For the last four years, Americans suffered through record-high inflation that threatened to derail backyard barbecues across the nation. That cost curse, however, is expected to change as year-over-year inflation rates under President Donald Trump hit lows unseen under President Joe Biden.
Prices, no doubt, are higher during Trump’s second term than they were during his first. Yet Independence Day party hosts and goers will get some reprieve this year compared to the Biden administration-induced inflation that plagued their grilling in years past.
According to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s latest report, a July 4 cookout including cheeseburgers, pork chops, chicken, potato salad, fruit, ice cream, and other picnic staples for 10 guests will cost roughly $70.92 in 2025.
While that total remains one of the highest prices ever recorded by AFBF, up significantly from the $52.80 recorded in 2019 before the Covid and Bidenflation price hikes, it is down 30 cents from the record high $71.22 bill calculated in 2024.
The fees for chicken breasts, pork chops, cheese, hamburger buns, and potato chips, specifically, are all down from 2024.
“After years of sharp food inflation, prices for many Fourth of July staples are finally beginning to level out,” AFBF admitted. “While some prices, particularly for proteins, will continue to be volatile due to disease pressures and labor costs, others are stabilizing thanks to improving supply chains and easing input prices.”
Last year, AFBF determined that the costs of essential cookout items were up 5 percent from the record-breaking total cost of $67.73 that the organization calculated in 2023, when Americans paid 17 percent more for hamburger buns, 5 percent more for potato salad, 4 percent more for ground beef, and 3 percent more for strawberries and ice cream than they did in 2022.
One of the biggest leaps, however, came in 2022 when consumers faced sticker shock that amounted to a $10 or 17 percent jump in cost from what they were paying in 2021.
The 2025 price drop should come as no surprise to Americans. After all, the Consumer Price Index for May showed a 2.4 percent year-over-year jump, which is significantly scaled back from the 5 percent climb measured at the beginning of Biden’s term in 2021.
Corporate media have tried to convince Americans that Trump-led tariffs will keep punching their pocketbooks where it hurts. So far, however, the economy has only improved under the Republican and his policies.