Tehran is currently being incinerated by an apparently endless volley of US/Israeli missiles, with the apparent aim of reducing the city to a smouldering and uninhabitable ruin. But, while Americans don’t have to worry about Iran retaliating in kind, the consequences of Donald Trump‘s war are already being felt.
Trump’s war has effectively detonated a dirty bomb in the global economy, with oil and gas production across the Middle East heavily disrupted and the key shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz now a warzone.
This will make everyone reading this poorer. Fuelling your car will cost more, taxes will rise, inflation will spike, and the cost of food and consumer goods will increase. Your life is about to get more miserable, but that’s a-okay with Trump.
Speaking at the White House, he dismissed the situation as a “little detour”:
Trump on gas prices:
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) March 9, 2026
“We had it very low, but I had to take this little detour if it's okay with everybody." pic.twitter.com/bJlSQdD2ZX
“We had it very low, but I had to take this little detour if it’s okay with everybody.”
It goes without saying that Trump’s “little detour” won’t affect the lives of him and his friends in any meaningful way. Trump himself may never have filled his own car with gas in his life, he’s never had to worry about a household budget, and, heck, he may never have even done his own grocery shopping.
Bad times coming
Don’t think this is some nebulous threat that’s going to happen sometime soon. A Los Angeles gas station was spotted with $8+ gas prices just yesterday, and it’s clear from the ongoing situation in the Middle East that this can only get worse:
— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) March 9, 2026
BREAKING: $8 GAS SEEN IN LOS ANGELES
pic.twitter.com/YZllX3g2TC
All of which is to say, prepare for some hard times ahead. Even the most optimistic financial forecasts say that Trump’s war is going to be bad news for regular folks’ bank balances, with the only difference of opinion how long that’s going to last.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s that tanking the economy in the run-up to the midterms isn’t a great political strategy. The outlook for those elections is currently a Democratic landslide, with American disgusted by the administration’s behavior and violence. All indications are that Trump and his buddies are about to get their legs cut out from under them. But then, that’s assuming the midterms even happen.
