Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Gas under $3, not so much

Some of us are not so Trump-addled that we don’t remember how Donald Trump promised his MAGA drones that he’d build a wall on the 2,000-mile southern border to keep out brown-skinned undesirables. It was an obsession. Mexico would pay for it, Trump promised again and again. It wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime. Instead, he diverted billions from the defense budget, declaring the need for the wall a national emergency and “in the national interest.” We know how that worked out. Mexico never paid a dime.

This season’s national emergency/obsession is his bunker/ballroom (or ballroom/bunker). After the aborted White House Correspondents’ Association dinner attack on Saturday, Trump immediately insisted that the security breach represented another national emergency. He insisted that construction on his vanity project move forward with all speed as a matter of national security. MAGA drones immediately swarmed, as another Republican president once put it, to “catapult the propaganda.”

Congressional Republicans joined the chorus, singing with “give me ballroom or give me death” fervor.

One Trump drone, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina, now wants Congress to allocate $400 million in taxpayers funds for the project.

Lindsey Graham says they are going introduce legislation that’s going to authorize 400 million dollars to be spent on building the ballroom: We pay for it by offsetting it with customs fees. The sooner we get the ballroom built, the better it is for the country. pic.twitter.com/aYS3Pi07gT

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 27, 2026

Wait. Trump’s ballroom project was not supposed to cost taxpayers a dime either. First, the estimate jumped from $200 million to $300 million to $400 million. Trump claimed to have raised over $300 million from corporations and tech billionaires, money allegedly donated to the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall. Trump told reporters in October that his ballroom would be “paid for 100% by me and some friends of mine.” Don’t you worry. “The government is paying absolutely nothing.” (Neither has Trump, records show.)

pic.twitter.com/aqfoEKjaSo

— mike luckovich (@mluckovichajc) April 28, 2026

The Trump Justice Department “filed a remarkable motion late Monday,” demanding in “Trump’s recognizable online voice” that The National Trust for Historic Preservation drop its lawsuit that resulted in a court injunction against construction. The National Trust declined in a letter to the Justice Department (The New York Times):

“What Saturday’s awful event does not change is that the Constitution and multiple federal statutes require Congress to authorize construction of a ballroom on White House grounds, and that Congress has not done so,” the letter said.

As for Graham, he copped to Trump’s obsession with the project:

The senator said Mr. Trump constantly brings up the ballroom to him “all the time,” even in unrelated conversations about golf or how he’s feeling.

“Like, ‘How you doing?’ ‘Where’s the ballroom?’ ‘How you playing?’ ‘I don’t know. I’d play better if you built the ballroom,’” Mr. Graham said of his conversations with the president. “It’s all the time.”

While the MAGA champion obsesses over his ballroom, he can’t extricate himself from the unsanctioned Iran war he started. He demands $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon in fiscal 2027, a 40 percent increase. The national price of gasoline is now $4.23/gallon, “stretching household budgets, with the greatest impact on lower-income consumers,” per a recent Bank of America report. Trump has no room in his addled brain for them. “Rising grocery prices in the U.S. as the result of the Iran war could be among the most politically damaging outcomes of the conflict just months before a critical U.S. election,” CNBC reported at the beginning of April. Trump’s ballroom is a national priority. Republicans’ constituents are not.

One more thing.

Not being a lawyer, I’m not qualified to sniff out all potential loopholes in the 14-page “Philanthropic Support Agreement” for the ballroom disclosed on April 22 and reported by Public Citizen. But like what happened to the $50,000 in cash White House border czar Tom Homan accepted in a bag from the FBI, I’d like to know what happens to the over $300 million Trump accepted from donors if taxpayers end up footing the tab for his gilded ballroom.

We’ve seen this movie before. As Loki said to Thor in The Avengers (2012), “Are you ever NOT going to fall for that?” The question now is: Will Americans fall for it again?

That’s the new passport that you will be stuck with for at least 10 years. He is putting his mug and signature over the Declaration of Independence and every time you open it in a foreign country they will be reminded of the fact that you are from the country that produced this grotesque figure.

No president has ever done this before. Just look at your current passport. It’s not supposed to have anything to do with who the president happens to be.

He’s building temples and arches, putting his face on money and documents and renaming everything in sight with his “brand.” Will the Democrats have the nerve to tear it all down no matter what it costs if they manage to eke out a win? Or will they just live with it by saying that the priority has to be the price of eggs? I fear it’s going to be the latter.

Standing ovation for this line from King Charles: The U.S. Supreme court historical society has calculated that Magna Carta is cited in at least 160 supreme court cases since 1789, not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and… pic.twitter.com/2zLlu6jdYy

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 28, 2026

I guess the Republicans couldn’t understand his accent or they would have been too embarrassed to stand for that comment. They are endorsing unlimited executive power to wreak revenge on their enemies every single day.

A case in point:

From the indictment: “On or about May 15, 2025, in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the defendant, JAMES BRIEN COMEY JR, did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States,

in that he… https://t.co/RtzI8ey8SG pic.twitter.com/ikeRwLcquI

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) April 28, 2026

Todd Blanche is really giving it his all to get that permanent job as Attorney General. I’m sure most Republican senators will be happy to oblige. It will be interesting to see if there are any others.

And any voters who don’t see THIS piece of shit indictment as nothing more that a grotesque abuse of power are lost causes. (Of course, the fact that they allowed Trump to get away with J6 and voted for him again should have been the final straw.)

That’s Gallup. More new polling from Reuters:

President Donald Trump’s approval ​rating sank to the lowest level of his current term, as Americans increasingly soured on his handling of the cost ‌of living and an unpopular war with Iran, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The four-day poll completed on Monday showed 34% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance in the White House, down from 36% in a prior Reuters/Ipsos survey, which was conducted from April 15 to 20.

Why so high? Well, when it comes to the economy it’s getting into unrecoverable territory:

His popularity has taken a beating ​since the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28 that has led to a surge in gasoline prices. Only 22% of poll respondents approved of Trump’s performance on the cost of living, down from 25% in the prior Reuters/Ipsos poll.

And guess what they’re talking about today?

Trump on the White House ballroom (February):

“We did this with no charge to the taxpayer whatsoever. This was all donations by friends of mine and people who love our country, love the White House.

Not one penny. And it's very expensive ballroom” https://t.co/YpnJjjs0XH pic.twitter.com/pUWPB5C5gb

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) April 28, 2026

These Republicans really have their fingers on the pulse of the American people.

If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer… And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.”– Hannah Arendt

We happened to have a conversation with a workman yesterday which meandered into a political conversation. This nice young guy, Mexican American, obviously wasn’t particularly political and didn’t have strong view. But he said something that I think may be at the heart of a lot of what’s going on with people who aren’t as politically engaged as we are: “I just don’t know what to believe. I don’t know who to believe.”

In the past past busy people who weren’t particularly interested in politics and current events just didn’t have access to the information beyond their own local paper so they tended to go with whatever the authority figures in their community would tell them. Today, the problem is that there’s too much information and they are presented with a cacophony of opinions and noise. This has happened at the same time as we’ve seen a breakdown in government, religion, academia and even parental authority. Some people, naturally, are then drawn to someone they see as a strongman to fill that void. But I think there are many who are exactly like that young guy I spoke with yesterday.

I thought about all this when I read the big piece in the NY Times today (gift link) interviewing regretful Trump voters. They’re in transition, trying to make sense of it all and they are all at least somewhat aware of what’s happening in our politics and seem to be opening up to the idea that Trump is a con man. But the bigger question is what to do about the people like the young man I spoke to yesterday and I have absolutely no idea what to do about it.

There was a time when Trump actually sued CBS for editing out an innocuous piece of a Kamala Harris interview.

Look what they edited out of Trump’s on Sunday. (This is from the transcript which they released to the public but the video is behind their paywall. Cute. )

NORAH O’DONNELL:  What did security tell you about what may have been his motives?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, see, they– the part– the reason you have people like that is you have people doing No Kings. I’m not a king. What I am– if I was a king I wouldn’t be dealing with you. No, I’m not a king. I– I get– I– I don’t laugh. I don’t– I– I see these No Kings, which are funded just like the Southern Law was– funded– you saw all that? Southern Law is financing the KKK and lots of other radical, terrible groups. And then they go out and they say, “Oh, we’ve gotta stop the KKK.” And yet they give, you know, hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars.

NORAH O’DONNELL:  They were –

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:  It’s a total scam run by the Democrats. It shows you that– like Charlottesville. Charlottesville was all funded by the Southern Law. That was a Southern Law deal too. And it was done to make me look bad, and it turned out to be a total fake. It basically was– a rigged election.

This was a part of the rigging of the election. And that’s what you really should be doing. I mean, I hope one of your 60 Minute episodes, which really hasn’t changed very much for the last few years. I’m surprised. 

Charlottesville was a hoax? Who knew? And it was part of rigging of the election. Hmmm. Charlottesville took place in 2017.

Trump’s always been a little bit scattered but if you think he would have said something that disjointed five or six years ago you need to go back and look. His mind is much more disordered and he gets worse when he’s stressed.

RESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:  Well, I’ve also– I’ve also won a lot of money from fake news media where they write falsely about me. And– not that I wanna sue people, ’cause I don’t. But I bring lawsuits against the fake news. I brought lawsuits against your network and you paid me $38 million because you did something that was so horrible with– Kamala.

You put an answer down that wasn’t responsive to the question because her answer– her real answer was so bad it was election-threatening. And– you paid me a lotta money. And you tried to pull one off. It was terrible. It was a terrible thing that you did.

They hid that Charlottesville drivel on his behalf. I guess he made his point.

Trump’s new overarching theory of everything is that any criticism or opposition to him is rigging the elections. How’s he going to carry that forward I wonder?

It looks like Donald Trump is taking on yet another side gig. In addition to his day jobs running the most powerful nation on earth, overseeing his family’s fortune and serving as general contractor for the rebuilding of the White House and Washington, D.C., he is taking on yet another full-time responsibility. The president plans to take over America’s worst airline, turn it around and sell it for a profit. If there’s a more perfect illustration of the Trump era, I don’t know what it would be.

Hemorrhaging cash and in bankruptcy court, Spirit Airlines is on the brink of liquidation. The nation’s largest budget airline has been struggling for years and has been forced to drastically downsize by selling planes and cutting routes. With the federal government reportedly close to stepping in with a $500 million bailout plan, Trump apparently wants to buy it outright and run it. 

The president does, after all, have experience with bankrupt airlines. Nearly 40 years ago, he ran one into the ground. Between 1989 and 1992, he owned the Trump Shuttle, which ran routes between New York, Boston and Washington. He bought the fleet from Eastern Airlines as it was going out of business and immediately rebranded it from business-oriented flights to a luxury airline, retrofitting it with gold-plated fixtures in the lavatories and offering free champagne and steak dinners.

Trump Shuttle never turned a profit. His timing was bad, having bought an airline at a time when corporate customers were cutting back. And, by 1990, with America on the verge of the first Gulf War, jet fuel prices were through the roof. At the same time, Trump’s casinos were in trouble and his bankers were taking over his businesses in order to avoid personal bankruptcy. The airline defaulted on its debt in less than a year. 

If you have a sense of deja vu, it’s understandable. Trump now wants another bite of that apple, this time on the American taxpayers’ dime. Much like his refurbishing of the White House and building the ballroom, which he and MAGA influencers are touting in the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, he is using the presidency to re-do his early failed career. Instead of investing in branded casinos, he and his family have joined the cryptocurrency craze and are raking in massive profits. As he said just the other day when quizzed about the soldier who was indicted for betting on the prediction market, “The whole world is a casino, it is what it is.” 

Spirit Airlines has been in trouble ever since the pandemic and has filed for bankruptcy twice, most recently in August. Most analysts consider the company unsalvageable at this point, and even the Trump administration’s bailout plan, which has been in the works for a while, appears to be a bipartisan nonstarter. As Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., pointed out, “If Spirit’s creditors or other potential investors don’t think they can run it profitably coming out of its second bankruptcy in under two years, I doubt the U.S. Government can either.”

Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., added, “Americans shouldn’t be on the hook for another failing business as its competition thrives.” Across the aisle, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wondered what the American people will get out of this, asking, “Will the failed airline executives be held accountable?” Even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sounded skeptical, telling Reuters, “What we don’t want to do is put good money after bad, and there’s been a lot of money thrown at Spirit, and they haven’t found their way into profitability. And so would we just forestall the inevitable and then own that?” 

Well, yes. That’s the story of Donald Trump. 

As the Bulwark’s Catherine Rampell noted, “this would not be the first time our president has replaced the invisible hand with his own grubby paws.” His “command-and-control, right-wing-socialism-style economic agenda” has already resulted in the government purchasing $21 billion worth of equity stakes in private companies including U.S. Steel, Intel and the mineral company M Materials. As Rampell pointed out, “if a President Bernie Sanders or AOC had attempted Trump-style market interventions (aggressive tariffs, attempted price controls, partial nationalization of private companies), Republican politicians would be screaming ‘Communism!’” 

But Trump is just doing what he said he was going to do, which is to run the government like he runs his businesses — badly. The head of the allegedly free market GOP has no ideological qualms with his new model of privatizing the state while socializing the private sector. 

It’s not that Trump is doing anything particularly unusual in bailing out a company, but such action is typically taken to protect an entire sector of the nation’s economy, or even the overall economy itself. (There is talk of using the Defense Protection Act for any takeover, but it would be tough to explain why Spirit Airlines is vital to national security.) The first bailout took place in 1792 when Alexander Hamilton saved the Bank of New York and the Bank of Maryland with funds from the U.S. Treasury. Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, the federal government stepped in repeatedly during banking panics to stabilize the system. 

But depending on your definition of “bailout,” things changed in the mid-20th century. The Great Depression saw more sophisticated economic theories that informed President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, and a new paradigm emerged about government intervention in other industries to prevent collapse of entire sectors and ameliorate the human suffering caused by economic volatility. It has since been a non-stop source of controversy. 

In 1971, Congress passed the Emergency Loan Guarantee Act, and its first recipient was defense contractor Lockheed, a move that sparked widespread protest that the company that had been more or less profiteering during the Vietnam War should be bailed out by taxpayers. Soon came the bail out of Chrysler, the entire savings and loan sector, and even New York City, with each drawing objections that were partisan or bipartisan depending on the objective. 

The last 25 years have seen historic bailouts. After 9/11, the government stepped in to bolster the airline industry, and in 2008 it propped up a variety of industries and businesses during the Great Recession. Since that was largely caused by malfeasance on the part of many of the very entities being bailed out, dissent was widespread — especially when responsible executives and business leaders not only escaped accountability but ended up being rewarded with massive golden parachutes. 

On the other hand, the biggest bailouts in American history came just over five years ago during the Covid-19 pandemic and spanned both Trump and Biden’s administrations, and they almost certainly saved the economy. In fact, Biden’s American Rescue Act engineered the so-called soft landing that prevented the nation from spiraling into a recession and made America’s recovery the envy of the world. 

Just over a year into his second term, Trump has pretty much reversed those gains. America’s economy is teetering due to his obsession with unnecessary tariffs and the war he started in Iran for no good reason. Now he wants to reprise his early business failures by buying an airline in the middle of an oil shock that he caused. It doesn’t get any more Trumpian than that.

As Rampell archly observed, if he’s going to create a national airline, the least Trump could do is find one that isn’t a national joke. Other countries have flagship luxury airlines like Emirates, or excellent brands like Scandinavian Airlines. The U.S. could soon have the “universally detested Temu Greyhound of the Skies.” 

Sadly, I’m afraid that’s the perfect metaphor for our time. Trump is running the country like a business all right — his own, which went bankrupt six times and ended up being nothing more than a celebrity brand propped by a reality television show. Welcome to America, Inc.

Salon

The existential threat to Trump is Trump

Somewhere in my dimming memory of high school, I recall a pep rally cheer that went:

Whomp ’em up! Side ‘o the head! I said, whomp ’em up side ‘o the head!

It comes to mind this morning in the context of predictions that those needing to brace for a womping are American drivers. Donald Trump’s periodic brags about ending the war he started Feb. 28 may sway oil markets momentarily. But a reckoning is on its way (Politico):

Supply of oil — especially in Europe and Asia — is dwindling and a price shock is coming, said Dan Pickering, chief investment officer at Pickering Energy Partners.

He said that when the summer driving season begins there will be another gas price shock that “hits people in the face.”

“There’s a day of reckoning coming,” he said. “It will be painful because I can tell you that the stock market’s ignoring this.”

The rubber will hit the road, in a manner of speaking, in just a few weeks.

Another spike in prices around Memorial Day could be a fatal blow to Republican chances for holding onto the House next year, as Americans’ confidence in the economy continues to drop.

Trump on Monday was reviewing Iran’s latest peace proposal, which arrived after he canceled his top negotiators’ planned trip to Pakistan for talks. He continues to maintain that a quick resolution to the war with an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is within reach.

Uh-huh.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz isn’t buying it. He told some secondary school students on Wednesday that “there is a sense that a whole nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, particularly by these so-called Revolutionary Guards.”

No one needs it spelled out which nation Merz means, but what the hell (The New Republic):

“It is quite obvious that the Americans have absolutely no coherent strategy whatsoever,” Merz said to students in his home district of Marsberg. “And the fundamental problem with these kinds of conflicts is always the same: It is not enough to simply get yourself in—you must also figure out how to get yourself out.”

Trump had trouble getting himself out of the Hyatt ballroom on Saturday, even with lots of help.

View this post on Instagram

Trump won’t be getting any help from Germany in exiting Iran:

“If I had known that this would go on for five or six weeks and keep getting worse, I would have made my point to him even more forcefully,” Merz said. Rising fuel prices as a result of the war are affecting economies all around the world, especially Germany, the leading economy in Europe, a point Merz stressed in his remarks. 

“This war against Iran has a direct impact on our economic performance and must therefore be brought to an end as soon as possible,” Merz said.

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has given it the upper hand in the conflict with the U.S., and the world is noticing that Trump hasn’t produced any results from negotiations in Pakistan. The longer this conflict drags on, the worse it reflects on the president.  

Trump’s disenchanted MAGA base will begin evaporating despite the intense gravity of his black-hole-like grip. All they need do is stay home in November.

Point to where the bad man hurt you

Beltway press members continue to relive their WHCD trauma from Saturday night. Over and over again. They obsess over details that don’t matter, a reader laments, while Trump’s Iran war grinds on virtually wiped from the front pages and with the Epstein files a memory. Outside the Beltway, ordinary Americans are processing grinding trauma of another kind.

Gallup’s annual Economy and Personal Finance survey this morning reports that Americans instead obsess over the cost of living. The survey finds that 55% cite recent price increases which make it harder to maintain their standard of living:

Less than half continue to rate their financial situation as “excellent” or “good” (currently 46%), and more than a third call it “only fair” (35%). Relatively few say their situation is “poor” (19%).

The recent dip in people’s confidence about their finances contrasts with 2016 through 2021, when half or more typically rated their finances positively. Today’s readings are more in line with 2008-2015, although not quite as negative as the ones during and immediately after the Great Recession from 2009 to 2011, when about four in 10 were positive.

These sorts of numbers make Republicans’ prospects for November look even bleaker.

Americans’ financial outlook in 2026 is also historically poor, with a record 55% now saying their financial situation is getting worse. While similar to last year’s 53%, this is up from 47% in 2024 and marks the fifth consecutive year more Americans say their finances are worsening rather than improving.

The only similar multiyear period when the larger share felt their financial situation was worsening was during the Great Recession.

We know how badly the 2010 midterms went for Democrats. Republicans are looking at the same. That is, assuming Democrats don’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

For anecdotal evidence that MAGA Joe (with anger management issues) is feeling acute economic pain, review Sign Guy’s recent close encounters with men driven ape-shit by cost reminders.

Axios adds:

Reality check: Inflation is still elevated from where it was the last time Trump was in office, but it’s certainly lower than at its peak in 2022.

The big picture: Still, the recent surge in gas prices has increased the pressure on American pocketbooks.

• The average price of a gallon of gas is $4.11, says AAA. It was under $3 before the war started on Feb. 28.
• Many Americans blame Trump for the increase.

There is a divide between the activist left and the Democratic establishment visible in the kinds of signs spotted at No Kings rallies. The signs are all about democracy, ICE, Trump, and the Iran war. The Democratic establishment wants to run on “kitchen table” issues. Somehow the party needs to keep activists engaged while campaigning on economic issues that ordinary voters vote on. Normies may care about those other things, but it’s issues closer to the grocery store and gas pump that drive them to the polls more than what’s happening in distant Iran or Minneapolis. Feeling poorer is pretty immediate.

Republicans will stoke fear like it’s going out of style, of course. The last thing they want is to draw attention to an economy the Trump Gang torpedoed like an Iranian frigate.

Elections are about whom you trust to have your back, about the answer to “Is this person on the ballot like me?” Voters need to feel Democrats have their backs more than Trump and his billionaire friends. Stay out of the sandbox. First make sure voters feel seen.

(h/t SD)