White House and journalists blame each other for misleading comparisons

The year-over-year inflation rate in January, the month US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, was 3.0%. 

The year-over-year inflation rate in September, the most recent month for which Consumer Price Index figures have been released, was the same, 3.0%.
The fact that the inflation rate eight months into Trump’s term was unchanged from the one he inherited has debunked his triumphant claims that inflation has stopped after he “inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country.” So what is a White House to do when the real comparisons aren’t working in its favor?

Trump’s team has chosen to use some misleading comparisons – deploying apples-to-oranges sets of statistics to serve Trump’s point. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried it from the podium on 11 December 2025. Karoline Leavitt and journalists also blamed one another for unleashing misinformation. "My predecessor stood up at this podium and she said inflation doesn't exist. She said the border was secure," Leavitt continued incredulously.

Journalists from CNN and Fox News told Karoline Leavitt that inflation is about where it was last year, that grocery prices are up, and that economic signals are mixed. Leavitt claimed: “Inflation is down from where it was, as measured by the overall CPI; it has slowed to an average 2.5%. This is down from what the president inherited. The president inherited 2.9% in January” – it was 2.9% in December – “today it’s at about 2.5%. So we’re trending in the right direction with more to come.”

But the inflation rate is not “trending in the right direction,” or at least wasn’t as of the most recent available numbers (the November numbers come out next week). In fact, September was the fifth consecutive month the year-over-year inflation rate increased from the month prior, Consumer Price Index figures show. Specifically, the rate was 2.3% in April, 2.4% in May, 2.67% in June, 2.7% in July, 2.9% in August, and, again, 3.0% in September.

So what was Leavitt talking about when she spoke of Trump achieving a 2.5% average? She explained later in the briefing. When another reporter reminded her that the most recent inflation rate is the same 3.0% it was in January, not “2.5%,” Leavitt said, “No, it’s 2.5%. It’s 2.5%, the average CPI right now; I have it in front of me: In President Trump’s first eight months in office, inflation, as measured by the overall Consumer Price Index, has slowed to a 2.5% average pace.”

Affordability has become a flashpoint in USA with Republicans now fine-tuning their messaging on the economy after a slew of Democrats won elections in 2025 running on a platform focused on lowering costs.