The Roll Up: September 16, 2025 

TL;DR:  Food and other consumer prices were up 2.9 percent in August over the same time last year, the highest increase in any single month of the second Trump presidency. Posts about rising costs are commonplace across all social media platforms, including right-leaning Twitter/X. Here's what we know:

Any search of posts on Blue Sky, Reddit or YouTube using Rolli IQ turns up negative sentiments about the costs of everyday goods, gas and energy. Those sentiments are expected on platforms like Blue Sky which leans left. But turn Rolli IQ lose on Twitter/X and the results may be surprising.

Data from the Pew Research Center show Twitter/X users themselves view the platform as right-leaning. In a survey that asked users which ideology the platform supports more, 31% of users said the platform favors conservative views, while only 5% said it supports liberal views more.

With that sort of perceived imbalance in point of view on the platform, one would not expect to find such strong negative feelings about rising costs--but they appear on the platform in abundance. Even Twitter/X's own Grok AI had this tweet about the cause of rising costs:

It's important to note Grok's current version has been tested by the New York Times to compare ideological changes from older versions. Those tests show the current version pushes much further right on questions related to politics or the economy. So the response above is even more surprising given Grok's measured move to the right on such issues.

Critical posts coming from the right

Rolli IQ examined a number terms related to inflation. A term like "shrinkflation" yielded a small number of results, typically reposts of popular videos showing smaller-sized products replacing older, larger versions. 

What may be the most interesting factor involving these posts is the accounts posting them. While there are certainly liberal accounts on Twitter/X--even if in smaller numbers--the post above came from an account calling itself "Croxxed Out." The images and slogan on the user's masthead make it clear this is no liberal account.

While not huge in number, posts with a "Shrinkflation" mention were overwhelmingly negative. A Rolli IQ Emotion Map of the tag shows anger (orange lines) and disgust (pea green) as the two strongest emotions.

Other terms, same results

The term "food prices" was more commonplace, also carrying with it strong negative emotions. As with the earlier term, while some posts came from liberal accounts, many conservative posters let their views be known, too. 

As with the Croxxed Out example from above, this is no liberal account. Wall Street Apes proudly describes itself as followers of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Joe Rogan and other conservative figures. While the post about Las Vegas food prices did not single out Trump or conservative policies, it also did not apologize for them or attempt to shift the blame to liberal policies or even leaders in so-called liberal cities.

Rolli IQ found even stronger negative sentiments about food prices than shrinkflation, with nearly 80% negative posts in the last six weeks. Again, some of these are indeed from liberal accounts, but the conservative slant of Twitter/X should reduce the impact of those posts below what Rolli IQ would find if they were only coming from the left side of the political spectrum.

Negative sentiments bleed through varied posts

One last look, this time with the search term "rising prices" and though the sentiment summary and map look a bit different, Rolli IQ's assessment yields basically the same result. In this case, the analysis initially found more of what it considers irrelevant sentiments--usually caused by a post containing enough different topics to shift the main sentiment away from the keyword search. But negative sentiments remain far greater than any positive feelings regarding the term.

More interestingly, the Rolli IQ AI Analysis of all the posts including "rising prices" is able to clear out the irrelevant data to show the underlying sentiments found in what remains. This analysis is quite clear in pinning rising costs on policy decisions, even mentioning the Trump administration as an example. 

The bottom line is that the analysis using Rolli IQ to look at social media posts regarding rising consumer costs show a stronger than expected vein of negative sentiments among Twitter/X users regarding current prices and blaming the Trump administration for those rising costs.