WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday offered House Republicans a window into what’s on his mind just days before they return from an August break, painting an overly rosy picture of the economy and taking a new interest in federal beef regulations.

Speaking to conservative commentator Glenn Beck, Trump repeated his message on still-high prices of just about everything, which multiple polls show is the most-pressing issue for most voters. The president contended prices of consumer items are down across the board, a claim undercut by the latest data released by his own administration.

He also continued to blame former President Joe Biden, who has been out of office for 583 days and counting.

“I inherited high prices, and then from the first day they started using the word affordability. ... It was a new word. Nobody ever heard the word. It was a new word that they devised because they’re quite good at that. They’re not good at running a country,” Trump said. “And we’ve really got them (prices) down.”

But July data released by his own Bureau of Labor Statistics showed prices up last month. “The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers increased 0.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in July after falling 0.4 percent in June,” according to a BLS summary released Aug. 12. “Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.4 percent before seasonal adjustment.”

Democrats were ready to pounce. “Today’s report makes it clear that American families are still struggling with rising costs. Trump’s tariff taxes, his health care cuts, and his reckless Iran war are all running up the bill for working families,” House Budget ranking member Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said in a release.

Trump has mostly dismissed concerns about the high cost of living during his second term, including the price of gasoline since Feb. 28, when he joined Israel in an armed conflict with Iran. As a result, oil and natural gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz have slowed, creating ongoing pain at the pump as House and Senate Republicans fight for their narrow majorities.

“Now we have a little bit of an oil — don’t forget, when I did this, people thought the oil would go to $8 a gallon,” Trump said Wednesday. “But we had to do it. We had to stop (Iran) from having a nuclear weapon, and we did. And the prices are coming down very rapidly.”

That amounts to a major political bet so close to a crucial midterm election that will decide the fate of his remaining domestic agenda and a slew of judicial nominees he and conservatives want to put on federal benches before his term expires in January 2029.

The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline on Wednesday was $4.1014, up from last week’s $4.0860 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association. That pump price is down slightly from last month’s $4.1101 per gallon level — but it’s up sharply from the price one year ago on Aug. 26, 2025, which was $3.1864 per gallon.

Beef chief?

Five days after announcing a still-opaque deal to import foreign-raised beef in an attempt to lower prices for U.S. consumers, Trump told Beck “beef is starting to come down,” adding: “You know, the meat, the beef, is starting to come down.”

The latest BLM data does show the price of all uncooked ground beef in the U.S. ticking down in June and July — but the July level of $7.180 per pound was still up substantially from the $5.915 per pound price in January 2025, the month he returned to the White House.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that talks toward potential beef deals were ongoing. She did not name any potential countries that have signed on, saying Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were working on that issue without her input.

Trump did not tell Beck he wanted Congress to use legislation to try paring beef prices. Instead, the president took interest in the conservative host’s contention that federal regulations were mostly to blame for the price of ground and other beef products — though he was unsure which agencies were involved. Beck owns a sprawling Idaho ranch, on which his family raises cattle and other animals.

“So you’re saying with less regulation, you think that the ranchers and farmers would do a very good job of processing the beef?” Trump asked. Beck replied, “Yes.”

“I’ve been hearing about this problem for 20 years. I’ve been hearing about this problem,” Trump said. “Wow. … This could be a very good call.

“This is a very big thing you just told me because you just gave me a very good idea,” Trump said, without elaborating on what he might do amid a self-created beef with cattle ranchers and a number of GOP lawmakers.

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