Poll after poll suggests Americans are worried about inflation and it’s perfectly understandable why. Consumers have weathered a major price hike — including an 8.3% inflation rate in 2022 — that even the current 12-month inflation rate of 2.4% (which is well below the 3.3% yearly average of the last century) can’t ameliorate. Yet the reasons behind the higher prices are sometimes lost on average Americans. They include supply chain disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, labor shortages and commodity prices rising on a global scale. In simple terms, higher prices are evidence of a supply and demand problem. The answer? Usually to increase supply.

Yet one of the curious patterns of the presidential election this year is that the candidate who is not currently in office — former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee — is the one promoting more inflationary policies. Bad enough that he’s calling for the deportation of immigrants (including many with temporary legal status, such as Haitians living in Ohio) which would drain the labor recruitment pool and thus raise labor costs at a time of low unemployment rates, but he’s been handing out costly sops like making interest on car loans tax deductible like mortgage interest. And that follows Trump’s plans to end taxes on tipped income and Social Security payments, as well as imposing tariffs on imported goods.

Isn’t this the sort of thing conservative Republicans usually accuse Democrats of doing to “buy” votes? Leading economists see Trump’s economic proposals as significantly more inflationary than those offered by Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Trump must recognize this. The experts haven’t been shy about this assessment. But the former reality TV star is regaling voters with promises of riches that will likely never show up (or possibly cause the inflation rate to skyrocket again), according to economists.

Trump is often vilified by fact-checkers for lying, and his business career is closely associated with dubious schemes like Trump University or how, as a developer, he overvalued assets to commit fraud. Note the related $489 million civil fraud verdict the candidate continues to fight in court or how he’s declared bankruptcy multiple times to avoid paying creditors. Americans who are understandably concerned about the economy ought to be seriously skeptical about what’s being promised to them.