(The Hill) — President Donald Trump is seeking to distance himself from a rise in inflation, arguing that the uptick had “nothing to do” with his return to the Oval Office.

Trump instead placed the blame on former President Joe Biden in an interview Tuesday, decrying what he characterized as reckless spending during the previous administration.

“Inflation is back. No, think of it. Inflation’s back,” the president told Fox News’s Sean Hannity during an interview alongside tech billionaire Elon Musk that aired Tuesday night. “And they said ‘Oh, Trump’ and I had nothing to do with that.”

“These people have run the country. They spent money like nobody has ever spent. They were, they were given $9 trillion to throw out the window. 9 trillion,” he added.

Trump pointed to bills turned law during Biden’s four years in office, noting that the government spent money on the “green new scam, I call it.” 

“The greatest scam in the history of the country. One of them. We have a lot of them, I guess. But one of them. Dollar-wise, probably,” he said, likely referring to Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law in 2022. 

Inflation in the U.S. sped up more than expected last month. Prices of gasoline, homes including rent and groceries also ticked up. The consumer price index increased by 3 percent last month compared to a year ago, according to the Labor Department, an increase from 2.9 percent in December.

Experts have warned since before the president was sworn into office that his economic goals, including lowering taxes and issuing more tariffs on foreign imports among other proposals, could cause a rise in inflation.

Trump, throughout the interview Tuesday, praised his billionaire ally, giving Musk credit for implementing some of his sweeping executive orders. He also acknowledged that it has been an uphill battle, as legal fights have sparked over some of his most controversial actions.

“You write a beautiful executive [order] and you sign it, you assume it’s going to be done, but it’s not,” Trump said,

The commander-in-chief added that Musk, who helms six major companies, should be able to discover $1 trillion in cuts to the federal government’s spending.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by the Tesla CEO though the president suggested recently that he’s not technically part of the advisory group announced on Tuesday that it found $55 billion in savings in January alone.

“As good as they are, they’re not going to find some contract that was crooked, you know crooked as hell,” Trump told Hannity. “And I mean this going to be so much that isn’t found. But, what is that I think he’s going to find $1 trillion.”

“Yeah, I think so,” Musk affirmed.