How Trump Is Trying to Tip the Scales for the Midterms, and Why Grocery Stores Are Scrambling
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford.
How are grocery stores responding to Americans cutting back on food purchases?
Today's Friday, July 10th. Here's what we're covering.
$47 for five cans of vegetables, a roast, and one onion.
Across the country, Americans are feeling the pain at the grocery store. So look, you see what they say? $1.25 for corn each. Rising food prices aren't new, but they've been exacerbated the last few months by higher fuel costs from the war with Iran. It's feeding into a situation where prices are going up and how much people buy is going down. Recent polling shows that 61% of Americans say they've had to cut back on what goes in the cart. That's left grocery stores scrambling after what's already been a pretty rough year and a half. But not just higher prices, but also the reduction in food stamp programs under the Trump administration and the rise of weight loss medications. People are just buying less.
In response, stores are now racing to lower prices on some key products as they compete for cash-strapped customers. Walmart, the biggest retailer in the country, said this week it's lowering price tags for ground beef, corn, potato chips, and Coca-Cola. It's the latest retailer to try this. Costco said recently it was dropping prices on eggs and beef. And Kroger, which owns chains like Fred Meyer and King Soopers, told investors it was experimenting to see which products it could lower prices on to attract customers. Despite the discounts, people's overall grocery bills are still unlikely to go down. Beef prices continue to hit record levels, and the USDA predicts that prices for pork, poultry, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruit will all increase this year.
The midterm elections are about four months away, and my colleagues and I have been looking at all of the ways that agencies across the Trump administration have been trying to change or influence how American elections are run.
Nick Corsoniti covers politics for The Times. He says his team has traced dozens of Trump administration actions that seem to be designed to tip the scales of the midterm elections in favor of Republicans. One of the most significant has been Trump's push to have the federal government, quote, take over the elections process.
Now, it's important to remember the Constitution grants no authority to the executive branch over elections. But that hasn't stopped the Trump administration from leaning on their agencies to try and enact policies that would change the way we vote by getting private voter data through the Department of Justice or investigating the specter of non-citizens voting through the Department of Homeland Security. when there is little to no evidence of widespread non-citizens voting, they've also sought to change congressional maps. And this is perhaps the most direct way they're looking to influence the midterm elections in their favor. Leaning on Republicans in state legislatures, they've redrawn congressional maps in a host of states, creating newly safe Republican districts intended to give them an advantage heading into a midterm election that, based on polling,
looks to be fairly difficult for Republicans.
Nick says that beyond the push to nationalize elections and change voting maps, Trump has also tried to tighten voting restrictions, cut back on election security efforts, and continue to actively spread election-related conspiracy theories.
Why are grocery prices still high despite retailers cutting selected item prices?
While some of the administration's actions have been blocked by the courts, taken together, all the efforts could impact how people vote and who can vote on Election Day.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:36
2
How are grocery stores responding to Americans cutting back on food purchases?
0:36–4:20
3
Why are grocery prices still high despite retailers cutting selected item prices?
4:20–8:14
4
What factors are causing consumers to buy less at the supermarket?
8:14–10:07
5
How is Walmart, Costco and Kroger changing pricing strategies to attract shoppers?
10:07–13:26
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Headlines
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