Trump says ‘inflation is back’: ‘I had nothing to do with it’

President Trump is seeking to distance himself from a rise in inflation, arguing that the uptick had “nothing to do” with his return to the Oval Office.

Trump instead placed the blame on former President Biden in an interview Tuesday, decrying what he characterized as reckless spending during the previous administration.

“Inflation is back. No, think of it. Inflation’s back,” the president told Fox News’s Sean Hannity during an interview alongside tech billionaire Elon Musk that aired Tuesday night. “And they said ‘oh Trump’ and I had nothing to do with that.”

“These people have run the country. They spent money like nobody has ever spent. They were they were given $9 trillion to throw out the window. 9 trillion,” he added.

“The greatest scam in the history of the country. One of them. We have a lot of them, I guess. But one of them. Dollar-wise, probably,” he said, likely referring to Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law in 2022.

Inflation in the U.S. sped up more than expected last month. Prices of gasoline, homes — including rent — and groceries also ticked up. The consumer price index increased by 3 percent last month compared to a year ago, according to the Labor Department, an increase from 2.9 percent in December.