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fossil fuels
'People Are Loving What's Happening,' Trump Claims While Massacring Iranian Children as US Oil Prices and Unemployment Spike
Speaking in a phone call Thursday, Trump was entirely on offense. He brushed off worries about the impact of the Iran war on gas prices and US ammunition reserves, and he insisted that the military onslaught was popular with voters. Many recent public polls show the opposite is true, although a survey released Thursday by Fox News found voters have mixed opinions on Iran...
"People are loving what's happening," Trump said. "We're taking out a threat to the United States of America, major threat... and doing it like nobody's ever seen before."
A roundup of recent polling collected and published Friday by Strength in Numbers data journalist G. Elliott Morris shows roughly half of Americans disapprove of the war on Iran, while only 38% approve.
Despite the polling, the GOP-controlled Congress has refused to rein in Trump's assault on Iran. Democratic US Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) and four Democrats in the House of Representatives—Congressmen Henry Cuellar (Texas), Jared Golden (Maine), Greg Landsman (Ohio), and Juan Vargas (Calif.)—voted with nearly all Republicans this week to block a pair of war powers resolutions.
In the interview with Politico, Trump described the Iranian military as "decimated," and said that "we'll work with the people and the regime to make sure that somebody gets there that can nicely build Iran but without nuclear weapons."
As of Thursday, the Iranian government put the death toll at 1,230 people, including around 175 killed in a reported "double-tap" strike on a girls' elementary school. Israel has denied responsibility and top US officials have only said they're looking into it. A New York Times analysis concluded that the United States was "most likely to have carried out the strike," which killed mostly children. According to Reuters, US investigators also believe that American forces were behind the bombing.
Separately, the Times reported that two boys' schools—one elementary and one middle—southwest of Tehran "appeared to have been damaged on Thursday during the bombing campaign being conducted by the United States and Israel," though unlike with the earlier attack in Minab, "there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries."
In addition to discussing Iran, Trump told Politico that "Cuba's going to fall, too," but "they want to make a deal." He also addressed Venezuela, whose president was recently abducted by US forces and replaced with a deputy who agreed to let Trump control the nationalized oil industry; his frustration with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who continues to combat a Russian invasion; and his recent spat with the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, which the president "fired" because of its refusal to let the Pentagon end the AI firm's policies against autonomous killer robots and mass surveillance of Americans.
With Trump focused on various conflicts abroad, Americans are contending with some of the consequences, including the impact on petroleum. Business Insider reported Friday that "the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline climbed to $3.32 on Friday, according to AAA—that's an 11.4% increase from last week's price and the highest level since August 2024."
Meanwhile, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed Friday that the US economy lost 92,000 jobs last month.
"Trump's reckless economic agenda has forced the labor market into the negative, threatening the livelihoods of American workers," responded Alex Jacquez, a former Obama administration official who's now chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative. "As the president piles on blanket tariffs and oil prices soar, today's report confirms he's sent the economy straight into a stagflation spiral."
The new jobs data came after the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a record number of US workers are raiding their retirement savings. The top reasons for the surge in 401(k) withdrawals were avoiding eviction or paying off medical expenses.
Americans are facing an even more dire healthcare situation this year, due to Medicaid cuts in Trump and congressional Republicans' so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act—which also gave the rich more tax breaks—as well as their refusal to extend expired Affordable Care Act subsidies that helped tens of millions of people pay for health insurance.
"We should all be concerned about the slowing economy we've seen in the second Trump administration," Angela Hanks, a former Department of Labor official who's now chief of policy programs at the Century Foundation, said Friday. "The economy lost thousands of jobs this month including in healthcare and social services, the main sectors previously propping up the labor market."
"Healthcare, childcare, and manufacturing—sectors Americans rely on—all lost jobs last month with no plan from the Trump administration on how to fix it," Hanks added. "Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress and President Trump are focused on spending $1 billion a day on a needless war with Iran that is already jacking up prices for Americans."
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