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Americans Are Paying the Price for the Myth of Trump’s Competence

Oil prices are soaring - oil has hit $110 per barrel and is rising - the stock markets around the world are falling, American consumer prices are rising as is inflation, and new job creation is abysmal.  On top of this, America is blowing through close to a $1 billion per day in Iran and munitions supplies are falling. All of this disaster is thanks to the Felon and his circle of incompetent sycophants who make up his cabinet - Pete Hegseth at the Department of Defense/War is frightening - and the bootlickers in the Republican Party.  One has to wonder if some in the MAGA base are belatedly beginning to realize that the cost of "owning the libs" and pushing white supremacy and privilege is perhaps far higher than they anticipated. As icing on the cake, report are that Russia is aiding Iran in targeting American troops and assets, something the Felon is ignoring.  Perhaps gas at or over $5.00/gallon may soon have some of the big pickup driving MAGA bubbas screaming and questioning whether killing Muslims has been worth the cost, but I will not be holding my breath..  A piece at The New Republic looks at the myth of the Felon's competence.  Here are excerpts:

At some point, early Wednesday morning, the cost of the Iran War will top $10 billion. The Center for Strategic and International Studies released a paper last week pegging the cost of this latest misadventure at $891 million a day. I’ve seen higher estimates, but CSIS is a respected nonpartisan outfit, so let’s go with their number for now. The report states that the vast majority of this money had not been previously budgeted, especially the spending on munitions. One Patriot interceptor missile costs close to $4 million, and we’re apparently burning through them. And “War” Secretary Pete Hegseth promises that we’re just getting revved up.

Donald Trump may have told British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the weekend that the war was “already won.” But also over the weekend, a pre-war intelligence report was leaked to two Washington Post reporters showing that the National Intelligence Council, a panel of independent intel experts, seems to think that dislodging the regime could take a very long time indeed—at $37 million an hour, a rate that is almost sure to rise, especially if ground troops get involved.

Meanwhile, gas prices went up about 60 cents a gallon in the war’s first week. The Dow fell 453 points Friday. (It’s well below 50,000 now, so I guess that means, per Pam Bondi, that we’re now allowed to take the Jeffrey Epstein scandal seriously.) Also on Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February. In the year-and-change since Trump returned to office, the economy has added around 140,000 jobs. In a year. The St. Louis Fed estimated last spring that simply to keep pace with the growth in the number of people who age into the labor force, the economy needs to add around 150,000 jobs a month. In other words, everywhere you look, the news isn’t merely bad. It’s terrible.

We’ve seen numerous examples in these last 13 months of Trump’s mendacity and malevolence. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans will never see him that way. There are those who adore him unconditionally, but beyond these dead-enders, there are others who know he’s not a good person but aren’t all that bothered by it.

That’s hard for millions of us to accept. But I hope to God that these people are finally starting to move themselves toward the conclusion that, even if they aren’t that troubled by the mendacity and malevolence, the man is just wildly incompetent. A mountain range of mythmaking has gone into creating the Trump persona over the years; by him, by a pliant business press in his real-estate days, and, since he entered politics, by a right-wing media that would make the old Soviet press agencies blush and a party of cowardly sycophants, most of whom know very well that he shouldn’t be in charge of a high-volume McDonald’s let alone the executive branch of the federal government but would rather let the country collapse than say so. . . . . And I was staggered during the 2024 campaign at all the voters who believed him when he said he’d bring down prices on day one.

Really. Who is that—okay, I’ll supply my own word—stupid? Presidents can’t control prices. Prices—of eggs, beef, oil, refrigerators, computers, you name it—depend on dozens of factors. Xi Jinping, who runs a command economy in a country where most electronics happen to be made, probably has far more control over the prices of refrigerators and computers than any president ever will. The price of beef has more to do with decisions made in Brazil than in Texas—and certainly at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We all learn this in school. So how did so many millions of Americans unlearn it?

Trump is going around now talking as if he has the power to appoint Iran’s next leader, as if it’s no more complicated than naming the next GOP chairman of Mississippi. As if there won’t be factions within the Iranian populace that will fight the elevation of anyone with the taint of a Trump association to the death.  Again, who can possibly believe his nonsense?

His poll numbers are bad. But they’re not nearly as bad as they ought to be. The man is, whatever his other faults, just way in over his head. Maybe Democrats should say that more often. The fact that he’s costing taxpayers a billion dollars a day on a war most of them didn’t want may be a good place to start.

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The Economy’s Warning Light Is Flashing Yellow

MAGA voters and others who voted for the Felon have claimed they voted for the Felon due to concerns about the economy - rather than admit it was the normalization of racism and/or promises that right wing "Christians" would be able to trample on the rights of others that truly attracted them - should be waking up to the reality that the Felon has taken a relative good economy and is running it into a ditch.  Between the Felon's insane tariffs which have increased prices and caused businesses to cut spend due to the new economic uncertainty , cuts to the federal work force and slashing spending put in place by the Biden administration, almost all of the economic indicators are headed in the wrong direction. Now, the Felon's war of choice against Iran is poised to potentially trigger an oil crisis akin to what hit the nation in 1973.  While the Felon continues to claim that the issue of affordability is a "hoax" and that with a war underway "some people die," anyone truly concerned about the economy and the economic struggles of average Americans ought to realize that the Felon has been a disaster for the economy save perhaps those running private concentration camps and manufacturing munitions.  A piece at The Atlantic looks at the darkening economic cloud:

The job market is weakening, inflation is still too high, and we’re at serious risk of a once-in-50-years oil shock. This is almost the exact set of conditions that triggered the stagflation of the 1970s, which at the time was America’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. At the moment, the economy is still far from that kind of doomsday scenario, but the direction of travel is disquieting. The economy’s warning lights might not yet be flashing red, but they are certainly flashing yellow.

The jobs report released this morning showed that the U.S. labor market lost 92,000 jobs in February, causing the unemployment rate to rise to 4.4 percent. The numbers for the previous two months, which had suggested decent job growth, were also revised downward: January now showed fewer job gains than initially estimated and December showed overall job losses. These new numbers continue the trend of last month’s revisions, which showed that the economy had added just 181,000 jobs in all of 2025, a tenth of the jobs that had been added the year prior. Taken together, the numbers suggest that 2025 appears to have had the most months with negative job growth since 2010—the midst of the Great Recession—and that 2026 is off to a similarly slow start. . . . . the native-born unemployment rate has risen by half a percentage point since Trump took office.

The labor market is not the only sign of trouble. A report released by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis on February 20 showed that economic growth slowed dramatically in the final months of last year, from 4.4 percent in the third quarter down to just 1.4 percent, bringing total yearly growth to its lowest level since the pandemic decimated the economy in 2020.

The worst job numbers since the Great Recession, the slowest economic growth since COVID, and the worst inflation in nearly two years—these are not the signs of a healthy economy. And we haven’t even talked about oil yet.

As I wrote this morning, the U.S.-Iran war carries a very high risk of triggering an energy crisis if it lasts for more than a few weeks—the kind of crisis that experts believe could cause the price of oil to double or triple from its current level. That risk jumped almost immediately after my article was published, when Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the war would not end without Iran’s “unconditional surrender.” The price of crude oil promptly shot up to about $90 a barrel and may go higher still. Meanwhile, Qatar’s energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, has begun warning that oil prices could rise as high as $150 a barrel within weeks and that the situation could “could bring down the economies of the world.” As recently as yesterday, the oil markets were responding relatively calmly to the outbreak of war. Now panic might be setting in.

All of this looks eerily similar to the 1970s. At the beginning of the decade, the economy was already struggling. . . . . Then came the 1973 Arab oil embargo, and everything fell apart. Oil prices nearly quadrupled from late 1973 to early 1974. Because so much of the economy is dependent on energy, that caused the price of everything else to go up too. Inflation reached double digits. Meanwhile, consumers pulled back from spending, which, in turn, forced businesses to start laying off workers, setting off a vicious cycle. Economic growth plummeted, unemployment spiked, and the economy fell into recession.

The current situation is not yet 1973 all over again, and it doesn’t have to be. The biggest difference between the situation then and the one we face now is that this time the pain is mostly self-inflicted. When Trump came into office, inflation was falling, job creation was strong, and the economy was projected to grow quickly. Only after the imposition of his global tariffs did things take a turn for the worse, and only after his decision to wage war on Iran did the world face the prospect of a full-blown energy crisis.

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What Does Russia Have on Trump?

As the Iran war continues - a war of choice on the part of the Felon - oil prices soar, American citizens remain firmly against the war, and fears of a wider conflict grow, there are now reports that Russia is providing intelligence to Iran to aid in targeting American bases, facilities and war ships. What does the Felon do? He eases sanctions against Russia to allow increased Russian oil exports which, of course will aid Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine.  The AP reports as follows:

Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region, according to two officials familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that the U.S. intelligence has not uncovered that Russia is directing Iran on what to do with the information as the U.S. and Israel continue their bombardment and Iran fires retaliatory salvos at American assets and allies in the Persian Gulf.

[The Felon] Trump on Friday evening berated a reporter for raising the matter when he opened the floor to questions from the media at the end of a White House meeting . . . . White House officials downplayed the reports, but did not deny that Russia was sharing intelligence with Iran about U.S. targets in the region.

Like many, I have long suspected that Russia - and likely Israel as well - has blackmail information on the Felon.  This "kompromat" may have been gained by Russia itself when the Felon visited Russia in the past with salacious rumors about what Russia might have on video that the Felon does not want released.  The other possibility, of course is that Russia and Israel either received from Jeffrey Epstein or hacked damaging information, photos and or video with which they can now use to blackmail the Felon.  Much of what the Felon's regime has done has weakened - perhaps deliberately - America's standing in the world both through illegal tariffs and the alienation of allies of many decades.  Overall, the tariffs have trigger and decline in manufacturing jobs, job creation has been flat for the last six months, and now oil and gas prices are soaring and consumer prices continue to rise. None of this has "made America great again."  In a piece at Substack, Adam Kinzinger asks again the question of what Russia has on the Felon:

For years I’ve tried to avoid the easy question that floats around American politics. It’s the one people ask quietly in private conversations and loudly on cable news panels: what exactly does Russia have on Donald Trump? I’ve generally resisted going there because speculation is cheap and politics already has enough of it. Accusations without proof often become just another partisan talking point. But there comes a moment when a pattern becomes so obvious that refusing to even ask the question starts to feel dishonest. Today feels like one of those moments.

According to reporting from U.S. officials, Russia has been providing Iran with intelligence about the location of American military assets in the Middle East. That reportedly includes the positions of American ships and aircraft operating in the region. If that reporting is accurate, it means a hostile nuclear power is helping another hostile regime track American forces in the middle of an already volatile conflict. That is not some abstract geopolitical game. Those positions represent real Americans wearing the uniform. They represent the sons and daughters of families across the country who volunteered to serve and who depend on their government to protect them as they do their jobs.

What makes this moment even harder to understand is what happened at the same time. The same day these reports surfaced, the administration moved to ease restrictions that had been limiting Russian oil sales on global markets. The explanation was that it would stabilize energy supplies and help calm international markets. Maybe that calculation has an economic logic behind it, but it sends a strategic signal that is impossible to ignore. Russia is reportedly assisting a regime that has spent decades arming proxies against American troops, and the United States responds by making it easier for Russia to earn billions in oil revenue.

That contradiction is staggering. In any normal national security environment, a report that Russia was helping Iran identify American military targets would trigger a fierce bipartisan response. Congress would demand answers. Sanctions would tighten, not loosen. Intelligence agencies would be pushed to confirm what is happening and policymakers would act accordingly. Instead, the message Moscow hears is something entirely different. Russia can escalate its hostility toward the United States and still receive economic relief from Washington.

It forces a question that many Americans have been asking for years, sometimes out of frustration and sometimes out of genuine confusion. Why does Donald Trump consistently treat Vladimir Putin with a level of deference that he rarely shows to democratic allies? Over the past decade we have watched Russia interfere in American elections, wage cyber warfare against Western institutions, and invade Ukraine in a brutal war aimed at wiping a democratic country off the map. Each of those actions alone should have triggered sustained pressure from the United States. Instead, we repeatedly see hesitation and accommodation.

Now we may be looking at something even more alarming. If Russia is helping Iran track American military assets, that means Moscow is actively assisting a regime that has American blood on its hands. Iranian-backed militias have been responsible for the deaths of U.S. service members throughout the Middle East for years. When I flew missions in Iraq, everyone in uniform understood that Iranian support to militias was one of the reasons American troops faced constant danger. The idea that Russia would now help Iran in ways that could endanger American forces again should be a red line for any administration.

At the very same moment this is happening, Ukraine is offering something remarkable. After years of defending itself against Iranian-made Shahed drones used by Russia to terrorize Ukrainian cities, Ukraine has developed some of the most effective counter-drone tactics in the world. Ukrainian officials have offered to share those capabilities with the United States and our allies so we can better defend against the same technology. Think about the contrast in that moment. Ukraine, a country fighting for its survival against Russian aggression, is offering help to protect American forces. Russia, the aggressor in that war, is reportedly helping Iran gather intelligence that could put those same forces at risk.

Yet the policy signal coming out of Washington appears to reward Russia economically rather than punish it strategically. That leaves Americans wondering whether our leadership understands the basic alignment of friends and adversaries anymore. For decades the United States built alliances that made the democratic world stronger. We worked with partners who shared our interests and pushed back against regimes that threatened global stability. The current approach often seems to blur that line.

This is why the uncomfortable question keeps resurfacing. What does Russia have on Donald Trump? It is not a question people ask lightly, and it is not one that should be thrown around casually. But when the United States repeatedly responds to Russian aggression with restraint or accommodation, it becomes harder to ignore the pattern.

There is also a deeper issue at stake. The world watches how the United States responds to challenges. When adversaries see hesitation in the face of direct hostility, they interpret it as weakness. When allies see Washington reward the very powers that threaten them, they begin to question whether American leadership is still reliable. Strategic credibility is not something you can rebuild overnight once it erodes.

At some point the United States has to draw a line and make it clear that helping our enemies target American forces is unacceptable. Russia cannot simultaneously act against U.S. interests and expect economic concessions from the same government it is undermining. If these reports about Russian assistance to Iran are true, the response should be immediate and decisive. American troops deserve nothing less.

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