US Politics
Trump trots out tried-and-tested insults when fact-checked on his Thanksgiving affordability claim
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President Donald Trump brought back a couple of his tried-and-tested insults after being fact-checked by a reporter from NBC on his recent claims of delivering on affordability for Americans ahead of Thanksgiving.
“Fake news,” Trump replied, when confronted at a White House meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán Friday. “NBC, you’re fake news. NBC’s gone down the tubes along with most of the rest of them.”
The reporter had challenged the president’s claim earlier this week that Walmart’s Thanksgiving dinner this year was “down 25% since under Sleepy/Crooked Joe Biden.”
“AFFORDABILITY is a Republican Stronghold,” Trump, 79, claimed. “Hopefully, Republicans will use this irrefutable fact!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday.
Internet users were quick to point out the differences between Walmart’s meal in 2024 and 2025, calling out the retail giant for using fewer items, “cheaper” brands and a smaller turkey this year compared to last — even though this year’s meal does cost less.
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Despite this, Trump repeated his claim Friday, saying: “I just heard this yesterday that Walmart said that the Thanksgiving was 25 more expensive, 25 percent more expensive under Biden.
“That’s a big, to me, that’s a big number, because Walmart’s respected. I mean, Walmart is Walmart, and, you know, they’re giving you prices.”
Bringing out another of his favorite labels, he rambled on: “So that would mean that the whole series of pricing and costs, you know, the groceries and everything else, it was a con job.
“It was a con job, affordability, they call it, was a con job by the Democrats. The Democrats are good at a few things, cheating in elections and conning people with facts that aren’t true.”
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The president has doubled down multiple times on his claims that he has slashed prices in time for the holiday, despite being proved wrong by online users, and even having his post slapped with a community note correction on X.
He also made a similar claim during a press conference in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon.
It comes as new surveys show that the majority of Americans still feel Trump is to blame for the current affordability crisis, with three-quarters of those surveyed reporting an increase in household expenses – contrary to the president’s claim of falling prices.
About 74 percent of Americans say their regular monthly household costs increased by at least $100 in the last year, according to a new Harris poll published by The Guardian. Some Americans even said they’re paying between $500 and $749 more each month.