Two of the lynchpins of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign were oft-repeated claims he would deal with the affordability issue and entangle us in no new wars. Not only has he proposed no policy intended to lower prices, he has done exactly the opposite. He has also, disastrously, reneged on his no new wars promise. Then there was his promise to take revenge on anyone he perceives as an enemy or even not being totally loyal to him. On that one he has been appallingly successful.
About affordability, when Trump took office, the CPI was 317.6, now it is 333.02. That means what cost $100 in 2024 now costs $106. Inflation has risen from 2.9 percent in 2024 to 3.8 percent now. Some analysists expect it to be about 5 percent by the end of the year. Inflation is mostly driven by Trump’s tariffs and Iran war of choice and their effects on fuel prices, therefore, the prices of many other things.
So, what’s Trump costing us? Estimates of the cost of the war to date vary from a low of $25 billion to $50 billion on the high side. Split the difference, call it $37 billion. Then there is the $1.5 trillion new spending for the Department of Defense, if approved by Congress. What are the odds it won’t be?
The war is by no means the only Trump initiative affecting our pocketbooks. His several vanity projects, the White House ballroom and the arch in particular, all paid for by tax payers, added to the cost of the war will, by my back-of-the-envelope calculations, total around $2.54 trillion, not counting his $1.77 billion slush fund. Putting that in perspective, that is about $7,400 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S., or some $24,000 for the average family. That more than claws back anyone’s tax cuts, except for the top ten percenters. The one tenth of one percenters got tax cuts of something like $250,000. Those folks won’t even notice the $24K!
The dollar value of the harm Trump has done is the least of it. His most egregious damage is to the fabric of society, eroding decency, the rule of law and the very foundation upon which our democracy is built, the Constitution. He and his media arms, Fox News and Truth Social, have created a chasm of distrust even enmity between us. He has eroded our sense of shared destiny and crushed trust in our institutions and sense that government, at the end of the day, tries to serve the common good. I don’t know if we can repair the damage after Trump. I hope and pray so.
Patrick Taylor lives in Ridgeland.
