On Dec. 12, 2024, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for the second time received the honor of Time magazine naming him as its person of the year. Shortly thereafter, he rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. While speaking on Wall Street, Trump remarked on how some Americans struggled to afford groceries. He then retold a story he had repeated numerous times during his 2024 presidential campaign about an old woman shopping at a grocery store, saying the store's employees stocked their apples in a refrigerator.
The Los Angeles Times, MarthaStewart.com, Southern Living and other publications recommend consumers store apples in their refrigerators to help ensure the fruit stays fresh longer. However, Trump's story specifically assumed a grocery store displayed its apples in a refrigerator. Though apples are typically packed and stored under refrigeration to keep them fresh longer, U.S. grocery stores traditionally display apples out in the open and at room temperature.
Trump told the story at the NYSE as follows:
I tell the story about a woman who, an old woman, old woman, no money, went to a grocery store, had three apples. She put 'em down on the counter and she looked and she saw the price, and she said, "Would you excuse me?"
And she walked one of the apples back to the refrigerator and came back to pay for the two apples. And she left with two apples. And the woman at the counter said, "That was so sad."
And when I heard about the story I said that should never happen in America and it's not going to happen in America.
One X user posted (archived) of Trump's comments, "Grocery stores don't keep apples in refrigerators. Trump clearly doesn't know anything about apples or grocery stores."
Another person shared (archived), "How many times are we going to hear this fake story from Trump? Apples are not kept in the refrigerator in any market and apples are sold by the pound like all produce. Also no checker would be waiting for someone to return an item. This never happened."
We contacted the Trump-Vance transition team by email Dec. 12 to ask for more information, including where and when the purported story of the woman shopping for apples took place. As of Dec. 16, we had not received a response.
The Origins of Trump's Apples Story
According to transcripts documented on RollCall.com's Factbase website, Trump first told the apples story on Sept. 12, 2024, during a campaign event in Tucson, Arizona. However, that version did not include any mention of a woman or refrigerators. He said only, "It's so sad when you see people being interviewed, and they buy three apples, and they walk away from the cashier, and they bring an apple back because they can't afford it. And it happens all the time."
The next day, Trump's story evolved. While speaking at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, he told the tale again. However, that time, he said he watched the story "the other night on television," without naming a TV network or show. He also mentioned a woman as the shopper, as opposed to not identifying the person the previous day. He did not say she was old, nor did he talk about refrigerators. He said only that "she took one of the apples back." A Google search found no record of any such stories broadcast on TV and then shared online by any local or national news networks.
It wasn't until a Sept. 21 campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, that Trump retold the story with all the details later repeated on Wall Street in December, including describing the woman as "elderly" and saying she returned one apple "back into the refrigeration." He remarked to the crowd, "I told this story the other day. A woman, sort of elderly woman, it was sad, goes up to the counter, register, puts three apples on and then realizes she can't afford it. And she took one apple, brought it back into the refrigeration, came back, and she took two apples."
Trump again repeated the story several times just before Election Day in early November, saying the woman returned an apple to the "refrigerator," "refrigeration," "refrigeration area" or "refrigeration section."