Support truly
independent journalism
Donald Trump bizarrely claimed people don’t eat bacon anymore because of wind power while taking questions at his latest campaign speech in Wisconsin.
The former president made the bold claim as an answer to a young rally-goer asking what his plan is, "to make life more affordable and bring down inflation for someone like me."
"It's probably the question I get most," Trump responded at first, eventually launching into what on critic denounced as a "word salad."
The GOP presidential nominee said, "You take a look at bacon and some of these products, and some people don't eat bacon anymore."
"And we are going to get the energy prices down," he continued.
"When we get energy down – you know this was caused by their horrible energy. Wind – they want wind all over the place," he added.
"But when it doesn't blow we have a little problem," Trump added.
The potential future president had also told the crowd, "You know they say you gotta vote with your stomach, I don't know if you've heard it but it's a little bit true," before launching into some questionable food inflation numbers.
"Food has gone up at levels that nobody's ever seen before," he declared, following up his claim with some unsupported numbers. "We've never seen anything like it – 50, 60, 70 percent."
In reality, food price inflation in the US is now only slightly higher than it was at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2020, according to Trading Economics per data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In July it was measured to be at 2.2 percent – 0.4 percent higher than it was in January 2020 at 1.8 percent.
July's reading is also 2.7 percent lower than it was a year before when it was 4.9 percent, and significantly lower than the July 2022 figure of 10.9 percent.
The online response to Trump's odd claims has been relentless, with one X/Twitter user writing, "Operation let him talk is going exceedingly well."
"You can always tell when Trump goes off teleprompter," wrote another.
Trump has had a difficult week with a string of controversies stemming from his visit to the Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, where two of his campaign staffers allegedly verbally abused and pushed aside a cemetery official, and where he was photographed smiling and giving a thumbs up in front of soldier's graves while posing for photos.
