A few weeks after imposing tariffs on approximately 90 countries Trump stated: “We’re becoming rich as hell … And when we finish this out, there’ll never be any wealth like what we have … We’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money.” He noted that his administration had “solved inflation, we’ve solved prices.”

In early December, when prices hadn’t been “solved,” an angry Trump said, “affordability doesn’t mean anything to anybody.” Affordability is a “fake narrative … a con job” created by Democrats to dupe the public. Trump noted the cost of groceries was “coming down.” Speaking of the American economy, a week before Christmas, he stated: “After just one year, we have achieved more than anyone could have imagined.”

The Los Angeles Times reported that some people can no longer afford to eat at fast-food restaurants. “The low-income customers at McDonald’s … are being squeezed by higher housing costs, clothes and child-care costs.” Business analyst Adam Josephson notes that, “Happy Meals at McDonald’s are prohibitively expensive for some people because there’s been so much inflation.”

How much of Trump’s fluctuating tariff policy has contributed to inflation? Econofact reports that the economic “data shows that prices began rising immediately after the broader tariff measures were announced in early March and continued to increase gradually over subsequent months.”

Interviewed on Fox News on Nov. 14, 2025, Nate Rempe, CEO of Omaha Steaks, said: “We are headed for what I’m calling … the $10-a-pound reality. By (the) third quarter of ’26, families are gonna see $10 a pound [for] ground beef in the grocery store. So we’re in for a bit of a haul here,” he continued. “I don’t believe we’ll see price[s] come down in any meaningful way until sometime in 2027.”

For those concerned about the rising cost of living, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson offered these words of comfort: “Relax … We are exactly on the trajectory of where we’ve always planned to be. Steady at the wheel, everybody. It’s gonna be fine.” Still not convinced the good times are around the corner? Vice President Vance assures us the nation is on the “front end” of a “boom.”

On Dec. 9, the president stated: “You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils; you only need one or two.” Meanwhile, after tearing down the East Wing of the White House, the Trump administration is building a $300 million, 90,000 square-foot ballroom.

In 2025, the “Inequality Organization” reported that, “Among industrial nations, the United States is by far the most top-heavy, with much greater shares of national wealth and income going to the richest 1% than any other country.” The U.S. wealth gap began widening long before Donald Trump became president, with that spread accelerating over the past year. During a campaign interview in 2015, Trump said: “You see these guys [corporate CEOs] making these enormous amounts of money, and it’s a total and complete joke. They pay very little tax, and that’s going to end when I come out with my plan … We’re going to be reducing taxes for the middle class. But for the hedge fund guys, they’re going to be paying up.” Trump’s 2017 tax bill reduced corporate tax rates from an average of 22% to 12%.

Rebecca Riddell, senior policy analyst for economic justice at Oxfam America, writes that in his election victory speech on Nov. 6, 2024, Trump said: “This will truly be the golden age of America.” Riddell notes that it certainly will be for the wealthiest 0.1% of the population who now own 24% of the stock market — a record high. Since Trump took office in January 2025, the wealth of the 10 richest U.S. billionaires increased by $698 billion dollars or almost $70 billion each. It would take the average American worker 1.36 million years to earn that amount.

In November, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that household debt — including mortgages, car loans, credit cards and student loans — reached a record $18.59 trillion in the third quarter last year. Credit card debt was $1.23 trillion, another all-time high.

While the rich are getting richer, Trump is attacking the labor movement. Ellen Dichner, former chief counsel to the National Labor Relations Board, stated in mid-December: “This is a very, very hostile climate for workers. What I think labor is seeing, and will continue to see, is a fundamental attack on workers’ rights, and the rights of workers to organize, and the ability of workers to achieve collective bargaining agreements.” According to a recent Gallup poll, about 68% of Americans support labor unions.

The conservative financial publication Fortune reported in July that “Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol made 6,666 times more than the median salaried employee at his coffee chain” in 2024. Starbucks, along with Whole Foods Market, owned by Amazon, has been at the forefront in keeping its employees from joining labor unions.

Unless the Senate votes to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, the big-hurt for tens of millions of Americans this year will be health insurance premiums. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that insurance premiums will increase from an average of $888 in 2025 to $1,904 this year. Healthcare costs vary dramatically by location, available government subsidies and family income. The increase will be exceptionally high in Georgia, where 96% of marketplace enrollees received health policy subsidies in 2025.

Median household income families could pay incredibly high healthcare premiums. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a 60-year-old couple with an income of $85,000 may have to pay $28,000 for a health plan in Oregon, $31,000 for a plan in Kentucky and $44,000 for a plan in Vermont.

On top of all that, Trump has suggested U.S. taxpayers reimburse petroleum companies for extracting and shipping oil from Venezuela.

Trumpers struggling to make ends meet can take comfort in the knowledge their president — and his family — have made between $800 million and $1.8 billion since he took office last January.

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George J. Bryjak lives in Bloomingdale and is retired after 24 years of teaching sociology at the University of San Diego.