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How much money is America willing to waste on Trump’s delusions?

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by Chris Truax, opinion contributor - 05/08/26 8:00 AM ET

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by Chris Truax, opinion contributor - 05/08/26 8:00 AM ET

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WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES – APRIL 6: The United States President Donald Trump holds a Press Conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 6, 2026, in Washington DC, United States. (Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

President Trump has broken yet another of his campaign promises. Not only is inflation not going down, but he has instituted what works out to be the second largest peacetime tax increase since the Great Depression.

Because of Trump’s war with Iran, gasoline prices are now 50 percent higher year over year. And the U.S. consumes more than 375 million gallons of gas each day, so that works out to an extra $189 billion a year that is coming directly out of our pockets compared to a year ago.

That doesn’t include the increase in the cost of diesel and jet fuel — Spirit Airlines went bankrupt because of the increase in fuel prices. It doesn’t includes the increase in costs of petroleum-based raw materials. Even condom prices are set to skyrocket.

Put all that together, and this is costing us more than 0.7 percent of GDP, which would make it the largest tax increase since the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. And that doesn’t even count the direct cost of the war. Trump is asking Congress for up to $200 billion more to pay for it.

Of course, the Trump tax isn’t really a tax, because the government doesn’t get all this money. But it is still coming directly out of our pockets because of Trump’s decisions. So it might as well be a tax.

Whether he is trying to punish James Comey and Jimmy Kimmel or fighting unnecessary wars of choice, these days, Trump has the entire federal government mobilized around protecting his delicate ego.

From the very beginning of the Iran fiasco, Trump has been beating his chest about “unconditional surrender,” insisting, “I have all the cards.” Unfortunately for Trump, the Iranians are not as easily intimidated as congressional Republicans. Rather than surrender, they have wrested control of the Strait of Hormuz — and of the narrative.

And while Trump’s attempts to impose a naval blockade on Iran have been technically effective, he’s trapped the U.S. in a stand-off it can’t win. Efforts to end the stalemate by using the American Navy to open the strait to traffic have been a disaster. The Iranians, predictably, attacked, and Trump abandoned the effort after less than 48 hours.

Iran summed up the U.S. position like this on X. The Iranian regime may be full of murderous bastards, but you can’t fault their social media rizz.

There is a workable deal out there that will end the war and start to phase out the Trump tax. But Trump’s ego won’t let him take it, because it would be a humiliating climbdown from his demand for “unconditional surrender.” No matter the cost, he would rather keep the war going than admit failure.

And that’s just one of the issues prolonging the conflict. Trump also appears incapable of comprehending the geopolitical situation he is supposed to be managing. He doesn’t seem to be able to process even moderately complex explanations. For example, Trump instituted the naval blockade because he believed that Iran’s infrastructure would physically explode if it were unable to export oil. Yes, he actually said this, and it is nonsense.

The man charged with making all the important decisions on the Iran war is making decisions based on a delusion. This should be the biggest constitutional crisis in American history. And yet Congress cannot even muster the votes to pass a war powers resolution rebuking Trump for starting an open-ended war without seeking congressional consent.

The most likely ending will be a fudge where Iran agrees to put a temporary hold on efforts to build a nuclear weapon it no longer really needs. Trump will largely lift the sanctions and look the other way while Iran continues to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz. Perhaps Iran will agree to abide by something like the Constantinople Convention, and the tolls it collects will be dressed up as something that appears to comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, if you don’t look too closely.

The agreement will probably entail several more rounds of negotiation so that Trump can pretend that the final deal where Iran gives in to all his demands will always be coming together in “the next two weeks.”

Perhaps Iran could help the process along by agreeing to renam