(NEXSTAR) – Campaigning for office a year ago, standing in front of a table loaded up with bags of flour, cartons of eggs and gallons of milk, President Donald Trump told voters, “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One.”

Unfortunately for him – and money-strapped Americans – it hasn’t worked out that way.

Nexstar employees around the country tracked a selection of grocery items over the past six months to see if prices would rise, fall or stay the same after Trump took office in January. Our observations, as well as federal data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), show grocery prices overall have remained stubbornly high and even increased slightly.

The overall cost of food at home has ticked up between 0.2% and 0.4% almost every month since January, according to BLS tracking. One exception was in April 2025, when prices went down 0.1% from the month before. All those tiny increases have added up to a 3% increase in food prices year-over-year.

The situation at any given grocery store is more nuanced and varied than the top-line national average would indicate.

Goods that are shelf-stable also turned out to be pretty price-stable at the grocery stores we checked in San Jose, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Bismarck, North Dakota between January and July of 2025. The price of a box of cookies didn’t change at all over the six-month period.

But with fresh fruit, the time of year made a........

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