President Donald Trump was swept to power for a second time on the back of a central campaign promise to tackle inflation.

The steep rise in the cost of living was top of voters' minds and Trump blamed President Joe Biden.

He also made sweeping promises to bring down prices for Americans starting on day one.

One year on from his victory, BBC Verify revisits some of the president's claims.

Groceries

When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One, Trump declared at an August 2024 news conference surrounded by packaged foods, milk, meats, and eggs.

Official data - which includes a four-month period when Biden was still president - shows grocery prices rose by 2.7% in the 12 months to September 2025, with some items seeing significantly sharper increases:

  • Coffee: 18.9%
  • Ground beef (minced beef): 12.9%
  • Bananas: 6.9%

Since Trump took office in January, the data also shows that apart from one recorded fall in April, grocery prices have risen each month.

The president of the United States has very little control over the price of food, especially in the short term, food economics expert Professor David Ortega told BBC Verify.

Trump's tariffs are driving up prices of certain foods, he said - a third of coffee consumed in the US comes from Brazil and therefore has a 50% tariff.

Trump's illegal immigration crackdown may also have had an impact, Ortega adds, especially in farming where as many as 40% of workers are estimated to be undocumented.

As you know, farmers and companies have to raise wages to attract more labour. But trying to quantify those impacts in terms of price increase is almost impossible at the moment.

Diane Swonk, the chief economist for KPMG, believes tariff and immigration policy changes have contributed to higher costs.

There's no question that those shifts are now starting to show up as inflation pressures, she said.

But she adds that other factors, including weather events, have contributed too.

Electricity

During his campaign, Trump pledged to cut electricity bills sharply.

Under my administration we will be slashing energy and electricity prices by half within 12 months, at a maximum 18 months, he told a rally in August 2024.

Since he became president, prices have risen.

The latest figures show average residential electricity rates reached 17.62 cents per kWh in August 2025 - up from 15.94 cents per kWh in January 2025, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

It was technically impossible [to halve prices] at the time he made the promise, according to Professor James Sweeney from the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy.

Prof Sweeney attributes the increase to both demand and supply issues.

Cars

At a campaign rally in September 2024, Trump extended his grocery pledge to cars, stating: We're going to get the prices down… groceries, cars, everything.

However, the average price of a new car topped $50,000 for the first time ever in September, up from $48,283 in January according to Kelley Blue Book.

Gasoline

Trump made a specific campaign pledge of getting gasoline below $2 a gallon.

On the day he entered the White House the average price for a gallon of regular gas was $3.125.

While a long way short of his pledge to get prices below $2, the price of a gallon of gas has fallen to a national average of $3.079.

The official added that President Trump has quickly unleashed American energy to make gas affordable again for families across the country.