Donald Trump tried to take credit this week for Walmart’s latest round of price cuts. There was just one problem: Walmart says the discounts were already in the works, and had already launched, before Trump claimed any involvement.
Now, after that inconvenient detail became public, the Trump administration is lashing out, not at Walmart, but at the media for pointing it out.
On Monday, Trump triumphantly announced on Truth Social that Walmart was slashing prices because his administration asked them to.
“Great news!” Trump wrote. “I have just been informed that one of the biggest, best, and smartest Retailers in America, Walmart, will be lowering prices, by a lot, at my Administration’s request to celebrate our great Country’s 250th birthday.”
Trump went on to claim Walmart would cut the price of a pound of ground beef by nearly 15%, calling it “a huge deal” for millions of Americans and praising the company as “truly patriotic.”
For a moment, it looked like Trump had another economic victory to tout. Then Walmart clarified what actually happened.
Walmart did confirm that it is lowering prices on ground beef and other grocery items.
But according to The Bulwark, a Walmart spokesperson said the retailer had already launched those price reductions last week, before Trump’s announcement.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that an Agriculture Department official contacted Walmart and other major grocery chains, encouraging them to lower beef prices.
However, according to the Journal, Walmart told the official during that conversation that it already planned to reduce prices.
In other words, the company didn’t begin cutting prices because Trump asked. It was already doing it.
Walmart’s public announcement also made no mention of Trump or the White House.
Rather than acknowledge Walmart’s explanation, the White House took aim at reporters.
After The Bulwark’s managing editor, Sam Stein, highlighted Walmart’s comments on X, White House spokesperson Kush Desai fired back.
“The President and Walmart’s announcement was that the sale is extending all summer long,” Desai wrote. “The media’s obsessive need to try to undermine any good news when it affects President Trump is pathological.”
The White House’s Rapid Response 47 account also celebrated Walmart’s lower prices, while Desai later argued the discounts were evidence that the administration’s policies were working.
He claimed the price reductions were “the result of this Admin cutting red tape” and said they proved the White House’s economic strategy was paying off.
Walmart itself has not made that claim.
The episode fits a pattern that has followed Trump throughout his political career.
He has frequently claimed credit for decisions made by private companies, strong economic data that predated his policies, or events already set in motion before his involvement.
At the same time, Trump has repeatedly dismissed concerns from Americans struggling with the cost of groceries and other everyday expenses, at one point calling complaints about affordability a political “scam.”
Ironically, even as he tried to claim credit for Walmart’s discounts this week, Trump also blamed former President Joe Biden for today’s high prices.
“My Administration is lowering prices that Joe Biden incompetently raised with the worst inflation crisis in history,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, before launching into a broader attack on Biden over immigration, Afghanistan, and other grievances.
But Walmart’s own timeline tells a different story. The retailer says the discounts were already underway.
And when Walmart’s explanation undercut that narrative, the administration’s frustration wasn’t directed at the company—it was directed at the reporters who pointed it out.
Read Trump’s full post below.
