This Thanksgiving, the great American feast—that sacred ritual of gratitude and gluttony—has been hijacked, held for ransom by an economic policy forged in arrogance and defended with delusion.
The numbers are in, and the verdict is written across the strained faces of Americans staring down empty grocery store shelves and fatter price tags.
The centerpiece of our national table, the turkey, now carries a 40 percent markup, a brutal tribute exacted by bird flu and a trade war that treats the family budget as collateral damage.
But do not be fooled into believing this is merely the work of a virus. This is a man-made disaster.
The proof is in the canned vegetables, whose prices have been inflated by steel and aluminum tariffs.
It is in the beef, up nearly fifteen percent, and the coffee, which saw a nineteen percent surge before a panicked White House, facing the wrath of voters in New Jersey and Virginia, began a frantic, piecemeal retreat from its own dogma.
The President who swore that foreign nations paid his tariffs now scrambles to roll them back, a silent admission of what every economist and every shopper already knew: these taxes are a knife to the throat of the American consumer.
Since March 2025, USDA has bailed out U.S. farmers and ranchers with more than $16 billion in supplemental disaster assistance, necessitated by tariff-related losses and climate-related natural disasters.
While the administration touted a roaring stock market, the true story of this economy is told in the quiet desperation of households cutting back, of paychecks that cannot cover the rising cost of living, of a President who looks a hungry nation in the eye and insists the feast has never been more affordable.
The inflation rate stubbornly sits above the Federal Reserve’s target, a fire that these tariffs poured gasoline on. Now, the very architect of this calamity is on the defensive, offering rebates and rollbacks like an arsonist offering a glass of water after torching the town.
This holiday, the message from the highest office in the land is a profound and galling contradiction: be thankful, but pay up. Be grateful, even as the basic ingredients of your celebration are priced as luxuries.
The great Thanksgiving table, a symbol of national unity and abundance, has become yet another front in our political wars, and the bill for this folly is coming due, right on time for the holidays.