Chuck Schumer last week took to the Senate floor to blame Donald Trump for the poor January 2025 consumer price index (inflation rate) report, knowing that Joe Biden had been president for most of the month. In his statement he claimed that Trump had broken his promise to lower costs on Day 1 and added, “Welcome to the age of Trumpflation.” 

Schumer’s statement was a clear misrepresentation of who was responsible for the disappointing inflation rate numbers, a 3 percent annual increase in the CPI. It wasn’t Donald Trump; it was the policies of Bidenomics that had caused the 21.4 percent increase in prices over Biden’s four years. This was almost triple the rate that occurred under Trump’s first term (7.7 percent), and you have to go back to Jimmy Carter in the 1970s to find a first term of an administration with a worse record. 

This kind of misleading rhetoric by Democratic leaders characterized the 2024 campaign and is a perfect example of why the top Senate Democrat’s new title is “minority leader.”

The Biden policies of the last four years that created the worst inflation in 40 years would be a lot to overcome for any president, much less in just a couple of days. But the real culprit behind what remains a stubbornly high inflation rate was Biden’s decision to push for a series of huge spending bills despite warnings from leading Democratic economists.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post in February 2021, “there is a chance that macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels will set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.” He followed up in a May 24, 2021, op-ed titled, “The inflation risk is real.” 

Obama economist Jason Furman said about the American Rescue Plan, “It’s definitely too big for the moment. I don’t know any economist that was recommending something the size of what was done.”

The scale of spending was clearly a central concern about inflation. Ask almost anyone in Washington how much money the government spent during Biden’s four years and you’ll probably get a blank stare. The answer is a staggering $26 trillion. He normalized the 2020 COVID budget and never looked back.

In contrast, during the previous four years under Trump, the government spent a total of $19.1 trillion, or $6.9 trillion less than Biden.

That means Biden spent, on average, $1.7 trillion a year more than Trump did, and that includes Trump’s 2020 pandemic budget of $6.6 trillion. But despite his declaration that the pandemic was over in September 2022, Biden and Schumer kept the COVID levels of spending well above $6 trillion. Overall, Biden’s spending was 36 percent higher than Trump. Is it any wonder that Bidenomics drove inflation to near historic levels?

But it gets worse. With the interest rate for U.S. government borrowing to finance debt at 3.3 percent in December 2024, Biden’s additional $6.9 trillion in spending over Trump, all of which had to be borrowed, increased the nation’s interest payment, likely adding about $229 billion a year to the federal budget. To give this some context, the federal deficit in 2007 was $161 billion. 

Democrats have tried to paper over this by claiming that Trump is the one who dramatically increased the deficit (federal revenues versus outlays). But the numbers tell a different story. Comparing the four years of Biden to Trump, the Trump budgets generated $5.6 trillion in deficits, while Biden/Schumer budgets generated $7.7 trillion in deficits, $2.1 trillion more than Trump. 

The Congressional Budget Office projections (based on a continuation of current Biden spending) show that in 2025, spending will be over $7 trillion, and by 2028, it will be over $8 trillion. In contrast, looking at spending in 2018, the last time Republicans held the White House and Congress, the federal budget was at $4.1 trillion. Over the time period of 2018 to 2028, if no changes occur, spending will have doubled.

Schumer and his fellow Democrats’ complaints that Trump has failed to fix inflation in his first month in office is disingenuous at best. People understand that the economy can’t be turned around on a dime. They are willing to give Trump time to reverse the course the country has been on for the last four years. 

How long? That’s hard to say. But Democrats attacking Trump doesn’t address the issue, much like in the presidential campaign. Last fall, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris occasionally talked about the economy. In the Winston Group 2024 postelection survey, only 7 percent of the electorate said the message they heard most from Democrats was inflation/economy. 

Trump does have some time to work with, as long as the electorate believes it has his attention and he is putting the needed effort into it. 

The recent CBS survey (Feb. 5-7) had some satisfying numbers for Trump. Fifty-three percent approved of the job he was doing as president, while 47 percent disapproved. Good numbers for Trump. Fifty-nine percent of people also approved of his immigration efforts. Important initial numbers as he starts his new term. 

But on the inflation front, which is the issue that is most important to the electorate, there are some worrisome signs. Slightly more than half, 51 percent, thought his policies would make the price they paid for food and groceries go up, and 73 percent worried that his tariff policies would make prices higher. But most importantly, 66 percent of the country thought he was not focused enough on lowering the prices of goods and services. 

When two-thirds of the country believes a president is not focusing enough on the No. 1 issue, in this case inflation, there could be some rough water ahead. Just ask former President Obama about his focus on health care over unemployment during his first two years. In the 2010 exit polls, 63 percent said the economy was the top issue, and 18 percent said health care. Obama’s party lost 63 seats in the House in the 2010 midterms. 

Fortunately, for Trump, it’s early in his new term. But he needs to be seen as addressing inflation with a command focus that the country expects for their No. 1 issue. 

David Winston is the president of The Winston Group and a longtime adviser to congressional Republicans. He previously served as the director of planning for Speaker Newt Gingrich. He advises Fortune 100 companies, foundations and nonprofit organizations on strategic planning and public policy issues, as well as serving as an election analyst for CBS News.