Inflation has increased by almost 20% since he came to power

Inflation eased slightly in April, but even the slower price increases revealed this week still contributed to a tally that poses perhaps the Biden campaign’s most insurmountable economic challenge for the 2024 campaign.

Prices as measured by the seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index (CPI) have now increased more than 19.4% in the three years since Biden took office.

Cumulative inflation has been a Republican Party priority for months, and that continued Wednesday as new data showed the figure inching ever closer to a psychologically significant milestone of 20%.

The Trump campaign didn’t even wait for the threshold to be crossed on Wednesday, with a statement from the campaign’s press secretary flatly stating that “overall prices are up 20%.”

Trump himself, as he tends to do, further exaggerated the numbers, making them largely unrecognizable. In a video response to the inflation report, he said without providing any evidence that inflation “takes away 30 to 50 percent of every dollar you own.”

President Biden himself responded to the latest report in a statement calling costs his top economic priority, while acknowledging that “while we have made progress, we still have much to do.”

For comparison, prices increased by just under 7.8% during the 4 years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Economists often note that differences in inflation between the two eras are due to a range of factors far beyond who occupies the Oval Office.

Under Trump, for example, COVID-related disruptions at the end of his presidency significantly lowered gas prices. Under Biden, supply chain problems have driven up prices in other areas.

Either way, expect to hear a lot more about cumulative inflation numbers from Trump and his allies over the next 6 months.

These higher prices and the “economic narrative that accompanies them are pretty well priced,” Pangea Policy founder Terry Haines added during an appearance on Yahoo Finance Live on Wednesday.

“It does a lot of damage to the president in many states that he has to carry and it is a dynamic that darkens his campaign,” he added.

An even higher measure of total inflation

Many in Trump’s orbit are measuring the increase even more during Biden’s term.

Make America Great Again Inc. is a super PAC that supports former President Trump, and it reacted to the news Wednesday by saying that overall prices have increased 19.9% ​​since Biden took office.

The gap between the 19.4% and 19.9% ​​numbers is based on how the Republican-aligned group uses data that is not seasonally adjusted, which shows a slightly higher gap.

The story continues

The group also listed a range of products in Wednesday’s release — from gasoline to eggs to airline tickets — that have grown even more over the past 40 months.

This 19.9% ​​figure may have been repeated often by Republicans throughout the day Wednesday.

“#Bidenflation is a tax on ALL Americans” job Elise Stefanik, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.

“It’s bidenomics!” added the account of the Republican National Committee.

A key dynamic for the upcoming campaign

Biden’s defiance on the issue of inflation has been evident for months, with the president and his allies often struggling for a consistent message on the issue.

Another example came this week in an exclusive interview with Yahoo Finance. During that conversation, Biden was egged on by America’s economic bad mood.

In his response, he brought up prices and repeated a false claim that inflation “was at 9% when I arrived and is now down to around 3%.” Biden previously made a similar claim on CNN.

In fact, the year-over-year inflation rate when he took office was 1.4%. Prices then increased after Biden’s inauguration and reached 9.1% – but this peak came in June 2022 after Biden had been in office for more than a year.

The latest data, released Wednesday after Biden’s recent remarks, puts the current year-over-year inflation rate at 3.4%, a slight decline from March’s 3.5% rate.

Biden also told Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Brian Sozzi during Tuesday’s conversation that part of the unease in the country is because “I think people are just uncertain and that’s why we need to be stable, stay the course and continue to create these incredible jobs.”

He said he was confident in his administration’s ability to handle the situation, but it “is going to take a little more time.”

It remains to be seen whether voters will give Biden that time, but the comment marks a continuation of Biden’s trend of focusing on jobs, even as poll after poll shows inflation as voters’ top economic concern.

It’s a trend that has shown up even in polls of Democratic allies. A survey conducted last month by Blueprint 2024 – a Democratic-aligned group – found that 91% of respondents described inflation as a “serious problem.”

Of those surveyed, 37% also described inflation as one of the “most important problems.” Only 25% said the same thing about jobs and the economy.

Ben Werschkul is Yahoo Finance’s Washington correspondent.

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