Desperate to return to power, Donald Trump made all kinds of outlandish promises to voters last year, including a rather specific vow related to consumers’ energy costs.
“We intend to slash prices by half within 12 months, at a maximum 18 months,” the then-Republican candidate said in August 2024. Trump went on to claim, “We’re looking to cut them in half, and we think we’ll be able to do better. … You will never have had energy so low as you will under a certain gentleman known as Donald J. Trump. Have you heard of him? So we think your energy bills will be down by 50% to 70%. How good would that be?”
In theory, it would have been quite good indeed. But as the first year of Trump’s second term nears its end, the president has failed spectacularly to deliver on his promise. As the editorial board of The New York Times recently explained, “Electricity prices are almost 10 percent higher than they were a year earlier, according to the most recent numbers.”
The editorial conceded that multiple factors have contributed to the rising costs, but the Times’ editors added that the Republican administration’s energy policies “are not helping — and will soon make matters worse.”
Economist Paul Krugman recently published a related analysis, adding, “Can we blame Trump for rising electricity prices? Not yet. The AI boom began well before Trump won the election, and the grid just wasn’t ready. Trump is, however, doing all he can to make the problem worse — boosting crypto and AI while blocking the expansion of renewable energy, which has accounted for the bulk of recent growth in electric generating capacity.”
That’s the context in which we should consider the remarkable message the president published to his social media platform on Wednesday afternoon. It read in part:
For all of those people voting in New Jersey and Virginia for Governor, Attorney General, or any other position, please remember this: A REPUBLICAN VOTE MEANS A DRASTIC DROP IN ENERGY PRICES AND ENERGY COSTS, A DROP LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE! … If you vote Republican, your Energy Costs are going to go down, tremendously! … SO, GO TO THE POLLS AND CUT YOUR ENERGY COSTS IN HALF!
Yes, with less than two weeks remaining before Election Day in Virginia and New Jersey, where the Democratic gubernatorial nominees appear to have modest, but not overwhelming leads, this is the campaign pitch Trump is rolling out in support of his party’s nominees.
It’s identical to the pitch he brought voters a year ago, which has proven to be an extraordinary failure.
But the president expects voters to fall for the same absurd lie twice.
