00:03President Donald Trump confidently announced that he has already solved inflation, and that costs are down.
00:08In a Fox News interview, he declared, we have almost no inflation anymore.
00:13However, the latest Consumer Price Index data paints a very different picture.
00:18Inflation is rising at a rapid rate.
00:20Contrary to Trump's claims, inflation isn't just rising, it's rising at a fast rate.
00:24Consumer prices raised 0.4 percent in August compared to July, leading the annual inflation rate to 2.9 percent, the highest since January.
00:35These figures, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, highlight ongoing price pressures despite the president's assertion.
00:41Economists warn that Trump's policies, including higher tariffs on nearly all imports and tougher immigration enforcement, are driving prices upward.
00:49Brian Colton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings, noted, slowly, quite slowly, in fact.
00:55But surely, we are seeing evidence of more tariff pass through to consumers.
01:00He explains that these policies are driving up costs that shoppers ultimately face at the checkout line.
01:05White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt argued the official inflation figures don't capture the full picture.
01:11As the Trump economic agenda continues to take effect, the trillions of dollars in private sector and foreign investments, historic tax cuts, massive deregulation and energy dominance that the president is spearheading will fuel an economic boom, she insisted.
01:27Food prices, a major inflation driver, surged last month.
01:30Grocery costs climbed 0.6 percent, the largest monthly increase in nearly three years.
01:36Restaurant prices also rose 0.3 percent, matching July's pace.
01:42Tariffs on heavily imported foods are a motivating factor.
01:45Coffee prices, for example, jumped 3.6 percent in one month, the biggest increase since 2011, and are up 20.9 percent year over year.
01:55The U.S. relies heavily on foreign imports for coffee, which makes these tariffs especially impactful.
02:01Meanwhile, Trump's immigration policies are tightening the labor market.
02:04Sung Won Sohn, a finance professor at Loyola Marymount University, warned CNN that deportations reduce the immigrant workforce, pushing up labor costs and food prices.
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