So i've found a few people on here that had the same issue, but I have not been able to resolve mine.
I downloaded XAMPP and was able to use phpmyadmin without a problem at first. I then tried setting a password for the root user, and then started getting this error message. When I try and log in to MYSQL from the command line, I get the same error unless I login with mysql -u root
At first I thought the issue was a password, but I got rid of the original password and I still get the error. I've managed to get rid of all other mysql users, and when I run SHOW GRANTS, it shows that the root user has all privileges, so I'm unsure why I can't log in to MYSQL normally, or phpmyadmin.