President Donald Trump made a huge announcement ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday: This year’s spread would be cheaper than last year. “Walmart just announced that the cost of their standard Thanksgiving meal is reduced by 25 percent this year from last year,” the president bragged at the 2025 Saudi Investment Forum last week.
On Tuesday — amid jokes that he would send two turkeys receiving a presidential pardon to the same infamous Salvadoran prison where he sent undocumented migrants to be tortured — Trump continued to claim the cost of goods are hitting historic lows. “[Prices] are down to a level that we haven’t seen in a long time,” the president said, before fat shaming both the turkeys and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.
Walmart did announce that their Thanksgiving bundle will be cheaper than last year, but they left a lot off the table — just like many Americans may have to do amid persistently high grocery bills, increased utility costs, and the myriad of other expenses incurred by working families that have worsened amid Trump’s trade wars.
Walmart’s 2024 shopping list included “29 items and serves eight people for less than $7 per person,” and cost $55. This year’s total purports to serve “10 people for less than $40,” but only contains 22 items. Sweet potatoes, marshmallows, pecan pie, “frozen whipped topping,” cornbread, several vegetables, poultry seasoning, and chicken broth have all been jettisoned. Brand name items have been almost universally replaced with the company’s store brand “Great Value” items. The 2025 list does, however, include mac and cheese as a new addition. Several of the items that did make the list have also been reduced in quantity — including a smaller turkey, which increased in price per pound.
The overall price of Thanksgiving year depends on who you ask. The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, found that the cost of Thanksgiving dinner increased by nearly 10 percent compared to last year. An Associated Press report found that discounted turkey prices are being erased by the higher cost of sides and trimmings. Meanwhile, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), the price of their “classic” Thanksgiving dinner fell about 5 percent nationally — $55.18, compared to $58.08 in 2024, about a three dollar difference.
Fox Business acknowledged last week that Americans would need to keep their Thanksgiving menus tight in order to save. “Remember, if you do want to do another protein like beef, the price is still up. It’s about five times the price it was last year — so just keep that in mind,” the network advised. “Turkey is probably your best bet. Just stick to the one.”
As the American economy continues to slow, consumers remain caught in a squeeze of high prices, slow wage growth, and the endemic unaffordability of basic life necessities. Trump and his administration find themselves in need of markers to support their insistence that the economy is perfectly fine — great, even. The Walmart Thanksgiving bundle has been front and center of the messaging — with everyone from Trump, to economic adviser Kevin Hassert, to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent citing the lower price (while neglecting to mention that Walmart scaled back what is included).
Bessent — who earlier this year scolded that “access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream” — touted Walmart’s dinner price as evidence of decreasing inflation this past weekend, and advised that if Americans actually want lower prices they should just move to red states. “You know the best way to bring your inflation rate down? Move from a blue state to a red state,” he told MSNOW’s Meet the Press. “Blue state inflation is half a percent higher, and that is because they don’t deregulate, they keep prices up. Energy is higher.”
Following near-universal victories by Democrats in November’s elections, the White House is attempting to refocus the president’s messaging towards affordability ahead of the 2026 midterms. It’s a hard sell, especially when the president is hosting Great Gatsby-themed bacchanals at Mar-a-Lago, and spending any time he isn’t remodeling the White House into a Great Value Versailles cavorting with oligarchs eager to curry favor with him, his family, and his administration. It’s hard to convince the American public that saving maybe $20 on a scaled-back Thanksgiving dinner is the payoff of the president’s hard won efforts to reduce the struggles of the working class.
According to a November ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, seven in 10 Americans report spending more on groceries this year compared to last year, and a majority of Republicans, Democrats, and independents all reported increased grocery prices. According to the University of Michigan’s monthly consumer survey, consumer sentiment about the economy has dropped nearly 30 points year over year, and is approaching record lows.
Over the past year, Americans have watched the Republican Party fight tooth and nail to kick millions off of their health insurance, appeal to the Supreme Court for the right to deprive low income children and families of SNAP benefits, and stand by as the president and members of his Cabinet engage in naked corruption and self enrichment.
Trump himself has already given the game away. In the same press conference where he touted the price of Walmart’s Thanksgiving meal, Trump told reporters that he doesn’t “want to hear about the affordability.”
“When you look at 25 percent reduction in cost for Thanksgiving between Biden and me, meaning this administration. That’s a tremendous number. That’s tremendous, it’s the biggest cost [reduction] in the history of that chart, or whatever it is they do that,” Trump claimed.
So enjoy your marginally cheaper Thanksgiving meal, if you put those $15 in a high yield saving account you may be able to pay for a single month of your new, more expensive health care premiums in a decade or two.
