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food crisis
Trump's Epic Stupidity Could Kill Millions of People
The point here is that it is entirely possible, perhaps likely, that millions of people will die because of a totally foreseeable consequence of Donald Trump’s war that he claims he never even considered
Apr 27, 2026
Trump is both an incredibly ignorant person and incredibly dishonest person. As a result, when he claims ignorance of an obvious fact it is difficult to tell whether he really is as ignorant as he claims or he’s just lying.
Such is the case with Trump’s claim that he didn’t know Iran might attack its neighbors and close the Strait of Hormuz in response to his joint attack with Israel. Trump insisted that none of the experts thought this possible when in effect just about every expert thought it was both possible and likely.
Given Trump’s ignorance and propensity to lie, it is not easy to know whether Trump actually went to war totally unaware of the most likely consequences, or instead went to war anyhow, deciding that he didn’t care about the damage it would cause. Whatever the real story, the consequences are enormous and sure to get worse as the Strait remains closed longer.
The most immediate and obvious consequence is the higher price for oil and natural gas. People in the United States see this at the gas station every time they fill their tank. Paying a dollar or so more for a gallon of gas is an annoyance for everyone. It is very bad news for low- and moderate-income households, especially those who need a car for work.
But this is just the beginning of the story. Diesel prices are up by close to $2.00 a gallon. Diesel fuel prices have risen by far more than regular gas because there is more limited refining capacity. This means when some refiners lose access to their supply of oil, their production cannot be easily replaced. Also, there is less ability for users to cut back their demand.
With gas, most people have some ability to cut back the number of trips they take, or to carpool or take public transportation. Most diesel fuel has commercial uses like trucking. There is not much ability to cut back unless fewer goods are transported.
The higher price for diesel fuel will be a big hit to independent truckers and trucking companies, who will end up with lower income as a result. And in most cases, they will look to pass on much of the higher fuel cost to their customers, who will eventually pass it on as higher prices to consumers.
There is a similar story with other commercial transportation. Many travelers are already seeing this in higher airplane prices and fewer flights.
But whatever the costs in the United States, they are far higher elsewhere. Jet fuel is in more limited supply in Europe, since they import a large share of what they use. East Asia is also being hard hit by higher gas and fuel prices, since countries like Japan and South Korea import most of their fossil fuels, and most of it comes from the Middle East.
But the worst story is in the developing world, especially Sub-Saharan Africa. Tens of millions of people in the countries of the region were already living at the edge. Higher prices for oil could mean many can no longer afford kerosene for cooking. And the cost of transporting food and other necessities could be too high for the countries to bear.
And fossil fuels are only part of the problem. Close to 30 percent of the world’s fertilizer supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz. As a result of the blockage, fertilizer prices have also soared since the start of the war. Already, 70 percent of farmers in the United States report cutting back fertilizer usage due to price increases. That number will increase if the closure persists and prices go still higher.
But as bad as the story is here, it is much worse in the developing world, where farmers will be much less capable of coping with higher fertilizer prices. Many may be forced to do without fertilizer altogether, causing crop yields to plummet. This could put millions of struggling farmers out of business.
And the result of lower crop yields in both developing countries and the United States will be higher food prices for the world. This will cause an increase in hunger and malnutrition for tens of millions of people.
The point here is that it is entirely possible, perhaps likely, that millions of people will die because of a totally foreseeable consequence of Donald Trump’s war that he claims he never even considered. I guess this is consistent with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s pursuit of “lethality.”
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Trump's Iran War Is an Affordability Disaster
You can’t say affordability is your top priority and then start a war in the Middle East.
Mar 08, 2026
We are one week into Trump's war on Iran. Gas prices are already up more than 11%. The Dow Jones has erased all of its 2026 gains.
These are the real, immediate costs of a new war of choice. Wars in the Middle East are expensive, and ordinary people pay the price.
The War Tax at the Pump — and Beyond
Twenty percent of the world's oil travels through the Strait of Hormuz. That path is now shut off. The results are predictable.
Every gallon of gas now carries a war tax. And this is only the beginning. War with Iran means the constant threat of strikes on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or the UAE. Secretary Hegseth has said the campaign could last anywhere from three to eight weeks—and that the U.S. can "sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to." As long as this conflict goes on, prices will stay up.
This war is illegal and most Americans are against it. The cost is already hitting them at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and in their retirement accounts.
And it doesn't stop at the pump. Oil prices affect the entire supply chain. Nearly everything Americans buy moves by truck at some point between the factory and the shelf. When fuel costs go up, shipping costs go up, and those costs get passed on to the consumer. Affordability was already the number one concern of voters going into 2026. People remember what it felt like when the grocery bill became something to dread. This war risks bringing that back.
The bottom line? You can’t say affordability is your top priority and then start a war in the Middle East.
Remember When They Wouldn't Shut Up About the Dow?
When the Dow crossed 50,000 in February, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had hit it "three years ahead of schedule" and predicted 100,000 before he left office. Attorney General Pam Bondi was lampooned for bringing up the Dow during a hearing that had nothing to do with the stock market. Now that argument is in peril.
By Thursday, the Dow had wiped out all of its 2026 gains, turning negative for the year after dropping nearly 800 points on March 5th alone. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are down too.
If the Dow at 50,000 was the administration's achievement, so is the Dow at 47,500. You don't get the credit without the blame.
"A Big Fat Mistake" — Donald Trump, on the Last Middle East War
The man who started this war spent years arguing against the cost of Middle East wars. That argument was central to his political rise.
At the 2016 Republican primary debate, Trump went after Jeb Bush directly: "Obviously the war in Iraq was a big fat mistake, alright? George Bush made a mistake... we should have never been in Iraq, we have destabilized the Middle East." He mocked Jeb for taking five days to decide whether Iraq was a mistake. The crowd booed. Trump didn't back down. That moment helped define his candidacy.
In his 2021 farewell address, Trump declared he was "especially proud to be the first president in decades who has started no new wars." On election night 2024, he told supporters: "I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars." His 2026 New Year's resolution, posted publicly, was "peace on earth."
Forty-eight hours after that resolution, he ordered a military raid on Venezuela. Two months later, he launched the war on Iran.
At a 2018 White House infrastructure event, he said: "We've spent $7 trillion in the Middle East. What a mistake... We're trying to build roads and bridges that are falling down, and we have a hard time getting the money. It's crazy." He was right. Money spent on bombs cannot also be spent on schools, hospitals, and bridges.
The roads that were falling down when Trump gave that speech are still falling down. And now we're adding another war to the tab—on top of tariffs already squeezing family budgets—with no clear goal and no plan for what comes next.
The People Know Better
A University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll found only 21% of Americans support U.S. strikes against Iran. Three-quarters said no before the first bomb dropped. They knew—from Iraq, from Afghanistan, from two decades of watching—what a war in the Middle East costs and how it ends. The gas prices and the stock market are just the receipts.
The work now is making sure that the majority speaks up.
This war is illegal and most Americans are against it. The cost is already hitting them at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and in their retirement accounts. If we have to pay at the pump, the politicians who started this war should pay at the ballot box.
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