It has become a fixed line in the story the president tells about the economy he was handed: "I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country." [1] It sounds too specific to be made up. It is wrong anyway, and the record that disproves it is kept by the same government he runs.
What the record actually says
The real number is bad enough that it needs no inflating. Consumer prices rose at a 9.1 percent annual rate in June 2022, the steepest twelve-month climb since November 1981. [1][2] That is a genuine and painful spike, the kind people felt at the pump and the register for months. What it is not is a record. "Highest since 1981" is the precise opposite of "highest ever": it means the worse years before 1981 still stand above it. The worst on the books landed just after World War I, when prices jumped 23.7 percent in the twelve months ending June 1920, more than double the 2022 peak. [1]
Data
| 1920 (worst on record) | 23.7% |
|---|---|
| 2022 (recent peak) | 9.1% |
| Jan 2025 (handoff) | 3% |
Why the bigger number matters
This is not a quibble over a decimal. The phrase "worst in history" does specific work: it turns an ordinary, if severe, business-cycle event into something unprecedented and uniquely damning, a thing that has never happened to anyone before. The record says otherwise. Inflation was high, it was the worst in forty years, and by the time of the handoff in January 2025 it had cooled to about 3 percent. [1] You can argue about who deserves the blame for the part that was real. You cannot move the all-time record from 1920 to 2022 because a sentence sounds better that way.
THE BOTTOM LINE
- "Worst inflation in the history of our country": False [1]
- 2022 peak: 9.1 percent, the most since 1981 [1][2]
- Actual record: 23.7 percent, set in 1920 [1]
The country lived through a real bout of inflation, and people are right to be angry about what it cost them. They are being handed a bigger word than the facts support. The worst inflation in American history happened over a century ago, and the people who lived it are not here to be told it never counted.
