Donald Trump finally told the truth! In one of his rambling “lectures” – you know, the kind where he starts out focused on the topic and ends up terming Joe Biden as the “worst president in the history of the United States” and repeating his contention that other countries have emptied their prisons and asylums to send the worst people to “invade” our country – Trump bragged that “No other president would have done it.” “It” was his decree that imposed exorbitant tariffs on every other country in the world and created a global upheaval of the economic order. He’s right: no other president would have done it; no other president would be crazy enough or callous enough to send markets crashing to subterranean depths. 

Finally recognizing the damage being done at his behest, Trump blinked and announced a 90-day pause in most tariffs, except for China. For that trading partner, he increased the tariff from 104 percent to 124 percent, and finally to 144 percent…for a couple of days. Last weekend, he blinked again and exempted certain electronic equipment, such as cell phones, laptops and certain chips, from the increased tariffs. Apparently one or more of his billionaire buddies appealed to his sense of what? Money? Fair play? Common sense? Tit for tat? Whatever moved him, Trump used his “oh never mind” card, at least for now. If Trump’s Department of Justice was interested in investigating potential insider trading or market manipulation by Trump and his cronies, what would they find? In this Administration, we may never know, but it would be a tantalizing query.

As Trump rewards his billionaire brethren, what’s happening to the other 99 percent of Americans? Crude oil prices are down, but gasoline at many Northern Virginia stations is up by 30 cents a gallon or more. On New Year’s Eve, before Biden left office, I paid $2.659 a gallon at a local Shell station; exactly three months later, on March 31, Trump is president, and the same station is charging $3.19. Egg prices have reduced a bit, but still are three to four times higher than they were last year. That’s almost 50 cents per egg; not long ago, an egg cost about 15 cents. No wonder some restaurants are putting a surcharge on each egg they serve. A box of store brand facial tissues that formerly cost 99 cents now goes for $1.79, a 55 percent increase. Unknown, right now, is how much tariffs will cost the average American family. Estimates are as high as $5000 a year, a cost that a Trump official said really wasn’t that bad, estimating the cost at “only” $16 a week. That can be a lot of money for those whose household budget has to stretch from weekly paycheck to weekly paycheck. 

It’s may be hard to stomach, but Trump was right about one thing. No other American president would have given a billionaire crony carte blanche to take a chain saw to the federal work force, firing thousands of public servants despite their protected civil service status. No other president would leave veterans and Social Security recipients bereft of benefits they spent their careers earning. No other president would advocate declaring thousands of immigrants dead when they are not. No other president would intimidate private companies and law firms, making “deals” for millions of dollars of free legal services for his pet causes. No other president would tolerate incompetence in his Cabinet appointees. And no other president would have deserted our allies and destroyed our global reputation on a whim. Donald Trump’s “America First” rapidly is becoming “America Alone.”