Social media users began claiming in mid-December 2024 that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said this in response to a question about his campaign promise to bring down the cost of groceries: "It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard."
The claim spread through posts on Facebook, X, TikTok and Reddit. Many posts spreading the quote had tens of thousands of views, including this one from X:
Trump just said he's unsure if he can bring down grocery prices "It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard."
Congratulations, MAGA. You voted for "lower prices" but in reality, you got played.— Harry Sisson (@harryjsisson) December 12, 2024
News outlets also reported on the quote, including CNN, NBC News and The Washington Post.
The quote is correctly attributed to Trump, who said it in a TIME Magazine Person of the Year interview on Dec. 12, 2024. The interview was conducted by TIME reporters and editorial leadership, including Eric Cortellesa, Alex Altman, Massimo Calabresi and Sam Jacobs. We thus rate this claim as correct attribution.
Here's an excerpt from the transcript, which TIME said was "lightly edited for clarity," a common practice in journalism to remove grammatical errors, repetition and other small issues without changing the direct meaning of the quote.
TIME interviewer: If the prices of groceries don't come down, will your presidency be a failure?
Trump: I don't think so. Look, they got them up. I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard. But I think that they will. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down. You know, the supply chain is still broken.
Some posts claimed Trump "admitted he can't bring down the price of groceries," like this one on X:
Trump has already admitted he can't bring down grocery prices, read the Time Magazine article. You MAGAts got swindled again ?
— Liam Nissan™ (@theliamnissan) December 12, 2024
And some posts claimed Trump made the remark while responding to a question about whether he would lower grocery prices, including this X post with 40,000 likes as of this writing:
When asked whether he would lower the price of groceries while in office, Trump's answer was:
"I don't think so. Look, they got them up. I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard."
Congrats to the "price of eggs"…— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) December 12, 2024
Some news outlets were also running stories — especially opinion columns — that said Trump's comments meant he's backtracking on a campaign promise to lower grocery prices. These stories were being reposted and discussed on social media, such as this post on Reddit:
Trump Backtracks On Campaign Pledge To Bring Down Grocery Prices
byu/IronyElSupremo inpolitics
But per TIME's transcript, Trump's answer came as a response to a question about whether his presidency would be a failure if he couldn't lower grocery prices, not in response to whether he thought he would be able to lower grocery prices.
Regardless, it's still accurate to say that Trump said it's "very hard" to bring down the price of groceries.