'Much, much higher' than 9.1% inflation rate, Trump blasts Biden on rising prices

During a rally in Arizona, Donald Trump slammed President Joe Biden for the way he handled the inflationary wave hammering American households. During his tenure as president, Trump told rallygoers that

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

“we had the greatest economy in the history of the world with no inflation,” while adding that “Biden created the worst inflation in 47 years.”

In an upcoming GOP primary election, Trump is campaigning for former TV anchor Kari Lake, who wants to become Arizona's next governor. CPI inflation measured in February, Trump's first month in office, stood at just 2.8 percent on an annualized basis. He served as president from July 2018 through January 2021, and inflation peaked at 2.9 percent in July 2018 and 1.4 percent in January 2021.

According to CBS News' "Face the Nation," Gina Raimondo said the country's inflation has "probably" peaked, although she acknowledged that a further war or pandemic could accelerate price growth.

Despite not going into details about Biden's policies, Trump referred to his alleged 'war on American energy' as the reason for inflation soaring. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that around half of headline inflation comes from rising energy prices.

A lack of refining capacity, global supply shortfalls, the war in Ukraine, and corporate greed are among the reasons given for the price of gasoline, which has doubled since Biden took office.

Affirming his criticism of Biden for "begging" other countries to pump more crude instead of increasing domestic production, Trump delivered his speech in Arizona.

“We are a nation that is begging Venezuela and Saudi Arabia and many other countries for oil,” Trump said.

“Yet we have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country in the world. We are a nation that is consumed by the radical left’s Green New Deal, yet everyone knows that the Green New Deal will lead to our destruction,” the former president added.

“Just two years ago, we were energy-independent. We were even energy-dominant. The United States is now a beggar for energy,” Former President Trump said.

25 July 2022