Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday publicly challenged Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s new “Trumpflation” tracker, accusing the Massachusetts Democrat of selectively using economic data to downplay improvements in household purchasing power since President Donald Trump took office.
“Another day, another Econ 101 lesson for Professor Warren,” Bessent said in a statement released alongside an administration-produced affordability tracker that compares inflation, wages and household income under Trump with figures from former President Joe Biden’s term.
Bessent said Warren’s dashboard “conveniently ignores the Bidenflation tidal wave that crushed American families, cherry-picks wage growth by refusing to acknowledge positive real wage gains since President Trump came into office, and swaps official medical-care CPI data for premium projections when it suits her narrative.”
“The Harvard Square inflationista is offering a statistical sleight of hand, not a serious assessment of today’s U.S. economy,” Bessent said.
What Warren’s Tracker Shows
Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, launched her tracker Wednesday to argue that Trump’s economic policies have made life more expensive for American families. It reports cumulative inflation of 5.2 percent since December 2024 and estimates that price increases have cost the average household an additional $3,388. The dashboard also tracks groceries, gasoline, electricity, rent, health coverage and child care.
The Treasury’s Counter-Numbers
Bessent’s chart, titled “Trump Affordability Tracker: The Full Picture,” reports that inflation-adjusted weekly wages have risen 1.5 percent since January 2025, compared with a 3.9 percent decline over the full course of Biden’s presidency. Warren’s wage figure, by contrast, starts in February 2026 — the beginning of the Iran war — and measures inflation-adjusted hourly earnings through August, a narrower window that leaves out the early months of Trump’s term. Weekly earnings also account for hours worked, which the administration argues makes them a more accurate gauge of take-home pay than hourly wages alone.
On inflation, Bessent’s chart puts annualized core inflation — which excludes food and energy — at 2.5 percent under Trump versus 4.7 percent under Biden, and notes that August’s year-over-year core inflation rate of 2.4 percent was the lowest since March 2021. Grocery prices are reported rising at an annualized 2.1 percent under Trump compared with 5.3 percent under Biden, while rent inflation is listed at 3.0 percent versus 5.6 percent.
Those figures measure the pace of price increases during each administration. Warren’s tracker instead emphasizes the total accumulated rise in prices since December 2024, estimating the extra money households need to buy the same goods they purchased in 2024.
A Fight Over Health Care Math
Bessent also disputed Warren’s claim that health costs have risen 14.6 percent, or $929, based on estimated worker contributions to employer-sponsored family insurance. According to the tracker’s own methodology, that number blends the actual average employee contribution reported for 2025 with a projected 6.5 percent increase in paycheck deductions for 2026 — described in the methodology as an illustrative estimate rather than a figure drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ official medical-care price index.
Broader Economic Claims
The administration’s response also cites wider measures of household finances, including a record inflation-adjusted median household income of $87,460 in 2025 — a 2.6 percent increase for the year, compared with a cumulative 1.9 percent gain over Biden’s entire term — and a 2025 poverty rate of 10.2 percent.
On jobs, the Treasury’s chart points to one million additional private-sector positions alongside a reduction of 328,000 federal jobs. It also reports nominal weekly earnings up 5.6 percent through July 2026, more than double the 2.6 percent rise in home prices tracked by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
“Here is the full picture, including an apples-to-apples comparison of President Trump’s real economic results measured against the failed policies Senator Warren championed under Biden,” Bessent said.
