Trump Steals Credit Rather Than Sees Light

The White House is once again in damage control mode after -- get this! -- something the President said turned out to be made up.

I was going to say false, but that would be too good a word for what Trump spews out: False would imply that there is a relationship -- even a negative one -- between reality and what this person says.

Oddly enough, Walmart's recent lowering of food prices had something to do with the fact that the company isn't a charity or a criminal enterprise, and wants to make a profit.

Trump claimed in relevant part:

... one of the biggest, best, and smartest Retailers in America, Walmart, will be lowering prices, by a lot, at my Administration's request... [bold added]

(How some people willingly subject themselves to reading/listening to this irritating communication style on a regular basis is beyond me.)

In fact:

Shortly after Trump's Truth Social boast, Walmart issued a statement detailing its signature Rollbacks and Sam's Club offers, which the chain typically introduces during the summer. The statement mentioned price reductions on beef and other products but made no mention of Trump or the administration.

On July 7, one day after Trump's Truth Social post, The Wall Street Journal reported that an Agriculture Department official had called some of the country's largest grocers to urge them to lower their beef prices.

However, during a call with Walmart, the company told the USDA that it already planned to lower prices on a range of items, including beef, and that the reductions had been in place since June 29. [bold added]

Oh.

Setting aside the whole issue why in hell the government is telling people what to charge... Not only that, the price reductions came due to the February Supreme Court ruling against Trump's tariffs and the company's expectation that (1) a factor in our higher prices will have been eliminated and (2) it will recoup billions in tariff refunds.

Trump could learn from this, and reconsider his idée fixe regarding tariffs as an economic cure-all. He could admit he was mistaken about tariffs, get rid of them, apologize, and earn the nation's gratitude and relief.

But he won't. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to consider why.

-- CAV