Politicians have long tried to avoid appearing out of touch. People in positions of authority are often insulated from the day-to-day challenges of regular people, but that’s precisely why political leaders tend to go out of their way to show they understand and can relate to everyday experiences their constituents face all the time.
Donald Trump, a wealthy television personality before he entered politics, has long struggled in this area, failing to even keep up appearances.
This is especially true on one specific issue: groceries.
As The New York Times noted, the president ran into fresh trouble during an event in Las Vegas on the economy.
Trump was touting tax cuts for small businesses when he came across the term ‘corner store’ as he read off prepared remarks. ‘What is a corner store? I’ve never heard that term. I know what a corner store is, but I’ve never heard it described a corner store,’ said Trump. He looked up sharply and said, ‘Who the hell wrote that?’
Evidently, he didn’t familiarize himself with the text that someone else had written for him ahead of the event.
After years of struggling with this issue, it’s amazing he hasn’t yet familiarized himself with the basics. Early in his first term, for example, Trump insisted that consumers need to show identification while buying groceries, including cereal and bread. (None of this was true.)
In 2019, during a government shutdown, the Republican also argued that supermarket owners would allow furloughed federal employees to buy groceries on credit, because “they know the people.” (That didn’t make any sense.)
In his second term, his approach to the issue has grown weirder, to the point that he even began characterizing “groceries” as an exotic word last year.








