Trump promised to lower prices for Americans. Here's what the data shows.

President Trump campaigned in 2024 on promises to lower Americans' cost of living, vowing to push gasoline prices below $2 a gallon and to deliver 2% mortgage rates. Two years later, consumers face sharply higher costs for many of the necessities he pledged to make more affordable.

Less than a month before the midterm elections , the gap between Mr. Trump's promises and the financial realities facing many Americans is fueling voter frustration over the economy. Although economic growth is solid and unemployment remains low, nine in 10 Americans say prices are the most important factor shaping their views of the economy, according to a recent CBS News poll .

The financial pressures affecting Americans predate Mr. Trump's return to the White House last year. Consumers are reeling from the cumulative impact of five years of post-pandemic inflation, economists note. But his campaign promises raised hopes that he would lower consumer prices.

At the same time, some of Mr. Trump's policies have exacerbated inflation. His tariff regime contributed about 2.9 percentage points to inflation through February, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Without the tariffs, the price of goods would have declined, the researchers said.

Mr. Trump's decision to attack Iran in February has also led to a drawn-out conflict that has disrupted oil shipments and sharply driven up the price of oil, gas and diesel.

"It's undeniable that several of these supply shocks that the U.S. economy has been navigating through come from policy decisions made by the administration — namely, decisions to intervene in Iran and decisions to impose tariffs," Greg Daco, chief economist at investment advisory firm EY-Parthenon, told CBS News.

Inflation in September is forecast to have risen at an annual rate of 3.6%, up from 3.4% in August, according to economists polled by FactSet — well above the Federal Reserve's 2% annual target.

Ryan Bourne, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute, said that consumers "judge the prices they're paying against the prices they paid four or five years ago, and are still shocked by it."

He added, "As a result of that, they think the economy's doing very, very badly."

The White House said that Mr. Trump's agenda "stopped Biden's inflation crisis" while creating jobs and economic growth. The administration's policies "will continue to deliver economic wins over the next two years," White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told CBS News.

"The President has delivered tangible wins for American families: He signed the largest working-class tax cuts in history, cut the cost of prescription drugs, added more than one million private-sector jobs, locked in nearly 20 trade deals that put American workers first and sent 401(k)s to record highs," Rogers added.

The following charts show how U.S. costs have changed for expenses ranging from groceries to car insurance.

"A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper." — Mr. Trump in a campaign speech in Pittsburgh on Nov.