"Speaking with Sean Hannity of Fox News on Thursday, Trump chortled that because far less oil was coming out of the Middle East, "people are finding other places to buy oil, like Texas." Trump added, "So I don't want to say we're making a fortune, you understand that? Because if I say that, they're going to say 'oh, he forgets about the little man with the $4 gasoline.'""
"We know this thanks to Trump's endless dedication to saying the quiet part loud. Left to his own druthers, Trump would be exulting in the hundreds of billions of dollars produced by skyrocketing oil prices if it weren't for the pesky fact that it comes at the expense of ordinary Americans, who are now paying roughly 40 percent more every time they fill up the gas tank than they were before Trump started bombing Iran nearly three months ago."
"Their response to the harm caused by Trump's policies is not to reverse those policies, or even to appear sympathetic about their effects. It's to express their total indifference to the suffering of the American people. At the same time, Trump is obsessively focused on his real priorities: enriching himself and his family, and creating gaudy monuments to himself such as a new White House ballroom and a Triumphal Arch that will squat in the middle of Washington, DC."
"In response to a reporter's query as to who the arch would celebrate, Trump pointed to himself and said "me." Trump twice won the White House on a message of economic populism, promising in his 2025 inauguration that he would "bring prices down.""
Gasoline prices rise sharply as oil supply from the Middle East is reduced by a war launched in the region. Americans pay about 40% more at the gas pump than before the bombing began. Trump reacts by emphasizing that people buy oil elsewhere, including Texas, and avoids saying the country is making a fortune because critics would point to the suffering of ordinary people. The response to economic harm is described as indifference rather than policy reversal or sympathy. Trump is portrayed as prioritizing enriching himself and his family and building prominent monuments, including a White House ballroom and a Triumphal Arch in Washington, DC, with the arch intended to celebrate him.
Read at The Nation
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