Donald Trump may not have prevailed in the Papal primaries – had he won, orange smoke would have been seen above the Sistine Chapel – but to be fair, he has been rather busy doing presidential stuff. That includes bludgeoning other countries with tariffs to get them to accept a more level trade playing field. That the tariffs haven’t rocketed the prices of everything to economy-crushing highs appears to have left Trump’s critics with a problem. Worse still, it might be that the president has ended decades of American pain at the pharmacy counter, signing an executive order that restructures drug pricing so that people in this country will no longer pay an arm and a leg for the same medications available so much cheaper everywhere else.
All this means that those on the left have no choice but to adopt a new economic model based on the principle that paying less is never a good thing.
Just recently, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) appeared on CNN with a message of doom and gloom. The “dumbest trade war in the history of this country,” she asserted, would cost millions of Americans their jobs, their retirement savings (how adorable that she thinks Americans have retirement savings), and “taking on even higher costs for everything they buy.” The senator may have been on a spirit quest for the last four years and not noticed that inflation climbed to well over 9% at one point.
The April inflation figures have, at least for now, wrecked Democratic predictions that Trump's tariffs would send the cost of everything through the roof. Year-to-date inflation stands at 2.3%, compared to the lowest annual rate of 2.9% for the four years Joe Biden occupied the White House.
The Catastrophe of Lower Prices Under Trump
And yet, it’s hard for Trump’s obsessed detractors to find anything they can point to – at least for the time being – that’s more expensive now than it was at the end of last year. Unless one lives in a blue state, where gas prices will be rising, not because of the price of gas but because those states will be piling on the taxes. That process is already beginning, and some are predicting that gas prices in California could reach $8 a gallon or more within a matter of months. Residents of many southeastern states are currently paying less than $2.70 for a gallon of gas - and under $2.50 a gallon in some places.
If Warren’s predictions of catastrophe turn out to be wrong, what is plan B for the Democrats? Obviously, they need a way to convince people that lower prices will be the ruin of us all. CNN is already laying the groundwork for that one. “Despite tariffs, car prices aren’t shooting up. That’s not necessarily a good thing,” warned a headline on the network’s website. Essentially, the thrust of the article is that the US auto industry will collapse unless Americans pay a lot more for cars.
Many Democrats’ favored TV news network is also practically salivating at the prospect of the Trump executive order on drug prices being challenged in the courts. One can probably anticipate a barrage of media reports and op-eds in the coming days, explaining why cheaper medications for Americans are a terrible idea – for a variety of fantastical reasons. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who has for a long time fought to bring down drug prices, is suddenly not so keen on the idea. In a recent TV interview, he, too, expressed confidence that the president's executive order aimed at reducing those prices would be stopped by the courts.
It is as sad as it is true that the last thing some Democrats want is for things to cost less. It is not a matter of them being mean – though plenty of folks on the right might beg to differ – but rather a question of political reality. The Democratic Party obviously wants to win back the White House in 2028; what it doesn’t want is Trump being remembered as a good or successful president, even if it does. If Americans see the cost of living reduced – or perhaps if not reduced, then at least not going up – then the Democratic Party loses on both counts: It will find it hard to take back the White House, and, maybe even worse, Trump will bow out with a portfolio of success. Maybe even greatness.
Meanwhile, his political opponents will still be stuck with the legacy of Joe Biden: a befuddled and sometimes irrationally angry pensioner who could never resist making everything about himself and the strange and mythical tales of things he never did.
So, the narrative is already preordained: If prices go up, that’s bad for the economy. If they go down, that's bad too. Sure, Americans might have a little extra money, but Trump is killing American industry. Yes, that’s got a nice ring to it. Go with that.
