#inflation
5 entries with this tag
Trump Told Voters to "Pretend, Please, That I'm on the Ballot," Demanding the Midterms Be a Referendum on Him and Staging a $45 Million Convention in His Own Honor — Even as the Vulnerable Republican Candidates Who Have to Actually Win Quietly Scrub His Name From Their Websites, One Swapping "Trump Conservative" for "Proven Conservative," Because Association With Him Has Become the Thing to Hide
Heading into the 2026 midterms, Trump has made himself the center of everything: more than 200 endorsements, near-total control of Republican strategy, an unprecedented $45 million convention built around him, and a direct message to voters — "Pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot." He wants the election to be a referendum on himself. The problem is that his own party's most vulnerable candidates are betting the opposite way. With his approval ratings dismal, his Iran war unpopular, and inflation and record gas prices weighing on voters, a growing number of Republicans in competitive races have quietly begun putting distance between themselves and the president — tweaking websites, softening language, and in some cases openly breaking with him. A Texas congressional candidate who once branded himself a "TRUMP CONSERVATIVE" now calls himself a "PROVEN CONSERVATIVE"; from California to Kentucky to Alaska, campaigns have trimmed the Trump references; in Michigan, a Republican congressman is campaigning on his vote against Trump's Iran war. The majority of GOP candidates still embrace him, and the party dismisses the trend as a "manufactured storyline." But the tell is unmistakable: a president insisting the midterms be about him, while the people who need to win are deciding that the safest thing to do with his name is take it down. He is demanding a referendum on himself that his own candidates are quietly trying to lose the connection to.
The War Trump Promised Wouldn't Hurt Americans at the Pump Has Pushed Gas to Roughly $4.10 a Gallon — Up From $2.98 in February, Likely the Most Expensive August on Record — as His Own Strait of Hormuz Standoff Chokes Off the World's Oil Chokepoint, With Ship Traffic Collapsing From Around 130 Vessels a Day to Nearly Zero and His Officials' Promise That the Price Spike Would "Subside" Now Six Months Old
When Trump launched his war on Iran in February 2026 and the resulting standoff shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil passes — his administration assured Americans the price spike would be brief and would soon subside. Six months later it has done the opposite. By late August 2026, the national average for regular gasoline had climbed to roughly $4.10 a gallon, up from $2.98 on February 28, and AAA indicated it was on track to be the most expensive August on record. The cause is not a mystery or a foreign plot: it is the direct consequence of Trump's own war and his refusal to end it. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally sees around 130 ships a day, had collapsed to a handful — five vessels one recent Saturday, none registered the following Sunday — while Brent crude pushed near $89 a barrel. Trump's response has been to escalate the rhetoric that keeps the strait closed, threatening to "bomb the shit out of" Oman, the country mediating a reopening. Every dollar added to a gallon of gas is a tax on every American who drives to work, and it traces back to a war launched on a threat the intelligence never found and kept going long after his own generals concluded it could not be won. The president who ran on lowering prices has delivered, through a war of choice, the highest summer gas prices in the country's history.
Rebuffed by the Supreme Court in June, Trump Revived His Unprecedented Campaign to Fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook — Reusing the Same Cherry-Picked Mortgage-Paperwork Allegations to Try to Remove, "For Cause," the First Governor Any President Has Ever Sought to Purge in the Fed's 111-Year History, in a Naked Bid to Bend Interest Rates to His Will; Cook Called the Charges Baseless and Turned Them Back on Trump's Own Cabinet
For the first time in the Federal Reserve's 111-year history, a president is trying to fire a sitting governor — and having failed once, Trump is trying again. In 2025 he purported to remove Governor Lisa Cook "for cause," citing a criminal referral from his own housing-finance director, Bill Pulte, that accused her of listing two homes — one in Michigan, one in Georgia — as her primary residence on mortgage paperwork. Cook sued; lower courts blocked the removal; and in late June 2026 the Supreme Court let her keep her seat while the case proceeds (even as it expanded Trump's removal power over other independent agencies). In August 2026, Trump revived the effort with the same allegations. Cook's lawyers answered in a five-page letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and the White House calling the charges "unfounded and untrue," arguing that "an inadvertent error is not fraud," accusing Pulte of "cherry-picking" mortgage documents to manufacture a referral, and pointedly turning the same kind of paperwork scrutiny back on Trump and members of his own Cabinet. Strip away the mortgage pretext and the real target is the Fed's independence: Trump wants lower interest rates, a governor who will vote for them, and the power to remove any governor who won't. Firing Cook would hand the president direct leverage over the central bank that sets the price of money for the entire economy — the precise outcome a century of law was built to prevent.
"I Don't Think About Americans' Financial Situation. I Don't Think About Anybody."
Asked whether Americans' finances motivate him to make an Iran deal, Trump said: "Not even a little bit. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody." He said this as inflation hit a 3-year high of 3.8%, gas reached $4.52/gallon, the war topped $29 billion, and his own party was scrambling to suspend the gas tax before the midterms.
Year-End Address: Claimed He "Brought Down Prices" — Inflation Was Unchanged at 3%
In a national address, Trump claimed "inflation has stopped" and he brought prices down. Fact-checkers rated it false: inflation was 3% — the same rate as when he took office. He also exaggerated grocery savings, gas prices, and immigration numbers.