Has the cost to serve Thanksgiving dinner "under Trump" dropped 25% since 2024 "under Biden"? A post from the White House says that, but the post compares the 2025 Thanksgiving dinner promo from Walmart to the one offered in 2024. The two promos do have different prices, but they also do not include the same menu items.
The official White House account made a post (archived here) on Facebook on Nov. 6, 2025. The post was captioned:
THE TRUMP EFFECT!
This is the image included in the post:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from facebook.com/share/p/17Zjp5Vyiw.)
The image contains a screenshot from a Nov. 6, 2025 Truth Social post (archived here) by Trump @realDonaldTrump which says:
2025 Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is 25% lower than 2024 Thanksgiving dinner under Biden, according to Walmart. My cost are lower than the Democrats on everything, especially oil and gas! So the Democrats "affordability" issue is DEAD! STOP LYING!!!
On Nov. 3, 2022 Walmart's executive vice president John Laney introduced a promotion (archived here). He wrote:
The last few years brought new challenges to families planning their holiday meals, and this year is no different, from rising costs to concerns on supply for Thanksgiving favorites. Despite that, we know our customers still want to celebrate the season and make memories with their loved ones, so we've been working hard to ensure they can do just that.
On Oct. 12, 2025 Walmart again rolled out its 2025 Thanksgiving meal promotion (archived here). The cost per serving is advertised at "less than $4 per person" to serve ten people. The 2024 Thanksgiving meal promotion (archived here) was advertised "less than $7 per person" to serve eight. This is not evidence of a change in the cost of groceries in the USA, under Trump vs under Biden -- there is a different assortment of items in the basket and the two meals have been calculated to serve different numbers of people.
The 25% price reduction cited by Trump may have originated from the FAQs about the Walmart 2025 Thanksgiving Meal (pictured below):
- The curated meal will differ each year based on customer insights and preferences.
- Each year, the basket always includes a complete meal, from turkey, potatoes, stuffing and vegetables to sides and dessert. But items may differ from year to year. For example, in 2024 the meal had ingredients to make stuffing from scratch. This year it's a twin pack of Stove Top Stuffing.
- Walmart's 2024 meal basket was about $55. The 2025 curated meal basket costs $40 ($39.93), which is about 25% less than last year.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from corporate.walmart.com/news/2025/10/21/walmarts-annual-thanksgiving-meal-returns-serving-10-people-for-less-than-4-00-per-person.)
Because the items in the 2024 and 2025 baskets do not appear in the same order in the Walmart website, for ease of comparison Lead Stories has sorted the items in a chart (pictured below). In 2025, the ingredients for a green bean casserole to serve ten has an additional can of beans, but fewer fried onions, and half the cream of mushroom soup than was included in 2024. Another notable difference is that in 2024 there was a pre-made frozen pecan pie, whipped topping, and ingredients to make two pumpkin pies, all for eight people. In 2025 there are only provisions for two pumpkin pies to be split between ten people.
The Thanksgiving basket of this Walmart promotion functions like the checkout of an online store -- the customer is free to add or subtract items of their choosing and the total will adjust. The 2025 "Thanksgiving for under $4 per person" menu for ten can be viewed here.
(Image source: Lead Stories chart displaying Walmart data.)
