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Friday, January 31, 2025B Sectionindianapolisrecorder.comCall one of ourmortgage loan officertoday to learn aboutthe programs you maybe eligible for* such as-OHFA (The Ohio HousingFinance Agency)-Welcome Home-Communities First-ADDI (American DreamDown Payment)-NHS (NeighborhoodHousing Services)Down Payment AssistancePrograms%u00a9 2024 Union Savings Bank. All rights reserved. NMLS# 446047. *Subject to credit approval. Restrictions may apply.CALL TODAY FOR YOUR FREE MORTGAGE QUOTELending: 317-942-3286 www.usavingsbank.comAngela Moormanamoorman@usavingsbank.com Office: 317-843-1006 ext 3127 Cell: 317-427-86315881 E 82nd StreetIndianapolis, IN 46250NMLS# 1719453innrDBy CHRIS MEGERIAN and JOSH BOAK Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) %u2014 Two months ago, in his first network television interview after the election, Donald Trump said he owed his victory to Americans%u2019 anger over immigration and inflation, specifically the rising cost of groceries.%u201cWhen you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time,%u201d he told NBC%u2019s %u201cMeet the Press. %u201cAnd I won an election based on that. We%u2019re going to bring those prices way down.%u201dBut in Trump%u2019s first week back in the White House, there was little in his initial blitz of executive orders that directly tackled those prices, besides directing federal agencies to start %u201cpursuing appropriate actions.%u201d He is taking steps to lower energy costs, something that Trump hopes will have ripple effects throughout the economy. Otherwise, his focus has been clamping down on immigration, which he described as his %u201cNo. 1 issue%u201d shortly after taking the oath of office.%u201cThey all said inflation was the No. 1 issue. I said, %u2018I disagree,%u2019%u201d Trump said. %u201cI talked about inflation too, but how many times can you say that an apple has doubled in cost?%u201dTrump is banking on voters giving him a pass and continuing to blame former President Joe Biden for high prices. The Republican%u2019s comments reflect the reality that presidents have almost no levers to reduce inflation quickly without causing collateral damage to other parts of the economy.There is more that Trump can do on energy. He is pushing to reduce regulations and increase the amount of land available for drilling. He is trying to persuade domestic and foreign oil producers to potentially sacrifice their own profits by pumping more.During a rally Saturday in Las Vegas, Trump went after his Democratic predecessor for allowing prices to rise under his watch, and promised to take care of the problem quickly.%u201cWhen I think of Biden, I think of incompetence and inflation,%u201d Trump said.Inflation peaked at a 9.1% annual rate in June 2022 during worldwide supply chain problems after the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic. Overall consumer prices have fallen since then, but have ticked up in recent months, from 2.4% in September to 2.9% in December, the latest figures available. Economists have warned that Trump%u2019s plans for tariffs and tax cuts could create new inflationary pressures and keep interest rates elevated.Vice President JD Vance, in an interview with CBS%u2019 %u201cFace the Nation%u201d airing Sunday, defended the White House%u2019s work so far.%u201cPrices are going to come down, but it%u2019s going to take a little bit of time, right?%u201d he said. He added, %u201cRome wasn%u2019t built in a day.%u201dTrump%u2019s relative shift away from addressing costs could create an opening for Democrats to say he is not helping working-class voters, hoping that argument could offer the party a path back to power in Washington.Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Trump preferred to distract people from inflation with talk of adding Greenland to the United States or seizing the Panama Canal.%u201cIt%u2019s catnip and it causes everybody to stop paying attention to their actual economic agenda, which has nothing to do with lowering costs and everything to do with rigging the economy to help the Mar-a-Lago crowd,%u201d he said.During an interview on Fox News this past week, host Sean Hannity struggled to get Trump to focus on the economy.%u201cLet me get to the economy,%u201d Hannity said at one point. %u201cI%u2019m running out of time.%u201d%u201cThe economy is going to do great,%u201d Trump insisted.When Trump did talk about inflation in the interview, he noted how low it was during his first term and insisted prices would not have jumped up if he had become president after the 2020 election, even though higher inflation was a global trend coming out of the pandemic.It is not clear how Trump would persuade oil companies and foreign countries to quickly increase production, possibly costing them profits.The Energy Information Administration reported that domestic oil production has grown at an annual rate of roughly 8.4% over the past two years to an average of nearly 13.5 million barrels a day in October. Some Trump aides suggest that could increase by an additional 3 million barrels a day.It would be difficult to achieve that much additional production in a single year without serious changes to the global market. The International Energy Agency estimates that the oil supplied to the entire world will increase by 1.8 million barrels per day to 104.7 million barrels a day. He also has expressed opposition to climate-friendlier wind and solar energy, putting more pressure on the U.S. economy to rely on fossil fuels.EJ Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, said the potential increase in energy production under Trump would ultimately flow through the economy in the form of lower prices.%u201cIf you%u2019re going to bring down the cost of energy, you%u2019re going to bring down the cost of all kinds of goods and services,%u201d he said.But there is a risk that some of Trump%u2019s plans taken as a whole could raise %u2014 not reduce %u2014 prices. Deporting migrants who are in the United States illegally could deprive companies of lower wage workers. The cost of tariffs, which are taxes placed on foreign imports, could be passed on to consumers.Trump said that his strategy also might ultimately involve publicly pressuring the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, saying in Davos that he would %u201cdemand%u201d lower rates from central banks. The Fed sees its political independence as key for making tough choices to stabilize prices. Biden saw the independence as worth protecting, whereas Trump sees it as problematic.The Fed raised its benchmark rates starting in 2022 to make it more expensive to borrow and succeeded enough in reducing inflationary pressures that it could trim rates late last year. Trump believes that greater oil production will put him in a position to tell the Fed what to do.Asked in the Oval Office if he expects the Fed to listen to him, Trump simply said, %u201cYeah.%u201dPresident Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order aiming to declassify remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., in the Oval Ofi ce of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)Trump says inflation isn%u2019t his No. 1 issue. So what will happen to consumer prices?