President Donald Trump on Nov. 14 put forth a promised executive order to reduce tariffs on certain foods from overseas that the U.S. does not produce or just does not produce enough of as the White House and Republicans continue to refocus their efforts on ending the inflation nightmare the American people have been life through for five years now.

But the tariffs were not the cause of the inflation from four years ago. Did President Trump build a time machine we’re not aware of?

For the cause for all of the high prices, we should look to the $6.3 trillion printed during and after Covid and especially the global supply crisis from the economic and production lockdowns that did not catch up to demand after the economy reopened. That’s a real conversation about how we got here. As Milton Friedman described, inflation is too much money, chasing too few goods. That’s exactly what we did during and after Covid.

To be certain, from 2021 through the end of 2024, food prices had already increased 23.7 percent — almost up 6 percent an average every year that former President Joe Biden was in office — before President Trump was ever sworn back into office in January. 

Since then, they are up another 1.9 percent. The past 12 months they are up 3.1 percent through September. All told, since 2021, they are up about 26 percent, but average weekly earnings only increased 20 percent. So, food’s really expensive.

Inflation was already slowing down when President Trump enacted global reciprocal tariffs in April. 

What it points to is a need for more domestic production to boost supplies, and in certain cases—particularly foods that we don’t really grow like coffee, bananas and so forth—are more imports. Other cases like beef where the domestic cow population has decreased 6 percent the past four years also seem to necessitate more imports in order to help get prices down.

When the Federal Reserve raised interest rates and selling treasuries and mortgage securities beginning in 2022 that helped to reduce the money supply by about 4.5 percent from 2022 to 2023, before it would start growing again just this past April, effectively freezing it for three years. 

And production has increased since the 2020 and 2021 Covid lockdowns, but as far as prices are concerned, production still has not fully caught up. That is where the real crunch is. 

For example, we produce all of our electricity relatively import-free from a thermal perspective including natural gas and coal. During the Biden years, electricity spike 30 percent — again this had nothing to do with tariffs — but it’s still up another 5 percent since then. 

The problem? Not tariffs. Overall, in four years, electricity production across all sectors only increased 4.7 percent according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This year, it’s up another 2.97 percent, so that’s good, but judging by prices, it’s not yet enough, and nowhere close to the President’s goal of doubling electricity production as America reindustrializes. At the current rate it would take decades to double electrical output. It needs to go much, much faster. 

Markets are indeed responsive to high prices eventually leading to more production via competition but that is a long term process. Utilities are special in that they are local and regional monopolies, leaving a potential perverse incentive not to increase production. Other such perverse incentives can be found in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing goals that seek to lower carbon “footprints”. 

There is plenty being done. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will allow for more expensing and that surely should help build more power plants. Or housing as construction equipment can be expensed. It applies to agriculture too. But you’re still waiting around for producers to ramp up, which becomes more difficult amid labor shortages, and so the long-term actions eventually paying off could look like complacency in the short term.

The President’s pivot on tariffs for agriculture is therefore very timely to help boost imports and increase supplies. But it can only grant a one-time reprieve — so removing a 10 percent tariff on coffee might take the price down about 90 cents from its current $9.13 per pound reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics — and then afterward the global supply crisis will continue to rear its head. 

Whatever we’re not producing enough of, and the prices are still too high for, we should endeavor to import more. But the rest, we really, really have to make ourselves. And fast. 

Ultimately, what will matter the most is not the tariff rate, but how much of the foodstuffs are imported. How many new power plants will be produced? How many new cows will be bred? How many new fields will be planted? How many new homes built? Barring a trillion dollar or so bonfire outside the Fed, those are what matter, maybe the only things that matter, all other political bluster aside.

So many issues, but one proven majority killer: Inflation.

Usually, the way we muddle through inflation is by boosting wages and incomes over time to catch up. High interest rates slow spending down. Economically, that’s what is already happening. It’s usually a waiting game. 

And politics don’t like to wait. 

By now, the dilemma is likely frustrating for the current administration and Congress with the fast approaching Congressional midterms less than a year away — but this is the way it is. No matter how many seeds Republicans think they are planting right now it might not be enough certainly in time for 2026. But for them, 2028 is the real question. There’s a massive incentive to generate a production boom — now. 

Explain the dilemma. Show charts. Make presentations. Prove it. Teach us. Go watch Richard Nixon outline his war plans from the Oval Office. They were boring as hell. But necessary.

If that means we need an Even Bigger And More Beautiful Bill in 2026, so be it. Besides tax incentives, another thing Congress has the power to do is spend. Could we expedite construction of power plants, refineries, major production facilities and so forth? We need to rebuild our production infrastructure and it shouldn’t take a major war to get it done. You can be as urgent as you wish. Or just wait and the majority grinding machine will be along very shortly. The tariffs aren’t the problem. We need to build and grow more — now. 

Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government. 

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/11/its-build-now-or-bust-later-to-get-prices-down-mr-president/