For four years, Democrats spent every waking hour lecturing Americans about a cost-of-living crisis they created.
Then Donald Trump stood in front of Congress Tuesday night and said out loud what every frustrated family has known since 2021.
What came next – aimed directly at the Democrats sitting stone-faced across the chamber – stopped the room cold.
Biden's American Rescue Plan Triggered the Inflation Democrats Now Blame on Trump
Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in March 2021 while economists begged him to stop.
Larry Summers – Barack Obama's own Treasury Secretary – publicly warned the bill would overstimulate an economy already surging back.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum testified before Congress that the spending was enacted "at a time when the U.S. economy was growing at 6.5 percent" and was "just much too big, and destined to cause macroeconomic disruptions."
Democrats passed it anyway.
Inflation hit 9.1 percent by June 2022 – the highest rate since 1981.
Trump told the chamber that the damage cost the typical American family $34,000.
Then he delivered the gut punch.
"The same people in this chamber who voted for those disasters suddenly use the word 'affordability,'" he said. "A word they just started using. Somebody gave it to them."
"You caused that problem. You caused that problem."
"They knew their statements were a dirty, rotten lie. Their policies created the high prices. Our policies are rapidly ending them."
Egg Prices Down 60 Percent – and Trump Has the Data to Prove It
Egg prices are down roughly 60 percent from their March 2025 peak – Bureau of Labor Statistics data puts a dozen large Grade A eggs at $2.58, down from a record $6.23.
Inflation itself has cooled to 2.4 percent in January – down from the 9.1 percent peak Democrats delivered.
The contrast with Biden's four years is not subtle.
Biden spent those years insisting his spending packages had nothing to do with rising prices – even as his own former advisors confirmed the opposite under oath.
The House Oversight Committee documented the pattern in black and white: Democrats pushed trillions in new spending over warnings from Republican and Democratic economists alike, igniting the worst inflation in more than four decades.
Trump said it directly: "Their policies created the high prices. Our policies are rapidly ending them."
Elizabeth Warren Fires Back – and Reminds Everyone Who Voted for the Rescue Plan
Elizabeth Warren – who voted for the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan without hesitation – fired off a letter Thursday telling Trump his claims are "directly at odds with the day-to-day experiences of American households."
This is the Democratic Party's midterm strategy in a single letter.
Democrats are banking on November.
They're hoping voters forget who was in charge when groceries became a luxury budget item, who dismissed the inflation warnings from their own economists, and who kept spending until the Federal Reserve had to slam the brakes with the most aggressive rate-hiking campaign in four decades.
Trump isn't letting them forget.
Standing in the same chamber where they passed every bill that triggered the inflation wave, he looked directly at them and delivered four words every American who struggled through $6 eggs already knew.
They don't have a rebuttal. They have a midterm strategy and a letter – and they're hoping the receipts don't catch up to them before November.
Sources:
- House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, "Hearing Wrap-Up: Biden Admin Ignored Warnings That Trillions in Spending Would Damage the Economy and Spur Inflation," October 2, 2023.
- Douglas Holtz-Eakin, "Testimony on Inflation: A Preventable Crisis," American Action Forum, March 9, 2023.
- Heritage Foundation, "Biden's Predictable, Self-Inflicted Inflation Crisis," heritage.org.
- Fox News Digital, "Trump's 'Home Run' SOTU Speech Sparks Praise from Conservatives," February 24, 2026.
- PBS NewsHour, "Read Trump's Full 2026 State of the Union Address," February 24, 2026.
