Major newspapers and newswires failed to report that at a September 17 campaign event in Michigan, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump proposed reducing food imports in response to a question about how he’d reduce food costs, claiming that “our farmers are being decimated.” Several economists explained the obvious point that reducing the supply of food by restricting imports would actively increase food prices.
During the town hall, an audience member asked Trump how he would “bring down the cost of food and groceries.” After Trump rambled about unrelated energy prices and Federal Reserve interest rates, he responded:
Several economists were quick to point out that this would not reduce food prices. In fact, it would raise them.
University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers wrote, “I'm exhausted even saying it, but blocking supply won't reduce prices, and it's not even close.”
Cato Institute vice president Scott Lincicome posted: “Well, technically, you can't get a price lower than zero (bc the food won't be available at all bc it can't be grown in the US for most of the year).”
Center for Economic and Policy Research senior economist Dean Baker commented: “That's what you get when you ask someone who both knows nothing about economics and has never had to buy his own groceries in his life.”
Former Labor Secretary and University of California, Berkeley public policy professor Robert Reich added: “Trump's plan to lower food prices is to reduce the supply of food. Think grocery prices are high now? Just wait.”
Yet, according to a search of the Factiva database from September 17 through noon on September 18, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, and Reuters all failed to cover this statement from Trump. (These newspapers have a history of almost entirely failing to cover Trump’s inflationary policies in their print news coverage of inflation.)
In Trump’s response, he went on to claim that farmers don’t want subsidies and that he negotiated a good trade deal with China for U.S. farmers. In reality, Trump’s trade war was so disastrous to U.S. farmers that his administration paid them unprecedented levels of support. As Politico reported in mid-July 2020:
NBC News reported that farm income began to recover during the Biden-Harris administration.
Methodology
Media Matters searched articles in the Factiva database from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, and Reuters for the term “Trump” within the same headline or paragraphs as any of the terms “food,” “energy,” “interest” or “rate” or any variation of either of the terms “grocery” or “farmer” from September 17, 2024, when GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump answered a question about how he would lower food prices during a Michigan town hall, through noon on September 18, 2024.
