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Newspapers are — correctly — flagging the inflationary effect of Trump's tariff policies

But during the campaign, papers rarely mentioned in their inflation coverage that his proposed policies would accelerate inflation

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

After the June Consumer Price Index report showed inflation accelerating at its highest rate since February, four major national newspapers — The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times — covered how President Donald Trump’s tariff policies contributed to the increased inflation in their print coverage of the report. 

This reporting stands in stark contrast to much of these papers’ inflation coverage from the first half of 2024, when Trump was campaigning for reelection. In their prior inflation coverage, the print editions of these newspapers (plus USA Today, which to date has not covered the June inflation report in its print edition) rarely mentioned that multiple policies that Trump was campaigning on — mass deportations, massive tariffs, and undermining the Federal Reserve — would likely accelerate inflation.

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  • Four top newspapers discussed the effects of Trump’s tariffs and other inflationary policies in their print coverage of the latest CPI report

    • The Washington Post: “Inflation picked up in June as tariffs began to lift prices across the economy.” The Post noted that “economists have been watching closely for indications that the White House’s trade policy is beginning to hit consumers’ wallets,” and reported that the June increase “is reigniting fears among some economists that tariffs, mass deportations and other White House policies could worsen inflation.” [The Washington Post, 7/15/25]
    • The New York Times: “Rising Inflation Underscores Risks in Trump’s New Tariff Threats.” The Times reported that “President Trump’s steep tariffs have started to weigh on consumers’ wallets, sending prices higher as the White House readies a more drastic — and potentially costly — expansion of its global trade war,” and further explained that “economists have predicted for months that the president’s tariffs could destabilize the U.S. economy, rattle financial markets, constrain the nation’s growth and upend a healthy job market — all while causing prices to increase.” [The New York Times, 7/15/25]
    • The Wall Street Journal: “Inflation Picks Up to 2.7% as Tariffs Start to Seep Into Prices.” The Journal explained: “Economists generally agree that tariffs raise prices and hurt economic growth but disagree over how big the impact of the White House tariffs will be, or when any price increases might start to show up. Many companies rushed to fill up their inventories by buying goods before tariffs took effect, making it easier for them to hold off on price increases in the spring.” [The Wall Street Journal, 7/15/25]
    • Los Angeles Times: “The tariff-driven inflation that economists feared begins to emerge.” An Associated Press article printed on the front page of the LA Times reported: “Inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as President Trump’s sweeping tariffs push up the cost of a variety of goods, including furniture, clothing, and large appliances.” [Los Angeles Times, 7/15/25]

  • In the first half of 2024, five major newspapers mentioned Trump’s inflationary agenda in just a tiny fraction of their print inflation coverage

    • Between January 11, 2024, when the December 2023 CPI report was released, and February 12, 2024, when the January 2024 CPI report was released, only 4 out of 68 (6%) print articles covering inflation mentioned that some of Trump's policy proposals, if enacted in a second term, would likely worsen inflation. [Media Matters, 3/25/24]
    • In the month following the release of the January 2024 CPI report, none of the 53 articles covering inflation mentioned Trump’s inflationary policies. [Media Matters, 3/25/24]
    • Between March 12 and April 9, 2024 — which includes the period between the releases of the February and March 2024 CPI reports — only 2 out of 71 (or 3%) articles covering inflation mentioned Trump’s inflationary policies. [Media Matters, 4/23/24]
    • Between April 10 and May 14, 2024 — which includes the period between the releases of the March and April CPI reports — only 2 out of 66 print news articles (or 3%) covering inflation mentioned Trump's inflationary policies. [Media Matters, 5/29/24]
    • Between May 15 and June 11, 2024 — which includes the period between the releases of the April and May CPI reports — only 3 of 67 print news articles (or 4%) covering inflation mentioned Trump's inflationary policies. [Media Matters, 6/18/24]

  • Experts warned during the 2024 election cycle that three key Trump policies would likely raise the inflation rate

  • Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, a prominent critic of the impact then-President Joe Biden’s economic policies had on inflation, told The Atlantic in mid-2024 that “there has never been a presidential platform so self-evidently inflationary as the one put forward by President Trump.” Core aspects of Trump's campaign agenda — including mass deportations of undocumented workers, imposing new import taxes without congressional authorization, and interfering with the Federal Reserve — were each seen as individually inflationary and potentially disastrous when combined.

    Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi similarly told The Atlantic that “Trump’s economic plans would increase the inflation rate and force the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates higher than they would be otherwise.” Other economists across the political spectrum also issued warnings in 2024 that specific Trump policies were likely to worsen inflation. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Republican-appointed Congressional Budget Office director and now president of the conservative American Action Forum, also told The Atlantic that Trump’s economic policies don’t “bode well” for “the cost of living.”

    Economists warned that Trump’s plans for massive tariffs would result in higher prices

    • Trump’s latest implemented and threatened tariffs — applied to the auto sector, critical metals, and dozens of major trading partners — will lead to an average effective tariff rate of 11.6%, “the highest average rate since 1943,” according to the Tax Foundation. The Tax Foundation estimated that the combined tariffs would “amount to an average tax increase per US household of $1,296 in 2025 and $1,683 in 2026,” shrink the economy, and cost approximately 788,000 jobs. [Tax Foundation, 7/16/25]
    • Former chief economist for the Trump administration's Council of Economic Advisers Casey B. Mulligan told The Washington Post in January 2024 that “Trump’s 10 percent import tariff proposal would add an extra percentage point to inflation, or a quarter percent a year if spread out over four years.” [The Washington Post, 1/7/24]
    • Center for Economic and Policy Research senior economist Dean Baker posted in March 2024: “Trump is promising massive tax increases in the form of tariffs, which will send inflation soaring if he carries through with them.” [Twitter/X, 3/2/24]
    • A Peterson Institute for International Economics study “calculated that Trump’s tariffs would raise prices for consumers on the goods they purchase by at least $500 billion a year, or about $1,700 annually for a middle-income family.” In an interview with The Atlantic, one of the study’s co-authors, UCLA Law School professor of tax policy Kimberly Clausing said that “Trump is promising a no-holds-barred, all-out protectionist spree that will affect every single thing that people buy that is either an import or in competition with imports.” [The Atlantic, 6/2/24]

    Economists also warned that Trump’s mass deportation plans would raise prices

    • The Trump administration has engaged in large militarized immigration raids, sent people without criminal records to a Central American megaprison, and has begun to detain people at inhumane detention camps as its mass deportation operations ramp up. These actions have included commandeering California National Guard troops against the wishes of the state’s governor, sending many immigrants with no history of violence or criminal records at all — including some with legal status — to a Salvadoran megaprison known for abuse and deaths, and sending immigrants to a hastily built detention center in Florida known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” To fund Trump’s mass deportation agenda, the Republican-controlled Congress recently passed a budget bill that, among other things, tripled the annual budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, giving the agency a 62% larger detention budget than the entire federal prison system. [The Guardian, 7/15/25; Axios, 4/7/25; Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 4/25/25; The Washington Post, 7/5/25; American Immigration Council, 7/1/25]
    • Douglas Holtz-Eakin suggested in January 2024 that Trump’s trade and immigration policies might lead to a “wage-price spiral,” a condition in which prices and pay increases push one another upward and thus cancel out any seeming benefit for workers. [The Washington Post, 1/7/24]
    • Michael Strain, an economist at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, told The New York Times in June 2024: “I think we can say with a lot of confidence that President Trump’s trade policies and immigration policies would result in price spikes.” He explained in an interview that “mass deportations would cause a severe supply shock to the labor market, which could increase the overall cost of living.” [The New York Times, 6/8/24]
    • Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, explained to the Post in January 2024 that Trump's mass deportation plan “would lead to very sudden spikes in prices of key goods like fresh produce, hotel rooms, and housing repairs.” [The Washington Post, 1/7/24]
    • Economic Policy Institute chief economist Josh Bivens told Politico in March 2024, “If a future Trump administration really did deport millions of workers, that would be inflationary.” [Politico, 3/7/24]
    • Former Federal Reserve economist Claudia Sahm stated in February 2024 that Trump's plan of “jacking up tariffs and cutting off immigration are both inflationary.” [Twitter/X, 2/29/24]

    Economists warned against Trump pressuring the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates 

    • Trump, his administration, and his MAGA media allies have engaged in a long-running pressure campaign to get Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. Fox News especially has thrown its support behind Trump’s pressure campaign against Powell, which in recent weeks has included calls for a congressional investigation, repeated demands for Powell’s resignation, and conflicting reporting that Trump had decided to fire Powell — which he is legally barred from doing without “cause.” [Media Matters, 6/13/25, 7/3/25; Twitter/X, 7/2/25; Fox Business, 7/13/25; Bloomberg, 7/8/25; The New York Times, 7/16/25]
    • Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Maurice Obstfeld warned in a May 2024 opinion piece that “Trump’s Plans for the Fed Would Revive 1970s-Style Inflation.” Post columnist Catherine Rampell similarly warned that the proposal to “kneecap the Federal Reserve” should be seen as a “five-alarm fire for anyone who claims to care about inflation.” In her column, she pointed to an exhaustive IMF study which showed that central banks “with strong independence scores were more successful in keeping people’s inflation expectations in check, which helps keep inflation low.” Larry Summers also identified Trump’s plan on “compromising the independence of the Federal Reserve Board” as one of “multiple pillars of Trump’s economic agenda that could accelerate inflation.” [Project Syndicate, 5/8/24; The Washington Post, 5/2/24; International Monetary Fund, 3/21/24; The Atlantic, 6/2/24]