By Sarah Nassauer and Patrick Thomas

Walmart is cutting prices on thousands of items to help customers with affordability after years of inflation.

The largest U.S. grocer said Monday it is lowering the price of ground beef by 12%. The price of cherries is being halved. A 24-pack of Coca-Cola is falling by one-third to $9.97. The company also said it is cutting prices on household products, toys, apparel and other products.

The effort drew praise from President Trump, who hailed it in a social-media post as "a huge deal."

"Walmart is stepping up in a big and bold way, and other Retailers should follow the lead of these absolute Patriots," Trump wrote on Truth Social minutes before the retailer issued a news release announcing the cuts.

Walmart has long emphasized lower prices as part of its marketing, but in recent months, affordability has become a hot-button issue in American politics. Behind the scenes, Walmart has emphasized to federal officials that policies that help the retailer control costs and keep consumers spending, such as lower tariffs and gasoline prices, will help improve affordability for American shoppers because of Walmart's scale, said a person familiar with the situation.

Walmart's actions follow a number of attempts by the Trump administration to rein in record-high beef prices, which have become the poster child of food inflation in the U.S. over the past year. Ground-beef prices were up 12% in May from a year earlier, according to the Labor Department.

Last week, the Trump administration also pledged as much as $500 million to small and midsize meatpacking companies to keep their cattle-slaughter processing volumes at a certain level. Processing cattle is unprofitable for meatpackers currently because of high livestock prices.

In recent months, Trump has also directed some of his top advisers, such as Peter Navarro and Stephen Miller, to find ways to lower prices. The Justice Department launched a probe into the four largest U.S. meatpackers after Trump requested one in a social-media post.

In May, the Trump administration delayed plans to address high beef prices by suspending tariffs on imported beef. The delay followed outcry from some congressional Republicans and cattle ranchers after The Wall Street Journal reported Trump's plans.

Write to Sarah Nassauer at Sarah.Nassauer@wsj.com and Patrick Thomas at patrick.thomas@wsj.com