Um… did Donald Trump confess that his promise to reduce costs for the average American was just a barefaced lie?

You could be forgiven for expecting a president, who was elected partially for his promise of bringing down costs — including the price of eggs — for consumers and ordinary people, to actually try doing something about the cost of living, especially during a cost of living crisis.

Unfortunately, the president in question is Donald Trump, who says a million different things based on whatever thoughts are currently playing banjo in his head and then does something completely different and massively insane at the first opportunity. Despite consistently claiming to want to address the cost of living by making things cheaper for the average American, he has admitted that his broad, sweeping plans for tariffs will increase prices instead.

But according to America’s 47th president, this spike is temporary. A short-term pain for long-term gain. Riiight.

Tariffs are not paid by countries. They are paid by companies, who will pass the increase in price on to their consumers so that they don’t make any losses. If consumers want to continue buying and using the goods to which they have become accustomed, they will need to pay the increased prices. This is especially true for businesses and large organizations that require internationally-produced goods and services, such as drugs vital for the health of millions of Americans which are produced overseas by foreign companies — like insulin.

Trump says that this will be a short-term, “temporary” situation. Unfortunately, Trump is also doing other things to make life more expensive for people in America, such as ordering federal funding freezes that hit vital programs — actions that caused the Governor of Illinois to brand Trump either a liar or “critically incompetent.”

There are many who agree and are not holding back their discontent with Trump and his policies.

While Trump didn’t specifically increase caps on co-pays or prices of insulin, he did rescind Biden’s executive orders requiring ways to reduce medical costs and medicine prices to be investigated and put into place. This is bad, but Trump hasn’t and can’t remove the provisions already included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, even though his actions could indicate a desire to do so later on.

Trump’s immediate actions look set to create an America where ordinary people pay more for the things they need, such as groceries and medication, while his billionaire buddies rail against “inefficiencies” in government spending and threaten to cut lunch funding for schoolkids.

The early days of Trump’s second term are filled with enough red flags to make anyone worried. According to the current POTUS, high tariffs, rants about “DEI” and “woke,” and railing against “Democrat” priorities like adequate healthcare is apparently what America needs to succeed. Already, people like Tim Walz are planning a legal battle against Trump’s decisions about federal funding. While Trump and his cronies continue to make “deadly” decisions, they aren’t the ones who’ll suffer. It’s the ordinary American families who struggle to make ends meet, can’t afford to feed their families or heat their homes, they will be the ones shouldering the brunt of Trump’s policies.