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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and 19 other Democratic lawmakers criticized President Donald Trump in a scathing letter on Sunday, accusing him of breaking his campaign promise to immediately reduce grocery prices as inflation and food costs continue to rise.
The letter, sent to Trump and shared with NBC News, alleges that Trump has ignored his pledge to lower supermarket bills from "Day 1" of his presidency. “During your campaign, you repeatedly promised to lower food prices ‘immediately’ if elected president,” the letter read. “But during your first week in office, you have instead focused on mass deportations and pardoning January 6 attackers.”
Food prices have become a focal point of public concern, with Labor Department data revealing grocery costs increased 1.8% from December 2023 to December 2024. Eggs saw the most significant spike, surging 36.8% due to a bird flu crisis that killed millions of poultry.
Warren, alongside Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and other lawmakers, criticized Trump’s lack of specific actions to address these rising costs. They pointed to his executive order on living costs, which only briefly mentioned food prices and failed to provide concrete policies to reduce them.
“Your sole action on costs was an executive order that contained only the barest mention of food prices, and not a single specific policy to reduce them,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter also raised concerns about corporate price-gouging, warning that companies often exploit crises, such as the avian flu outbreak, to inflate prices unnecessarily.
Despite these criticisms, the Trump administration defended its efforts. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly stated, “President Trump immediately took action on Day 1 to unleash American energy, which will drive down costs for families across the country. He has already ended the failed economic policies of the past four years that skyrocketed inflation, which were rubber-stamped by Elizabeth Warren.”
Warren has been a long-time advocate for consumer protection, introducing legislation to prevent companies from selling goods at “grossly excessive prices.” She has also called on federal agencies to crack down on price manipulation in the food industry.
Both Warren and McGovern expressed frustration with Trump’s priorities during his first week in office. “If Donald Trump is serious about working to lower grocery prices, he should buckle down, pick up these tools to lower egg prices, and deliver on his promises,” Warren said. McGovern added, “Trump hasn’t done a damn thing to lower food prices or help hardworking families struggling to put food on the table.”
Polling data cited in the letter indicated that about 90% of voters are concerned about rising grocery costs. However, the lawmakers noted that Trump has focused his initial efforts on issues like ending birthright citizenship, pardoning January 6 attackers, and renaming a mountain rather than addressing inflation and food prices.
Trump, who previously claimed his campaign victory was due to his stance on immigration and food affordability, has recently acknowledged the difficulty of reducing grocery costs. “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up,” he told Time magazine in December.
Economic experts, such as Lindsay Owens of the Groundwork Collaborative, argue that addressing corporate price-gouging is essential for tackling inflation. “Families expect President Trump to make good on his promises,” Owens said. “He would be wise to use the FTC and other agencies to promote competition, invest in supply chains, and crack down on pricing tactics like surveillance pricing, that drive up food and grocery prices. But if his first slate of executive orders is any indication, he’s positioning himself to fail.”
