Surging Inflation Triggers Bipolar Warlord Trump

“Iran is all talk and no action,” the president wrote in a social media post. “The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!”

That bellicose rhetoric was a complete reversal from the day before, when Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the downing of the helicopter wasn’t a big deal and, in another post, sounding almost apologetic about having to retaliate.

“There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured,” he wrote. “Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

What changed?

Well, the Labor Department announced that inflation was up sharply in May. Its Consumer Price Index reached 4.2 percent last month, which is the highest level in more than three years. In May alone, prices shot up by 0.5 percent, and much of the increase can be traced back directly to Trump’s decision to attack Iran.

And while the president proclaimed in the White House that he “love[s] the inflation,” the American people feel quite differently about surging costs that outstrip their wage gains over the past year.

While administration officials try to dismiss the historically low consumer confidence numbers as politically motivated, it’s hardly surprising that people don’t feel great about an economy in which prices increase faster than their wages, forcing them to cut corners, rack up credit card debt, dip into their savings, or skip meals.

Perhaps that is why Trump took a harder line on Iran on Wednesday than a mere 24 hours earlier.

Then again, maybe not.

From the start of the war, the president has been all over the place with his statements.

For every time that he has threatened Iran with annihilation and various war crimes, he has teased a quick and amicable end to the conflict… often on the same day (although, generally, the latter statements appeared to be timed to assuage oil traders and stock brokers).

On Wednesday, for example, following the unfavorable inflation report, Trump said that the US had secretly shepherded oil tankers and freighters through the Strait of Hormuz for a while now. He added that, in total, 100 million barrels of oil, or about five days’ worth of the pre-war volume, had made its way through the waterway.

That would be a start to ease the energy crisis that Trump triggered three months ago. However, we don’t even know whether anything he says is true.

After all, most of the statements the president has made on the war and the state of negotiations turned out to be either false or inflated boasts.

Ironically, this volatility is at least partially to blame for the lack of progress in peace talks because it is impossible to reach an agreement with someone who changes his opinions by the hour.