Fact Check the Fact Checkers: Trump's Walmart Thanksgiving Claims
I felt like writing today, and unfortunately I decided to write about politics. Why? I guess I'm stupid.
I saw a recent toot (love you, Mastodon!) of a screenshot of a Bluesky post of a screenshot of a tweet showing community notes on a screenshot of Donald's Truth Social post about Walmart Thanksgiving meal prices. Did you follow all that? Me neither.
Since Walmart was claiming similar numbers, I thought I'd take a deeper look at the claims of both Donald's post and the community notes to find the truth of the matter, because it's easy to pile on when someone you hate is wrong. Is this community note a "hahah, got'em!" moment?
A Disclaimer
I need you to know that I think Donald Trump is, IMO, one of the worst presidents in American history. This is not a post defending the man who mocks disabled people or fails at basic Christian morality, among dozens of other terrible things. This is a post begging our side to take a moment and do some actual research before posting reactions that makes us all look dumber than a Marjorie Taylor Greene tweet.
Screenshots Ad Infinitum
Here is my screenshot of everyone's screenshots.
For reference, the text of Donald Trump's original post is:
Walmart just announced that Prices for a Thanksgiving Dinner is now down 25% since under Sleepy/Crooked Joe Biden, in 2024. AFFORDABILITY is a Republican Stronghold. Hopefully, Republicans will use this irrefutable fact!
And the community note says:
Missing context. The 2025 Walmart Thanksgiving meal contains 15 items while the 2024 meal contained 21 items. Additionally, most of the brand name items in the 2024 meal were replaced with Great Value items.
Like I said in the intro, are people jumping on one of Jeffrey Epstein's friends just because they don't like people who hang out with pedophiles?
Or should we actually pause and think about what we're claiming. Let's take a look at the basic claim of "fewer items". Walmart Great Value items are italic red.
| 2024 List | 2025 Equivalent |
| Frozen Turkey (no brand listed) | Frozen Turkey (Butterball) |
| Hawaiian Rolls (GV) | Dinner Rolls (GV) |
| Canned Corn (GV) | Canned Corn (GV) |
| Cranberry Sauce (Ocean Spray) | FRESH Cranberries (no brand listed) |
| Fried Onions (French’s) | Fried Onions (Kinder’s) |
| Canned Green Beans (GV) | Canned Green Beans (GV) |
| 2 cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup (Campbell's) | 1 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup (Campbell's) |
| Gravy Mix (GV) | Gravy Mix (GV) |
| Pecan Pie (Marie Callender) | |
| Whipped Topping (GV) | |
| Pie Crusts (GV) | Pie Crusts (GV) |
| Canned Pumpkin (GV) | Canned Pumpkin (GV) |
| Evaporated Milk (GV) | Evaporated Milk (GV) |
| Corn Muffix Mix (Jiffy) | |
| Poultry Seasoning (GV) | |
| Chicken Broth (Swanson) | |
| Russet Potatoes (no brand listed) | Russet Potatoes (no brand listed) |
| Mini Marshmallows (Jet-Puffed) | |
| Sweet Potatoes (no brand listed) | |
| Yellow Onions (no brand listed) | |
| Celery Stalk (no brand listed) | |
| Turkey Stuffing (Stove Top) | |
| Baby Carrots (GV) | |
| Macaroni & Cheese (GV) | |
| # of items: 25 | # of items: 15 |
| # of Great Value items: 9 | # of Great Value items: 9 |
| Price as of 11/7/25: $52.27 | Price as of 11/7/25: $39.89 |
Ingredients vs Dishes
While it's true that the 2025 list has fewer items, what does that actually change about the meal? Because quantity doesn't tell the whole story: those are ingredients. I could take 21 ingredients and make one dish, or I could make two, five, etc. Instead of comparing ingredients, let's look at the actual number of dishes you can make out of each meal.
| 2024 Dishes | 2025 Dishes |
| Turkey | Turkey |
| Rolls | Rolls |
| Corn | Corn |
| Green bean casserole | Green bean casserole |
| Stuffing (homemade) | Stuffing (Stove Top mix) |
| Gravy | Gravy |
| Cranberry Sauce (canned) | Cranberry Sauce (homemade) |
| Mashed Potatoes | Mashed Potatoes |
| Sweat Potato Casserole | Glazed Carrots |
| Corn Muffins | Mac & Cheese |
| Pumpkin Pie | Pumpkin Pie |
| Pecan Pie | |
| # of Dishes: 12 | # of Dishes: 11 |
The Differences
- You get two desserts in 2024: pumpkin and pecan pie. 2025 only gets you pumpkin pie. Also no whipped topping, which is the only good part of pumpkin pie :(
- 2024 has corn muffins, 2025 does not.
- 2025 added mac and cheese, which isn't really a Thanksgiving dish but it is super cheap.
- 2024 has sweet potato casserole, 2025 has glazed carrots. There's no doubt a bag of baby carrots is cheaper than buying sweat potatoes plus marshmallows.
- The 2024 list gives you poultry seasoning, which is nice considering you're making a turkey. It's only $2 at my local Walmart so I don't know why they excluded it this year.
- The cream of mushroom soup is two cans in 2024, but only one in 2025. The traditional recipe only calls for one can.
- The price is lower for the 2025 list.
Both lists ignore staples that you are assumed to have like flour, sugar, brown sugar, etc.
Who Was Right About What?
A broken clock is right twice a day. Donald Trump was correct that Walmart's Thanksgiving meal is cheaper this year. Does that make him right about other things like who should have the right to free speech, or which brown people should get beaten? No! Does us saying he's wrong when he's arguably right make us look bad? Yes! Why didn't the community note link to this chart showing overall food prices going up? I don't know!
So the problems with the Twitter community notes are:
- The quantity of ingredients doesn't tell the whole story, it's the number of dishes you can make that matter.
- It's just plain wrong about calling out the number of Great Value items.
- It doesn't actually call out the larger problem of food getting more expensive.
Conclusion
The community note was wrong in any way that actually matters. And everyone was wrong to immediately jump on this as a "hahah got'em" moment. Congratulations, you made us all look stupid so now the MAGA crowd can point and say "look at these idiots, they're getting their panties twisted because they didn't get pecan pie!" If you bring this Walmart thing up to your racist uncle at Thanksgiving, he's going to be right and you're going to be wrong. I need you to be right.
When you go to war, you want the most accurate guns and the most reliable ammo. When words are your weapons, they need to be researched and correct. If you can't take the time to aim, don't shoot.
Sources
Here are some PDFs of the web pages I got my info from.
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