Trump has an odd obsession with the word ‘groceries.’ Now his tariffs will raise the price of them

Among other things, Donald Trump is a logophile. He loves words. For instance, he adores the word “tariffs” so much, he’s called it a “beautiful word,” his “favorite word,” and “music to [his] ears.” It’s his “cellar door,” apparently. On Wednesday, while announcing the broad, seemingly indiscriminate application of that wonderful word during a much-hyped speech in the White House Rose Garden, Trump lingered on another word he loves: “groceries.” “It’s such an old-fashioned term but a beautiful term: groceries,” the president of the United States said while placing tariffs as high as 50% on territories as small as Lesotho, a move that sent stocks plunging on Thursday. He then went on to define groceries—”a bag with a lot of different things in it”—and describe how much he’d used this beautiful word back on the campaign trail. Although it’s certainly true that Trump mentioned groceries a lot in the lead-up to the election, the way he did should have warned all Americans then that the price of that beautiful word would be about to go up. Since November, Trump has boasted many times that he won the election because of groceries, a word he confoundingly claims has fallen out of common vernacular. (“Like almost, you know, who uses the word?” he asked on Newsmax in December. “I started using the word. The groceries.”) Trump suggested more recently that, whether or not the word has fallen out of favor, “people understand it”—a truth made obvious from so many consumers despairing back in February over the scarcity of eggs at the stores selling that beautiful word. Bringing up groceries a lot on the campaign trail was part of a shrewd campaign strategy. Inflation hit a four-decade high in 2022, midway through President Biden’s lone term, in reaction to the pandemic. While the economy had shown strong signs of recovery throughout 2024, those signs had not necessarily translated to lower-price stickers on pantry items, for a variety of reasons. Highlighting groceries as a context-free pain point was an easy way for Trump to disparage the Biden economy—so he did it a lot. Talking about the improbable endurance of the word “groceries” became one of his regular rally bits, like invoking the “late great Hannibal Lecter” for reasons nobody could discern. What should have smelled to those rally goers like the fish section of the grocery store is Trump talking about those high prices like someone who observes them from a distant financial planet. “So many people mention groceries,” he said during a typical rally, before acting out someone complaining about the price of groceries. Many politicians make pained efforts to come across as relatable; Trump, to his credit, would never stoop to pretend he’d noticed the jacked-up prices organically, during a random Trader Joe’s run. Instead, he positioned himself as a benevolent billionaire, swooping in to shower cash-strapped constituents with savings. In a September publicity stunt, he even popped into Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market in Pennsylvania and hobnobbed with customers—“Eggs are up 54%, you believe that?”—before picking up one woman’s bill and attempting to tip the cashiers like golf caddies. But distancing himself so much from the realm of supermarket patronage also suggested he had very little knowledge of grocery store fundamentals. As much as he loved to conjure common folk coming up to him with tears in their eyes to grouse about groceries, Trump seemed loath to talk about them in any way other than abstractions. When asked in a March 2024 interview on Fox News about how he would bring down grocery store prices in his first hundred days, he punted the question. Closer to the election, at a September town hall event in Flint, Michigan, an audience member asked a similar query. This time, he offered an actual answer—a long, winding rant about energy, farmers, and windmills, and someone coming up to Trump with tears in their eyes and addressing him as “sir.” Amid the word salad, though, is a hint at the tariffs he announced on Wednesday. “And the problem we have is other countries, they treat us very badly in that way,” Trump said. “They really are. And sometimes, the worst countries are our so-called allies. I say so-called because in many ways they’re not allies at all. They take advantage of us. They really take advantage.” Essentially, he hinted that his strategy involved slapping tariffs on enemies and allies alike—the finer details and overarching wisdom of which is apparently self-evident. It made about as much sense at the time as the South Park Underpants Gnomes, whose three-phase plan famously started with “Collect underpants,” ended with “Profit,” and had a question mark in the middle. Trump’s plan doesn’t make much more sense six months later, now that it’s actually happening. While the wide-ranging tariffs have only just been announced, Trump’s been beta-testing tariffs for months as a cudgel against Canada and other countrie

Apr 4, 2025 - 11:48

Trump has an odd obsession with the word ‘groceries.’ Now his tariffs will raise the price of them

Among other things, Donald Trump is a logophile. He loves words. For instance, he adores the word “tariffs” so much, he’s called it a “beautiful word,” his “favorite word,” and “music to [his] ears.” It’s his “cellar door,” apparently. On Wednesday, while announcing the broad, seemingly indiscriminate application of that wonderful word during a much-hyped speech in the White House Rose Garden, Trump lingered on another word he loves: “groceries.”

“It’s such an old-fashioned term but a beautiful term: groceries,” the president of the United States said while placing tariffs as high as 50% on territories as small as Lesotho, a move that sent stocks plunging on Thursday. He then went on to define groceries—”a bag with a lot of different things in it”—and describe how much he’d used this beautiful word back on the campaign trail. Although it’s certainly true that Trump mentioned groceries a lot in the lead-up to the election, the way he did should have warned all Americans then that the price of that beautiful word would be about to go up.

Since November, Trump has boasted many times that he won the election because of groceries, a word he confoundingly claims has fallen out of common vernacular. (“Like almost, you know, who uses the word?” he asked on Newsmax in December. “I started using the word. The groceries.”) Trump suggested more recently that, whether or not the word has fallen out of favor, “people understand it”—a truth made obvious from so many consumers despairing back in February over the scarcity of eggs at the stores selling that beautiful word.

Bringing up groceries a lot on the campaign trail was part of a shrewd campaign strategy. Inflation hit a four-decade high in 2022, midway through President Biden’s lone term, in reaction to the pandemic. While the economy had shown strong signs of recovery throughout 2024, those signs had not necessarily translated to lower-price stickers on pantry items, for a variety of reasons. Highlighting groceries as a context-free pain point was an easy way for Trump to disparage the Biden economy—so he did it a lot. Talking about the improbable endurance of the word “groceries” became one of his regular rally bits, like invoking the “late great Hannibal Lecter” for reasons nobody could discern.

What should have smelled to those rally goers like the fish section of the grocery store is Trump talking about those high prices like someone who observes them from a distant financial planet.

“So many people mention groceries,” he said during a typical rally, before acting out someone complaining about the price of groceries. Many politicians make pained efforts to come across as relatable; Trump, to his credit, would never stoop to pretend he’d noticed the jacked-up prices organically, during a random Trader Joe’s run. Instead, he positioned himself as a benevolent billionaire, swooping in to shower cash-strapped constituents with savings. In a September publicity stunt, he even popped into Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market in Pennsylvania and hobnobbed with customers—“Eggs are up 54%, you believe that?”—before picking up one woman’s bill and attempting to tip the cashiers like golf caddies.

But distancing himself so much from the realm of supermarket patronage also suggested he had very little knowledge of grocery store fundamentals. As much as he loved to conjure common folk coming up to him with tears in their eyes to grouse about groceries, Trump seemed loath to talk about them in any way other than abstractions.

When asked in a March 2024 interview on Fox News about how he would bring down grocery store prices in his first hundred days, he punted the question. Closer to the election, at a September town hall event in Flint, Michigan, an audience member asked a similar query. This time, he offered an actual answer—a long, winding rant about energy, farmers, and windmills, and someone coming up to Trump with tears in their eyes and addressing him as “sir.” Amid the word salad, though, is a hint at the tariffs he announced on Wednesday.

“And the problem we have is other countries, they treat us very badly in that way,” Trump said. “They really are. And sometimes, the worst countries are our so-called allies. I say so-called because in many ways they’re not allies at all. They take advantage of us. They really take advantage.”

Essentially, he hinted that his strategy involved slapping tariffs on enemies and allies alike—the finer details and overarching wisdom of which is apparently self-evident. It made about as much sense at the time as the South Park Underpants Gnomes, whose three-phase plan famously started with “Collect underpants,” ended with “Profit,” and had a question mark in the middle.

Trump’s plan doesn’t make much more sense six months later, now that it’s actually happening.

While the wide-ranging tariffs have only just been announced, Trump’s been beta-testing tariffs for months as a cudgel against Canada and other countries. The results do not seem to be inspiring confidence. Only 40% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, according to recent polling, and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index fell from 79.4% in March 2024 to 57% in March 2025. Even Republican politicians including Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul acknowledge that these tariffs are bound to raise prices—including those of Trump’s beloved groceries. Particularly prices for coffee, bananas, cereal, spices, and toilet paper.

If he doesn’t reverse course soon, Trump’s tariffs could very well lead to a word he probably finds a lot less beautiful: recession.