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by WILL FOLKS
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After posting better-than-expected numbers during the spring, inflation is heating up again heading into the summer months – prompting critics of U.S. president Donald Trump to ramp up their rhetoric against his tariff policies.
According to data (.pdf) released on Tuesday (July 15, 2025) by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the consumer price index (CPI) – a basket of goods and services purchased by urban consumers – jumped by 0.3% from the previous month. That’s the biggest monthly increase since January. On a year-over-year basis, inflation is up 2.7%.
Core CPI – which excludes volatile food and energy prices – climbed by 0.1% from the previous month and is up 2.9% year-over-year.
While these numbers are well below those recorded during former president Joe Biden‘s administration, Democrats nonetheless pounced on Trump.
“Donald Trump said he would lower prices on day one, and almost six months later, it is clear he has failed the American people,” Democrat chairman Ken Martin said. “Working families have endured skyrocketing prices for basic household goods, rising utility bills, and now, accelerated inflation driven by Trump’s chaotic trade policies that have no end in sight.”
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While Trump’s culpability on current price points is up for debate (most analysts do not believe tariffs were a major factor in last month’s numbers), his contribution to the inflationary debt bomb beginning to sink its teeth into our economy is undeniable.
And, for that matter, so were his contributions to “Bidenflation.” As previously reported, inflation soared by an astronomical 21.25% under Biden. More ominously, real wages declining by 1.6% compared to the 6.8% uptick they experienced during Trump’s first term. Perhaps more than any other reason, those price hikes – and the impact they had on middle class wages – precipitated Trump’s resounding 2024 victory.
As I’ve often noted, inflation is not inherently bad. If properly managed, in fact, it can be a good thing. Expanded employment opportunities – and the income growth they create – are what drive our economy. New jobs and higher incomes aren’t created in a vacuum, though. If prices for goods and services stagnate, the paychecks of the workers producing those goods and providing those services will also stagnate. And companies wouldn’t be able to hire new workers.
Growth has to come from somewhere, people…
The optimum rate of annual inflation is approximately 2% – a target the economy consistently failed to hit under former president Barack Obama. The annual rate of inflation for 2016 was just 1.26% while in 2015 it clocked in at a meager 0.12%. The two percent threshold was also missed in 2014 (1.62%) and 2013 (1.47%).
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During Trump’s first term, inflation hit its target rate in 2017 (2.1%) and 2018 (2.4%) but slipped just below it the following year (1.8%). In 2020, inflation registered an anemic 1.2% thanks in large part to the Covid-19 shutdown.
Under Biden, inflation peaked at 8% in 2022 – four times its optimal level – while clocking in at 4.7% in 2021, 4.1% in 2023 and 3.2% last year.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump hailed the new numbers as proof inflation was “LOW” – and reiterated his call for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates to stimulate more borrowing and additional economic growth. Trump added that he believed the Fed should cut rates by three points due to “very low inflation.”
In addition to stimulating growth, Trump is banking on rate cuts to mitigate the impact of interest payments on the United States’ staggeringly unsustainable debt. So far, the secretive central bank – which has a history of playing politics with interest rates – remains disinclined to accommodate Trump’s wishes.
As always, count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised of how this key economic indicator progresses during Trump’s second term. Also, count on us to track the political reverberations which follow from its progression.
BANNER VIA: GETTY IMAGES
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THE REPORT…
(BLS)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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2 comments
Tariffs are a tax on the consumer. Of course they will cause inflation. Will, still shining Trump’s knob for everything except the debt. At some point you can’t keep whinging “Biden Biden Biden.”If Biden had the day Trump had in Pittsburgh today Will would be apoplectic. It was the performance of a mentally compromised demented man.
Where is the $1.98 gas Trump keeps bragging about? Anyone? Haha.
Is Trump losing his mind? This is a serious question. In the last few days,
1. He said that his uncle was the longest-serving professor at MIT, that he taught Ted Kaczynski, and that he had asked his uncle what kind of student Kaczynski was. All of that is a total fabrication. Not one word of it is true. Is he delusional and believes that story?
2. He said he was surprised when Jerome Powell was appointed to the Federal Reserve. He appointed Jerome Powell to the Federal Reserve.
3. He said Epstein and Maxwell went to prison for sex trafficking while he was President, on evidence manufactured by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton. That the whole thing was bogus, and despite campaigning for years on the “Epstein files,” they don’t exist or were fake, and if his name is in the files, Biden put it there.
How can people seriously support this guy. If MAGA wants to go after Pedophiles, here is a hint: they are in the house.