Trump falsely claims prices are falling rapidly. Some Republican ads acknowledge reality

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President Donald Trump has a triumphant message on inflation. Some of his party’s television ads sound very different.

Even as consumer prices continue rising , Trump continues to falsely claim that they are falling – and even that they are down since he returned to office, though they are actually up 4.3% over that period. In the past two weeks alone, Trump has claimed that “I’ve largely taken care of inflation,” that “the prices are all coming down,” that “the prices are coming down very rapidly,” and that prices have already fallen “very, very, very substantially.”

Fact-checkers have challenged such claims for months, but you don’t have to take it from us. Some Republican midterm candidates have been running commercials that acknowledge reality – implicitly rejecting the narrative of their party’s chief spokesman on one of the year’s most important issues.

“On our farm here in Belle Plaine, we see it every day: gas, groceries, everything’s expensive. Iowa families are hurting,” Zach Lahn, the Republican candidate for governor of Iowa, says in one recent ad , going on to claim his Democratic opponent is out of touch.

“Housing costs keep rising, and it’s getting harder to afford a place to live,” another Iowa Republican in a competitive race, Rep. Zach Nunn, says in an ad in which he proceeds to pitch a proposal to train more skilled workers and builders.

An ad from Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy features a testimonial from a woman who touts him as strong on healthcare affordability. The ad begins with the same woman delivering a broad complaint about rising costs: “When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, the last thing I needed to worry about was money. But bills are overwhelming, and groceries, rent, and gas are more expensive too.”

Such messages would have fit right in four years ago. Republicans flooded the airwaves with inflation-related ads during the 2022 midterms under then-President Joe Biden, attacking him and other Democrats over price hikes that year caused in significant part by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As Republican candidates either vocally support Trump or tread carefully around him, this year’s GOP ads on inflation don’t target the president even though his own war in Iran has been the main driver of a jump in gas prices. The ads viewed by CNN, many of which were identified by the firm AdImpact upon request, tend to mention costs to establish empathy and attack Democratic opponents. They show that some Republicans are trying to go on offense on an issue in which polling suggests Democrats have erased or perhaps even reversed Republicans’ prior advantage.

“Cost of living, the energy prices, the gas prices, it’s really affecting those of us that live in this valley,” says a man in one ad supporting Republican Rep. David Valadao of California. “In our communities, we’re neighbors, not enemies, paying the same skyrocketing electric bills, taxes, and housing costs,” says a narrator in an ad from Massachusetts Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue.

An attack ad from a group aligned with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas uses a narrator to deliver a series of attacks on Democratic candidate James Talarico, who is running for Texas’ other US Senate seat in a competitive race against Republican Ken Paxton. Given that Trump insists prices have already fallen and are continuing to fall, it’s notable that the narrator passingly asserts that prices are spiking – claiming Talarico hurt taxpayers “while your costs are skyrocketing.”

And a Republican National Committee fundraising text sent out last week under the name of Vice President JD Vance made this curious pitch: “If you can’t give right now, don’t, (name of recipient). Groceries cost what they cost.” The text didn’t say anything about grocery costs having increased under the Trump-Vance administration, but it certainly didn’t match the president’s rosy tone on the subject.

There’s a chance that Republican television ads succeed in helping to turn the cost of living into at least a neutral issue in some tight races. With memories of the Biden era still fresh, polling also suggests Democrats aren’t particularly trusted on inflation.

But with midterms generally shaped by voters’ views on the incumbent president, it’s an uphill climb for Trump’s party. Polls suggest most Americans believe Trump is to blame for high gas prices and that Trump’s policies have increased the cost of living . Trump’s eagerness to impose tariffs, most recently against Canada , has kept product costs in the headlines.

Some Democrats being targeted by inflation-related attacks scoff at Republicans delivering this message at the same time as Republicans control Congress and a Republican president pursues high-profile policies that have contributed to price increases.

“While Ohioans are getting crushed by rising costs, Washington Republicans are acting like they didn’t send them the bill,” Kylie Blitzer, campaign spokesperson for Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, said in a Monday email.

Blitzer was responding to a Republican ad that features a narrator saying, “Marcy Kaptur knows families are being crushed by rising costs,” then attacks Kaptur for supposedly rejecting “real relief” by voting against Trump’s tax cuts last year. Blitzer, who said Kaptur voted against the bill because it was a gift to billionaires, blasted Republicans for spending billions on the Iran war and a bailout of Argentina while “working people are paying more for nearly everything and Ohio farmers face a double whammy of skyrocketing diesel and fertilizer costs as vanity tariffs and trade wars wipe them out.”

Democrats, of course, have been running lots of their own ads about the cost of living. Republicans who have sounded like Trump on the issue are particularly easy targets. On Tuesday, Roy Cooper, a Democrat running for the US Senate in North Carolina, released an ad featuring clips of his Republican opponent Michael Whatley wrongly declaring last year that “there is no inflation” and also saying “grocery prices are down, gasoline prices are down, housing prices are down, inflation is down.”

Cooper, appearing incredulous, replies “unbelievable” and “seriously?”

The Cooper ad doesn’t acknowledge that the Whatley comments were from 2025, when the rate of inflation was indeed lower than when Biden left office (though prices were still rising). But crying foul wouldn’t help Whatley, since he would have to acknowledge that the inflation rate is now higher than when Trump was sworn back in.

CNN’s David Wright contributed to this article .

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

唐纳德·特朗普总统对通货膨胀问题发表了充满胜利感的言论。但他所在政党的一些电视广告却截然不同。

尽管消费者物价持续上涨，特朗普仍不断错误地声称物价正在下降——甚至声称自他重返总统职位以来物价已经下降，而事实上，在此期间物价上涨了4.3%。仅在过去两周，特朗普就声称“我已经基本控制住了通货膨胀”、“物价正在下降”、“物价正在迅速下降”，以及物价已经“大幅、非常、非常大幅”下降。

事实核查人员几个月来一直在质疑这类说法，但你不必完全相信我们。一些共和党中期选举候选人已经投放了承认现实的竞选广告——这实际上是在反驳本党首席发言人在今年最重要议题之一上的论调。

“在我们贝尔普莱恩的农场，我们每天都能看到这种情况：汽油、食品杂货，所有东西都很贵。爱荷华州的家庭正在遭受苦难，”爱荷华州州长共和党候选人扎克·拉恩在最近的一则广告中说道，并声称他的民主党对手脱离群众。

“住房成本不断上涨，越来越难负担得起住房，”另一位爱荷华州共和党候选人、同样面临激烈竞争的众议员扎克·纳恩在一则广告中说道，随后他提出了一项培训更多技术工人和建筑工人的提案。

俄亥俄州共和党州长候选人维韦克·拉马斯瓦米的一则竞选广告中，一位女士出镜作证，称赞他在医疗保健可负担性方面立场坚定。广告开头，这位女士就不断上涨的医疗成本表达了广泛的抱怨：“当我被诊断出患有乳腺癌时，我最不想担心的就是钱。但账单堆积如山，食品杂货、房租和汽油的价格也越来越贵。”

这样的信息在四年前或许还很适用。在2022年中期选举期间，共和党人利用通货膨胀相关的广告攻势，攻击时任总统乔·拜登和其他民主党人，指责他们应对当年物价上涨负责，而物价上涨的主要原因是俄罗斯入侵乌克兰。

共和党候选人要么公开支持特朗普，要么小心翼翼地避开他，今年共和党关于通胀的竞选广告并没有直接针对总统本人，尽管他发动的伊朗战争才是油价飙升的主要原因。CNN看到的这些广告（其中许多是应广告公司AdImpact的要求筛选出来的）往往通过提及通胀成本来博取同情，并攻击民主党对手。这些广告表明，一些共和党人正试图在通胀问题上发起攻势，而民调显示，民主党已经抹平甚至可能逆转了共和党此前在该问题上的优势。

在一则支持加州共和党众议员大卫·瓦拉道（David Valadao）的广告中，一位男士说道：“生活成本、能源价格、汽油价格，这些都对我们这些生活在这个山谷里的人造成了很大的影响。”在马萨诸塞州共和党州长候选人迈克·米诺格（Mike Minogue）的一则广告中，旁白说道：“在我们的社区里，我们是邻居，不是敌人，我们共同承担着飞涨的电费、税款和住房成本。”

一个与德克萨斯州参议员特德·克鲁兹关系密切的团体发布了一则攻击性广告，广告中旁白对民主党候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科进行了一系列攻击。塔拉里科正在与共和党候选人肯·帕克斯顿竞争德克萨斯州的另一个联邦参议员席位。鉴于特朗普坚称物价已经下降并且还在持续下降，值得注意的是，旁白却轻描淡写地声称物价正在飙升——并指责塔拉里科“在你们的成本飞涨之际损害了纳税人的利益”。

上周，共和党全国委员会以副总统JD·万斯的名义发出了一条筹款短信，内容颇为耐人寻味：“如果你现在不能捐款，那就别捐了，（收件人姓名）。食品杂货的价格就是这样。” 这条短信并未提及特朗普-万斯政府执政期间食品杂货价格上涨，但显然与总统对此问题的乐观态度截然相反。

共和党的电视广告或许能在一些选情胶着的选区成功地将生活成本问题至少变成一个中立议题。由于人们对拜登时代的记忆犹新，民调也显示，选民对民主党在通胀问题上的信任度并不高。

但由于中期选举结果通常取决于选民对现任总统的看法，特朗普所在的共和党面临着一场艰苦的选战。民调显示，大多数美国人认为高油价应归咎于特朗普，而且特朗普的政策推高了生活成本。特朗普热衷于加征关税，最近一次是对加拿大，这使得商品价格问题一直占据着新闻头条。

一些民主党人因通货膨胀问题而受到攻击，他们对共和党人发出这样的信息嗤之以鼻，因为共和党控制着国会，而共和党总统正在推行导致物价上涨的高调政策。

“俄亥俄州民众正被不断上涨的生活成本压得喘不过气来，而华盛顿的共和党人却装作没把账单寄给他们一样，”俄亥俄州民主党众议员玛西·卡普图尔的竞选发言人凯莉·布利策周一在一封电子邮件中说。

布利策回应的是一则共和党广告，广告旁白说道：“玛西·卡普图尔深知不断上涨的生活成本正压垮无数家庭”，随后攻击卡普图尔去年投票反对特朗普的减税法案，称其拒绝了“真正的救济”。布利策则表示，卡普图尔投票反对该法案是因为它实际上是送给亿万富翁的礼物。他还抨击共和党在伊朗战争和阿根廷救助项目上花费数十亿美元，而“工薪阶层几乎所有东西的价格都在上涨，俄亥俄州的农民则面临着柴油和化肥价格飙升的双重打击，虚荣关税和贸易战让他们损失惨重”。

当然，民主党人也投放了大量关于生活成本的广告。那些在这个问题上发表过类似特朗普言论的共和党人尤其容易成为攻击目标。周二，北卡罗来纳州民主党参议员候选人罗伊·库珀发布了一则广告，其中包含他的共和党对手迈克尔·沃特利去年错误宣称“没有通货膨胀”，以及“食品价格下降了，汽油价格下降了，房价下降了，通货膨胀也下降了”的片段。

库珀一脸难以置信地回答道：“难以置信”和“真的吗？”

库珀的广告没有提及沃特利的言论出自2025年，当时的通货膨胀率确实低于拜登卸任时的水平（尽管物价仍在上涨）。但沃特利对此提出异议也无济于事，因为他不得不承认，如今的通货膨胀率高于特朗普再次就职时的水平。

CNN的David Wright对本文亦有贡献。