Trump’s inflationary policies were almost totally ignored in the top 5 US newspapers’ early

Media Matters searched print articles in the Factiva database from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post — the top five U.S. newspapers by circulation — for any of the terms “Consumer Price Index,” “CPI,” “Bureau of Labor Statistics,” or “BLS” or any variations of any of the terms “inflation,” “shrinkflation,” “price,” “cost,” or “expense” within the same headline or lead paragraphs from January 11, 2024, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the first Consumer Price Index update of the calendar year, through March 11, 2024, a day prior to BLS releasing the most recent CPI update of the calendar year.

We included articles, which we defined as instances when inflation was mentioned in the headline or lead paragraphs in the news or business sections of each paper. We did not include editorial, op-eds, or letters to the editor.

We then reviewed the identified articles for whether they mentioned that some of Trump’s policies as president or economic proposals, such as higher tariffs, mass deportations, and more tax cuts for the rich, would make inflation worse; quoted Trump criticizing Biden on inflation, exaggerating inflation, or lying about overall economic conditions; or mentioned any current positive economic indicators, such as economic growth, job creation, wage growth, and the low unemployment rate.