Iran War: Trump has now sealed his own fate

People hate war. Trump’s MAGA base particularly hates war, especially in far off countries, as in their view it amounts to wasting money on other people.

They also hate inflation. Inflation ruins businesses, crushes industries and forces up unemployment. It also loses you elections. Inflation is so poisonous that, since the 1970s, generations of US politicians have been terrified of it.

Inflation rips the guts out of the electorate. They work and work and then see their money buy less and less. Trump’s Iran War now guarantees that US inflation will go up. It was already looking pretty entrenched at just over 2%. Now it’s going to rise even further and even faster.

The reason is oil. Iran is right in the heart of the vast oil-producing Gulf region and one of the first things that’s happened is that Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices are beginning to spike alarmingly.

If oil gets more expensive, gasoline gets more expensive. That means every item driven to every store in the US on the back of a truck will become more expensive, as rising fuel costs make it more expensive to transport. That higher fuel cost is passed straight onto the consumer.

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Trump came to power promising to make America great again. But his Iran War risks making America unaffordable.

And, it should be remembered, he has the mid-term elections coming in November. If he loses control of Congress then the Democrats will set up a wave of congressional enquiries into his activities. It will all be over for him and his family. The period of naked self-enrichment will be at an end.

It might be tempting to welcome the prospect of Trump being hoist by his own petard. But with Trump, there is always a new outrage – he always stoops lower than his critics can ever imagine.

This Iran escapade has now set him on course for catastrophe. The closer it gets, the more desperate Trump will become – and the more dangerous. And that should concern us all.