Recommendations of the Editorial team
Pete Hegseth and several of his most senior Pentagon officers appeared before Congress on Tuesday to answer questions about the $1.5 trillion in taxpayer money they are claiming for next year’s budget – a staggering sum that would represent a 42 percent increase over this year’s level. The request comes as the United States is mired in a deeply unpopular conflict with Iran that has driven up fuel prices and catapulted inflation to a three-year high. Jay Hurst, the military’s chief financial officer, told lawmakers the government had already spent nearly $30 billion on the war – whose goals remain unclear after more than two months of chaos.
Americans blame Donald Trump for the self-inflicted cost of living crisis: A CNN poll published on Tuesday shows that 70 percent of respondents reject his economic policies. The president doesn’t seem to understand or care about the economic shock the population is currently experiencing – he keeps insisting that everything is fine, punctuated by long-winded monologues about the magnificent ballroom he is building on the White House grounds.
Before Trump left for China on Tuesday, he was asked to what extent the financial crisis was driving him to seek a deal with Iran. “Not even close,” the president said. “The only thing that matters when I talk about Iran is that they can’t get a nuclear weapon.”
Trump’s indifference to citizens
“I don’t think about the financial situation of Americans,” he added.
Trump has always insisted that the war was necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran has amassed 11 tons of enriched uranium in the eight years since Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the so-called Iran nuclear deal. But there is no evidence that the country was close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, as Trump claims. Regardless, reports suggest that Iran’s nuclear program has been relatively unaffected by the joint US-Israeli offensive.
The situation is completely different when it comes to fuel and living costs in the USA – although Trump and his government apparently have little objection to rising prices for his prestige projects in Washington. The president bristled Tuesday morning at reports of the skyrocketing costs of renovating the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial, then bristled hours later when a reporter pointed out that the price of the ballroom had doubled. “I made it twice as big, you stupid,” he said of the ballroom. “You really aren’t a smart person.”
Trump also snapped at a reporter who questioned whether his policies were even working given high inflation. “My politics work incredibly well,” he said, adding that everything was fine before the war. “We had a choice. Let these lunatics have a nuclear weapon – anyone who wants that is an idiot. And you are one, I know that very well. Anyone who wants them to get a nuclear weapon is simply an idiot.”
