Was inflation really worse under Biden than under Trump? We checked the viral “average inflation” graphic against Bureau of Labor Statistics data through September 2026, and it holds up: 1.9% under Trump’s first term, 5.0% under Biden, and 2.9% under Trump’s second term. The bigger story is the price level. Prices rose 21.4% from January 2021 to January 2025, which is 59.6% of the entire increase since January 2017. Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, and those higher prices never came back down. This report covers the month-by-month data with and without gasoline, what drove the 2021–2022 surge, the 2026 Iran-war energy shock, and what prices would be today if the Biden-era increase had not happened.