Pump, Baby, Pump
Amazingly, Trump now says he loves inflation. Does that mean Iran war will go on, and on…?
On June 11, Trump tweeted, “The United States has VERY LOW INFLATION, a beautiful thing!” But that was 2019, when X was still Twitter. Now, exactly seven years later, he has a different take: “I love the inflation.” In Buenos Aires, 8,400km south of Washington, DC, his pal Javier Milei might be scratching his head. He’s got Argentina’s annual inflation down to 32%, from 200% before his election, with punishing austerity. What’s he to do, reverse course? Trump’s own voters must be digging for his poll warranty. They’re pretty sure he wrote, “INFLATION IS A DISASTER!”, on Sept 26, 2024, and “With your vote in this election, I WILL END INFLATION,” a month later. In fact, he was an inflation hawk even 15 years ago. There’s his tweet from Sept 30, 2011: “The Fed’s reckless policies of low interest and flooding the market with dollars needs (sic) to be stopped or we will face record inflation.”
Why has he gone rogue? That’s easy: Trump never sings mea culpa. Howsoever he messes up – tariffs, Hormuz – the result is genius. So, if petrol prices in US have risen from $2.9 to $4.1 per gallon in three months, and inflation has touched 4.2%, against Fed’s target of 2%, it’s okay. Didn’t he say last month, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody…” That’s how his 4-5 week “excursion” in Iran has stretched to 15 weeks already, with no end in sight. He’s right, oil prices and inflation will fall after the war is over, but who knows when that might be. If inflation and voters’ pain can’t check Trump anymore, what will? We’ve all got to live with a sinking feeling meanwhile – rising prices, slowing growth. And keep pumping, to stay afloat.
https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1138418208803831808
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
