since Joe Biden took office.
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has criticized Vice President Kamala Harris over the Biden administration’s handling of inflation. He compared a recent campaign pledge she made to curb rising prices to measures used in communist nations.
Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump mocked Harris for her promise to implement the first federal ban on price gouging on food if she is elected president.
“Just yesterday Kamala laid out her so-called economic plan, saying that she’s going to lower the cost of food and housing starting on day one, but day one for Kamala was three and half years ago, so why didn’t she do it then?” Trump asked.
Earlier this week, Harris pointed to the cost of items such as bread and ground beef, claiming that large food manufacturers are increasing profits and accusing some grocery chains of not passing savings onto customers.
The Republican nominee denounced Harris’s “socialist” approach to price controls, calling her “comrade Kamala,” and adding that she had gone “full communist.”
“It will cause rationing, hunger and skyrocketing prices,” he said. “Just like [the Biden-Harris administration’s] Inflation Reduction Act, which is one of the great scams of all time. Inflation has been so bad, it’s gone up much more than 50%. They say 30%, 40% — many more people are being devastated.”
Trump emphasized that the “radical liberal policies” of recent years under President Joe Biden have led to “horrific inflation” that has devastated the middle class and “gutted the finances of millions of American families.”
“They have no idea, they’re grossly incompetent people. Real incomes are down by over $2,000 a year. Think of that, minimum, and ours up five times that amount, more than five times that amount. Her price hikes have cost a typical household a total of $28,000, and that’s called the Kamala Harris inflation tax. She was there for everything.”
Inflation surged to 9.1% year-on-year in June 2022 before starting to decrease as the Federal Reserve implemented a series of interest rate hikes. However, annual inflation remained above 3% before dropping to 2.9% this past July, the first time it has dipped below the 3% mark since March 2021.