Trump is Hurting the United States

The United States is led by a cognitively impaired narcissist who is not nearly capable of doing the job that he was elected to do. Making things worse is that this man is surrounded by shameless enablers, many of whom are simply sociopaths and love nothing more than harming others. Add to this is the sheer incompetence of the cartoon villains who have been selected to lead the government, and it is a wonder that things are not far worse than they are. But it seems that as much as cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump and his band of loonies would like to deny it, reality is starting to catch up with them.

First, the bad economic news that came out this morning. The Department of Labor's monthly jobs report showed that the U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February. Expectations were that 50,000 jobs would be added, so that is a significant miss. Unemployment ticked up from 4.3% to 4.4%. As the Wall Street Journal reported, "The labor market slowed markedly last year, with the U.S. adding the fewest jobs outside of a recession since 2003." Trump and his MAGA cult followers managed to convince Americans that the price of eggs under former President Joe Biden signaled a collapsing economy. In reality, Biden delivered an economy that was the envy of the world. As Steve Benen of MS Now writes, "Job growth over 14 months of Trump’s second term: 150,000 jobs. The previous 14 months: 1.74 million jobs." Under Biden, there were no months of job losses. In Trump's second term, there have been job losses in five of the last nine months.

Moreover, everything that Trump has been doing is going to make things even worse. The U.S.-Israel war against Iran has resulted in the Strait of Hormuz being closed. Normally, 20% of the world's oil traverses the strait. With that oil cut off, prices are skyrocketing. As MarketWatch reports, "Oil futures were trading at their highest levels since the summer of 2024 on Friday as the Iran conflict entered a seventh day, with no sign of it ending anytime soon." The publication says that West Texas Intermediate oil has gained 28% and Brent Crude has gained 22% this week. "Those are the strongest weekly gains since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022." Moreover, the article says:

Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi warned in the Financial Times that the Middle East conflict could force Persian Gulf countries to halt energy shipments within a matter of weeks. He said that could drive oil to $150 a barrel and bring down the economies of the world.

To put oil prices in perspective, on December 18, 2025, WTI was selling at $55.69 a barrel. Today it is selling at more than $88 a barrel. These price increases are already being reflected at the pump, but there will be more to come. One person who is not worried about increased gas prices is Trump. Yesterday, Trump told Reuters that he was not concerned about rising U.S. gas prices and "if they rise, they rise". Today, when CNN's Dana Bash asked him about gas prices, Trump said "That's alright. It'll be short term. It'll go way down very quickly." When she noted that gas prices are pretty high right now, he replied “No, they're not."

One reason that Trump may not care about rising gas prices is that he has established his own slush fund from selling Venezuelan oil. Trump has forced Venezuela to turn over millions of barrels of oil to him. The oil is then sold on the spot market and the proceeds deposited in a Qatari bank account. That account is completely outside the control of Congress. Trump does what he pleases with the money. Trump's war against Iran is generating nice increases in returns for his private account.

Another thing that Trump does not appear to care about is Americans getting killed. In an interview with Time magazine, Trump was asked whether Americans should be worried about retaliatory attacks at home. Trump's response was "I guess". He then went on to say, "But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die." Trump's cavalier attitude came on the day that he fired the head of the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is led by Kash Patel, who just fired the counterterrorist experts focused on Iran. No wonder Trump thinks some Americans will die.

On the subject of people dying, I wrote Wednesday about the bombing of a girls' school in Minab, Iran. This resulted in the deaths of over 180 people, most of them elementary-school-aged girls. I noted that there was increasing evidence that the U.S. had conducted this attack. Considerably more evidence came out yesterday. Military officials told Reuters that it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for the strike on the school. Meanwhile, the New York Times reviewed satellite imagery, social media posts, and verified videos and concluded that U.S. forces carried out the attack. An expert quoted by the Times hypothesized that the most likely explanation for the attack was "target misidentification". The school had once been part of a nearby naval base, but had been separate for at least 10 years. Therefore, it is possible that the U.S. was relying on out-of-date intelligence. There are also concerns that the school may have been chosen as a target by the artificial intelligence systems that the military is now using.

While the deaths of scores of young girls may have been an accident, another atrocity was not. The IRIS Dena, an Iranian Navy frigate, participated in India's MILAN 2026, an international naval exercise hosted by the Indian Navy. The theme this year was "Camaraderie, Cooperation, Collaboration." The United States also participated, sending naval aircraft. Per the rules of the event, the IRIS Dena was unarmed. As the ship left India and neared Sri Lanka, it was torpedoed by an American nuclear submarine. As the ship sank, the U.S. submarine abandoned survivors. 87 members of the crew are known to have been killed, 32 were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy, and 61 are missing. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth thrives on killing unarmed and unsuspecting seamen and took considerable pleasure in this mass murder. Both the attack and the abandonment of the survivors were likely war crimes. Americans naturally tend to have tremendous respect for the country's armed services. But it is a simple fact that our forces operate these days at the level of the militaries of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

With a collapsing economy and a war that is spiraling out of control, one might think that Trump would have his hands full and would be engaged full-time managing those crises. Sadly, this is not the case. Obviously, Trump still remains obsessed with building a ballroom at the White House, but he is also already planning his next war. Yesterday, during an event with the Major League Soccer champion Inter Miami team, Trump turned to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and said, "Your next one's is going to be — we want to do that special — Cuba. He's waiting. But he says, 'Let's get this one finished first.' We could do them all at the same time. But bad things happen. If you watch countries over the years, you do them all too fast, bad things happen." Then today, Trump told CNN's Dana Bash without being asked that "Cuba is going to fall pretty soon." As I noted yesterday, Trump is already bored with Iran and ready to move on.

Trump provided further evidence this morning that he is delusional and has no understanding of what he has unleashed in the Gulf. Posting on his Truth Social social media network, Trump wrote:

There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. “MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).” Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

This kind of rhetoric is simply crazy. Trump is famous for TACOing (Trump always chickens out) and, therefore, could change direction at any time. But the only way to get anywhere near achieving these goals would be to totally occupy Iran, something that would likely require years and millions of soldiers. Meanwhile, the U.S. is spending an estimated billion dollars a day on the current operation.

Trump has cut government spending on healthcare, raised the cost of living, failed to tackle inflation, and now has launched an expensive war that is spiraling out of control. The war itself is increasing costs, especially for energy. Job losses are up, employment is down, and both are getting worse. On top of all of that, Trump wants to implement 15% global tariffs soon. As we have seen, tariffs are paid for by American consumers. Trump also has to refund the money collected as a result of his previous tariffs that were found to be unlawful. The Pentagon will soon ask Congress for an additional appropriation to help pay for the war. This is expected to be about $50 billion. All of that money will have to be borrowed. With the U.S. looking increasingly like a risky investment, taxpayers can expect to pay a premium to borrow those funds. Trump is leading us down the road to destruction.