Donald Trump, celebrating this week the anniversary of his election win last November, claimed he’d created the most successful economy in US history and made America affordable again. Voters in this week’s state elections, and much of the data, beg to differ.

The big promise Trump made to voters, and the one that arguably was the key to regaining the presidency, was that he would drive down prices. Affordability was then, as it was in the state elections that saw unexpected margins for victory for Democrats, top of mind for voters.

So far as Donald Trump has a worldview, it seems to echo a version of the world in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.Credit: AP

Inflation, whether at the headline or core level, is essentially unchanged from a year ago. At the end of last year, the headline rate was 2.9 per cent and core inflation 3.2 per cent. Today, the rates are 2.9 per cent and 3.1 per cent, respectively.

Those rates had, however, been trending down through 2024, but have reversed course since Trump took office and, with the impact of his tariffs on prices still yet to be fully seen, are likely to continue to rise.

Certainly, US consumers don’t appear to believe that Trump is making America affordable again, with his approval rating dropping from 47 per cent early this year to 37 per cent in recent polling.

Trump promised to “drill, baby drill” to bring petrol prices down, slashing regulation and opening up federal land to oil and gas companies.

Petrol cost $US3.19 a gallon a year ago. It was $US3.15 a gallon earlier this week, although for most of this year it has been above $US3.20 a gallon.

Prices should be falling – a year ago, the crude oil price was above $US75 a barrel. Today, it’s below $US64 a barrel amid a growing global glut of oil.

US oil production has increased, from the record average of 13.3 million barrels a day last year under the Biden administration to what the International Energy Agency predicts will be an average of 13.5 million barrels a day this year, but the slump in oil prices is likely to........

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