Claim: Donald Trump said during the presidential debate Tuesday that his tariffs did not create inflation.
“I had tariffs and no inflation,” Trump said in response to Kamala Harris’s false claim that his tariffs would be a national sales tax.
Verdict: True.
Inflation was very low during Donald Trump’s presidency, including after his imposition of tariffs.
In the first year of his presidency, prior to the imposition of tariffs, the consumer price index rose by 2.13 percent. In 2018, consumer prices rose by two percent. In 2020, prices rose by 2.5 percent. In 2021, prices rose by just 1.3 percent.
By contrast, inflation soared under the Biden-Harris administration. In 2021, consumer prices rose 7.2 percent. In 2022, prices rose 6.4 percent. Last year, prices rose 3.2 percent.
