At a campaign event last August where tables were filled with grocery items, then-candidate Donald Trump promised to cut food prices “starting on Day One,” but more than 235 days into his second term, food prices are up all over the place.
The average price of a regular cup of coffee was up 2.9% year over year in August, to $3.52, according to new restaurant data from Toast, a digital technology platform used by about 148,000 restaurant locations. Cold brew prices rose even higher, up 4.6% YoY in August, with a median price of $5.47.
A hindrance to coffee prices coming down anytime soon may be—you’ll never guess!—Trump’s tariffs. Brazil, which accounted for 35% of US unroasted coffee imports in 2023, per the USDA, has been slapped with a 50% tariff; Colombia, which accounts for 27% of coffee imports, is subject to a 10% tariff.
Other menu items that in August saw YoY median price increases, according to Toast:
- Burgers: Up 3.4% to $14.47.
- Chicken wings: Up 2.3% to $13.79.
- Burritos: Up 3.2% to $13.40.
- Beer: Up 2.4% to $6.47.
Ups and downs: A recent Politifact article evaluated an August 26 cabinet meeting where Trump said that prices of “groceries are down” and “energy is way down” and ruled the statement “half-true.”
Citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s consumer price index of the period between December 2024 and July 2025, Politifact noted that the price of eggs, which had previously shot up because of a bird-flu outbreak, had fallen by about 13%. The price of bread fell by 3.2% and vegetables by 0.7%, according to the data.
But overall, food and beverage prices rose 1.5% over the period, Poltifact reported, including ground beef (up 11.6%), coffee (up 11.3%), sugar and sweets (up 3.7%), and bacon (up 2.9%).
Stress is more: Americans are not just concerned about grocery prices but stressed, according to a recent poll from the Associated Press and the University of Chicago’s NORC, a nonpartisan research institute.
Among US adults, 53% said the cost of groceries were “a major source of stress” and 33% said they were “a minor source,” according to a survey conducted in July. Only 14% responded that grocery prices were not a source of stress.
It’s worst, naturally, for poor Americans, with 64% of those with household incomes under $30,000 saying groceries are a “major” stressor.
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