A chart meant to pin grocery price hikes on Donald Trump instead became a digital boomerang for the Democratic Party. Their official X account posted a graph on Thursday that, rather than scoring political points, exposed a glaring spike in costs during Joe Biden’s tenure.
According to Fox News, the Democrats’ post aimed to slam "Trump’s America" with data spanning from October 2019 to 2025, claiming grocery prices hit record highs this year. The irony? The graph clearly showed prices soaring in 2021 under Biden’s watch, only stabilizing toward the end of 2024 after Trump’s re-election.
Social media users pounced on the blunder with sharp precision. The post was deleted, but not before it became a punching bag for critics who saw it as a self-inflicted wound on the party’s credibility.
Commentators across X didn’t hold back in dissecting the Democrats’ misstep. Political observer Chad Felix Greene pointed out, "You're showing us a graph of stable prices suddenly rising the moment you came into power and then steadily rising higher and higher until Trump was reelected."
Greene’s take cuts to the core of the issue: the data tells a story of economic struggle under Biden’s policies, not Trump’s. If the goal was to paint a bleak picture of Republican leadership, this chart did the exact opposite, handing critics a ready-made rebuttal.
Others piled on with equal clarity. GOP strategist Greg Price quipped, "Who was in charge in 2021?"—a simple question that dismantles any attempt to dodge accountability for the timeline.
The ridicule didn’t stop with policy wonks. Wall Street Journal critic Kyle Smith noted, "Wow 2021-2024 were pretty bad," summing up the visual evidence of price surges during those years with biting brevity.
Smith’s jab underscores a broader frustration with progressive economic narratives that seem detached from lived reality. When even a graph from the Democrats’ own account betrays their argument, it’s hard to take their finger-pointing seriously.
Author Carol Roth added her voice to the chorus, stating, "This is not the flex they think it is." Her remark captures the sheer tone-deafness of a party trying to weaponize data that instead highlights their own shortcomings.
The numbers behind the graph aren’t just a social media gotcha; they reflect a painful truth for many Americans. Grocery prices jumped over 21% under Biden, fueled by inflation hitting 40-year highs in 2022, even if recent months show a slight slowdown.
While the Democrats quietly removed the post, the damage was done. White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson mused, "They can’t be this dumb. Are they actually this dumb???"—a question that echoes the disbelief of many watching this unfold.
Jackson’s reaction, while sharp, points to a deeper issue of trust. If a party can’t even interpret its own data without tripping over itself, how can it expect to lead on complex economic challenges?
This incident isn’t just about a deleted tweet; it’s a snapshot of a larger struggle for the Democratic Party to reshape narratives around economic hardship. Their parallel efforts, like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s launch of a website targeting House Republicans for price hikes, now risk being overshadowed by this self-own.
The irony stings all the more given the timing, as congressional Democrats have ramped up attacks on Republicans over the cost of everyday goods. Yet, with inflation still ticking up slightly in the latest month, and memories of 2021-2022 price shocks still fresh, these critiques feel more like deflection than substance.
Ultimately, the Democrats’ X post debacle serves as a cautionary tale about the perils of selective storytelling in a hyper-connected age. When the facts—quite literally plotted on a graph—contradict the intended message, no amount of spin can erase the skepticism left behind.
