WASHINGTON – White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that January’s inflation numbers show the Biden administration left “a mess” for the Trump administration to handle.
Leavitt spoke during a press briefing in the afternoon after figures from the Department of Labor showed the consumer price index (CPI) increased much higher than expected. It climbed 0.5 percent from December into January, and consumer prices are up three percent compared to January 2024.
“On the inflation point, we did receive those numbers, and they were worse than expected, which tells us that the Biden administration indeed left us with a mess to deal with,” Leavitt said.
“It’s far worse than I think anybody anticipated because, unfortunately, the previous administration was not transparent in where the economy truly was,” she added.
She then called out the White House communications team from the Biden administration.
“People at this very podium told the American people that inflation was transitory and that it would go away. That was not the case, and now, the last report of the Biden administration, as revealed today, shows that inflation is still about 4.5 percent higher over the past three months,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt said the tick in inflation is “an indictment on the Biden administration’s mismanagement of the inflation crisis and their lack of transparency in addressing it.”
In a statement to Breitbart News earlier the day, a White House official said President Donald Trump is tackling “lingering damage” from Biden-era policies.
“President Trump is quickly undoing the lingering damage of Biden’s failed economic policies that created the worst economic crisis in history and burdened hardworking Americans for the last four years,” the White House official said.
“In just three weeks, President Trump has tackled runaway spending, created DOGE to terminate taxpayer-funded fraud and abuse, pressured Congress to produce a balanced budget, and cut regulations to restore America’s energy dominance,” the official added. “Just as he did in his first term, President Trump will continue to take unprecedented action to lower prices and usher in a new Golden Age.”
Data provided by administration officials showed the contrast between minimal inflation under the first Trump administration versus the 40-year-high inflation that boomed under the Biden administration. During Trump’s first four years, inflation averaged 1.9 percent compared to the five percent average over the past four years.
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