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Andrea Austria / Media Matters

Research/Study Research/Study

Right-wing media's affordability burrito brawl

After a post complaining about a $20 burrito went viral, some right-wing figures accused those dismissing concerns about affordability of “giving the finger to voters” and driving them “into the arms of the socialists”

Written by Jack Winstanley, Gideon Taaffe & Hanne MacDonald

Research contributions from Isabella Corrao & Jane Lee

Published

Last week, Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet's post about a college student noting the high price of a burrito sparked a debate among conservative commentators over whether food affordability is a real issue for voters. 

While some dismissed concerns over an expensive burrito, advising those complaining to “cry me a river” and cook food at home, other right-wing personalities noted such responses were equivalent to “giving the finger to voters” and accused those commentators of “trying to gaslight us into being happy that it's unaffordable.”

In reality, food and grocery prices have risen under President Donald Trump, with beef prices spiking by 11.8% from June 2025 to June 2026 and the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service estimating that grocery prices will increase by 2.7% along with a 3.5% increase in restaurant prices for the remainder of 2026. In comparing food prices in June 2025 to food prices in June 2026, the ERS also noted that pork prices have increased by 2.4%, vegetable prices have increased by 9.9%, and fruit prices have increased by 2%. (Only eggs have decreased in price following historic 2025 price spikes due to avian flu outbreaks.)

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  • After a post about $20 burrito went viral, some right-wing media figures dismissed concerns of rising food prices under Trump

    • Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet posted about a college student who works for TPUSA complaining that “a burrito shouldn’t cost $20.” Kolvet wrote: “Yeah, a lot of this is a hangover from Covid and Biden-era inflation, but the lived experience is the same: It just feels like basic things cost too much.” [Forbes, 8/9/26]
    • Some conservative personalities immediately downplayed the idea that the price of a burrito reflects an affordability crisis. Fox News contributor Marc Theissen wrote, “Cry me a river. The burritos in the college cafeteria are included in your meal plan,” while Fox News host Tomi Lahren dismissed people complaining who “all also get a daily iced coffee.” [Forbes, 8/9/26]
    • PBD Podcast co-host Adam Sosnick argued, “Things cost money. You decide where you’re going to go shop. Go get the best burrito you can afford, but don't cry poor because you want extra guac.” Earlier, guest Antonio Sabato Jr. said, “Learn how to make that and then you won’t have a problem — I mean, anybody can make a burrito, even a blind person.” [Valuetainment Media, PBD Podcast, 8/7/26]
    • The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro argued that “a lot of young people have a completely broken set of expectations about life right now,” adding, “Unfortunately, this has become the mode for a lot of young people — why can't I afford what my parents could afford when they were my age? Spoiler alert. When it comes to groceries, you can.” He also instructed viewers to “head on down to the supermarket” and purchase ingredients themselves if they want a burrito. [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 8/5/26]
    • On his radio show, Fox host Mark Levin dismissed the cost of burritos by arguing, “It was only $20 because he used Doordash. … You can make a taco or burrito for a whole lot less than $20. You can go to Taco Bell and get it for a whole lot less.” Levin later complained, “I don’t understand why conservatives are sounding like socialists or leftists — and by the way, undermining the president and undermining our own elections.” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 8/7/26]

  • Several right-wing media figures acknowledged that affordability is a real issue amid rising food prices

    • The Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo wrote about the debate and acknowledged rising prices, saying, “The burrito is a useful stand-in for all the other ways in which prices for basic items have risen dramatically in recent years, far outpacing wage growth in many cases.” Rufo also wrote: “It’s true that burritos’ prices have skyrocketed in recent years. Inflation’s effects on grocery prices have caused the cost of a Chipotle beef burrito to climb 50 percent since 2020, and people are feeling that.” [ChristopherRufo.com, 8/10/26]
    • Podcaster Candace Owens said, “Obviously groceries have gotten incredibly expensive and they are continuing to get expensive. So whatever Trump promised has not been delivered.” She also read Daily Wire host Matt Walsh's post claiming that “no matter how thrifty your family might be and no matter how cheap your homemade burritos, the significant rise in grocery prices over the past six years and the fact that the rise is continuing, not stopping, and certainly not reversing, is just a mathematical reality. It can’t be denied. It is a fact. … And conservatives better come up with an answer that isn’t just, quote, ‘learn how to make cheap burritos,’ or we are going to get absolutely crushed. That’s another reality.” [YouTube, Candace, 8/6/26]
    • Andrew Kolvet explained “We could tell people they have to cook their own burritos and they need to cook from home all they want, but at the end of the day, things are expensive.” He argued that it is “not necessarily Trump’s fault. I think he deserves a lot of credit for bringing inflation back down, especially when you’re navigating the complexities of the Iran war. But the felt situation for many young people especially is that we just are not getting what we hoped we would get. And maybe those expectations were unrealistic, but that is a lived experience. and that has political ramifications.” [Rumble, The Charlie Kirk Show, 8/5/26]
    • Right-wing media personality Mike Cernovich responded, “It used to be vulgar to mock people who are struggling financially. Now it’s almost all of conservative media.” [Forbes, 8/9/26]

  • Some right-wing media figures criticized the GOP or other conservatives for downplaying concerns over affordability

    • On the PBD Podcast, co-host Tom Ellsworth stated, “To have everybody is getting their quote up there — stop whining, get a job, eat ramen noodles? Wow. You know, giving the finger to voters verbally like that and just kind of the dust-off, that is not the winning play.” He added, “You have to not only acknowledge the affordability, but we need to be talking about what to do about it.” [Valuetainment Media, PBD Podcast, 8/7/26] 
    • Podcaster Benny Johnson explained that, “This is why I'm going so hard on this whole burrito thing and this whole affordability thing, because life is unaffordable. And I'm sick of people — I'm disgusted by people saying it's not or trying to gaslight us into being happy that it's unaffordable.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 8/6/26]
    • Right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson pushed back on people arguing to “just make cheaper burritos” by saying, “You're defending something indefensible and ugly, and I'm not for it anymore.” Carlson also said: “So anyone who says it doesn't matter [is] probably my enemy actually. And I don't care what you call yourself. ‘Well, I'm a free market capitalist.’ OK. I'm Santa Claus. It doesn’t matter.” [YouTube, Jim Webb Podcast, 8/7/26] 
    • Daily Wire host Michael Knowles said, “When your constituents tell you they are having a problem, you need to show them the respect of taking that seriously, even when it comes down to burritos.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 8/6/26]
    • Knowles later argued if conservatives don’t engage with rising prices, “you are just going to drive those people into the arms of the socialists.” Knowles: “If you don't engage with that, and you just have this kind of snooty attitude toward your fellow Americans, and you say oh, shut up about the burritos. Stop eating your avocado toast or whatever. If you do that, you are just going to drive those people into the arms of the socialists.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 8/6/26]
    • Andrew Kolvet criticized those dismissing concerns on the cost of a burrito, saying, “If everybody just tells Gen Z that they're a bunch of entitled little brats and they need to, like, eat crap, you know, horse meat passed off as burrito meat, then that's not going to work.” [Rumble, Thoughtcrime, 8/6/26]
    • Alex Jones ranted that “inflation is off the chain” and “high-level White House officials” are “making jokes” about college students facing unaffordability while the officials are “doing insider trading hand over fist, making billions of dollars individually a month. People complain about the cost of living and it’s just like oh, shut up.” [The Alex Jones Network, The Alex Jones Show, 8/7/26]
    • Tim Pool criticized the GOP’s messaging around rising food prices: “And what are we getting right now with the Republicans? You got these neocons, you got these conservatives being like just don't eat a $20 burrito, blah, blah, blah. Oh my God.” He added, “You can get cheaper burritos. But the point is this: We don’t want to eat garbage fast food. We want to eat better fast food.” [Rumble, The Culture War, 8/6/26]
    • Matt Walsh wrote in a social media post: “The conservatives on here denying the affordability crisis are engaged in what I can only describe as an act of political suicide.” [Forbes, 8/9/26]
    • RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway argued that dismissing affordability concerns “could prove toxic to the GOP,” adding, “Eating a burrito once in a while should not be an aspirational lifestyle, for crying out loud.” Hemingway also stated that “pundits deflecting because you can cook at home cheaper are not helping.” [FoxNews.com, 8/6/26]