By James J. Devine
The bombs that fell on Iran last Friday did more than shatter concrete and flesh—they detonated the fragile illusion of stability in an American economy already teetering on the edge of collapse.
Tyrant Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed “deal-maker in chief,” has once again plunged the world into chaos, and this time, the bill is coming due at the gas pump, the grocery store, and the kitchen tables of working families who can no longer afford to breathe, let alone eat.
The numbers don’t lie.
Oil surged 7% in a single day, the sharpest spike since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and gold—that ancient refuge of the terrified—shot upward as traders scrambled to escape the coming storm.
The dollar, already weakened by Trump’s trade wars, wobbled like a drunk on a tightrope.
None of this is an accident. It is the direct result of a president who treats global conflict like a reality TV ratings stunt, who boasts of “controlling Iranian airspace” one moment and demands unconditional surrender the next, all while middle-class Americans brace for the next financial gut punch.
Let’s be clear: this is not about Israel or Iran. This is about Trump’s reckless disregard for the consequences of his actions.
The same man who slapped tariffs on everything from steel to sneakers, sending consumer prices into the stratosphere, has now lit the fuse on a regional war that could send inflation roaring back like a wildfire.
Energy analysts whisper the quiet part out loud: if Iran’s oil exports are choked off by war or sanctions, the global surplus vanishes overnight.
Gas prices, which had finally begun to retreat after years of agony, will rocket back up, dragging the cost of groceries, shipping, and every damn thing else with them.
And speaking of shipping—remember the Red Sea crisis, when Trump’s air strikes on Houthi rebels sent cargo costs spiraling?
That was just the warm-up act.
The Baltic Dry Index, that unsexy but brutally honest measure of global trade health, is already at an eight-month high.
Now, with the Middle East ablaze, companies are scrambling to move goods before the supply chains snap like twigs.
Retail egg prices fell at the beginning of the year but are still up 41.5% in the past year. Bird flu and tariffs remain threats — but the war is going to make them worse.
The result? Higher prices, fewer jobs, and another boot on the neck of small businesses already suffocating under Trump’s tariffs.
The Fed, that beleaguered temple of monetary policy, is expected to hold its benchmark rate steady with its usual air of grim resignation.
Interest rates, already frozen in place for months, may have to rise again to combat the inflationary tsunami Trump has unleashed.
Translation: mortgages get more expensive. Car loans get more expensive. Credit card debt—already crushing millions—becomes a death sentence.
And for what? So Trump can flex on social media about how tough he is while real people lose their homes?
Even the airlines, those corporate vultures usually eager to feast on crisis, are buckling. Travel demand is cratering as Americans hoard every spare dollar, terrified of what comes next.
The dollar’s collapse under Trump’s trade wars means a vacation in Europe now costs what a mortgage payment used to.
Who can afford to fly when gas prices are about to turn every commute into a second rent check?
But none of this matters in Mar-a-Lago’s gilded bubble, where the only numbers that count are the ones on a stock ticker or a campaign donor’s check.
Trump will boast. Trump will bluster. Establishment Democrats will complain and capitulate. Trump will claim victory as the markets convulse and the working class starves.
But when the bill comes due—when the shelves empty and the jobs vanish and the protests swell—he’ll blame the deep state, the liberals, the “globalists,” anyone but the man in the mirror.
The Middle East is burning. The economy is bleeding.
The American people are just collateral damage in Donald Trump’s endless, escalating war on reality itself.