Today's affordability crisis is rooted in Trump's insurrection

I ended yesterday's edition by saying there's a straight line between the J6 insurrection and the affordability crisis we are all facing. The corruption that went into Donald Trump's failed paramilitary takeover of the US government rolled into his second term, with the most recent results being persistent inflation, stagnant job growth and a war with no end in sight.

Not long after I made that point, the president illustrated it. "We will pass a truly great healthcare plan that will stop all payments to big insurance companies and we'll give the money directly to you, the people, so you can buy your own much better healthcare at a much lower price, and have a lot of money left over," Trump said during a rally last night.

For those keeping score at home, that's the billionth time (give or take a million) in which Trump has promised to do something about the extortionate cost of healthcare. Whenever he makes this promise, it's a lie. The lie, however, only services to cover up his corruption.

Five million people (including me) lost their health insurance this year after Trump and the Republicans failed to renew Affordable Care Act subsidies. Another 760,000 people lost Obamacare coverage after the administration made up phony fraud claims to kick them off. As many as 10 million people are going to lose Medicaid coverage by 2028 thanks to GOP legislation that reduces public benefits to expand tax cuts for the very obscenely rich.

What is Donald Trump doing with the "savings"? Buying "Love Me" ads, building ballrooms, painting statues gold, planning "triumph arches," doing a $14 million "renovation" of the Reflecting Pool, only to see it turned into a stinking puddle. The list of corrupt acts is long and getting longer. In any case, none of it is being done in the name of the American people, but in his name, and if anything refuses to indulge his narcissism, like the Kennedy Center, he threatens to demolish it using funding that could have paid for the healthcare of millions.

And don't forget billions wasted on a war no one asked for.

Leave a tip in the tip jar! Say $10? THANKS!

Healthcare is one area in which it's clear that Trump's corruption is costing Americans, but corruption is being felt across the board. (Yesterday, the Post reported that Trump is paying for those vanity ads with money that the Congress intended for "border security upgrades, efforts to combat drug trafficking and memorials for officers killed in the line of duty.") Faith Williams, a policy analyst for Common Cause, told the Pennsylvania Independent that a new Gallup poll showing nine in 10 Americans believe corruption is widespread is a sign that majorities of voters are making the connection between corruption and affordability.

“That number growing is more of an understanding of the public of how corruption impacts affordability for them,” she said. “I think that’s something that we’ve all been learning more about the last few years, and so maybe it was important before, but it felt super discrete from affordability issues, and now perhaps we’re better understanding how they fit together.”

But while the salience of corruption-affordability is higher than it was five years ago, it was nonetheless visible when Trump led an armed mob to sack and loot the United States Capitol. Special Counsel Jack Smith told the Senate this week that his investigation came to the same conclusion that anyone with eyes willing to see had already come to. "Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election," Smith said, "President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power."

This week, oil executives told the Financial Times that the price of diesel "will not" return to "normal" for another year. Inflation outpaced wages in April for the first time in three years. Wage growth fell last month, worsening what was already a de facto paycut. Mortgage rates reached their highest since 2023. Today's jobs report showed only 29,000 jobs were created in September, with most of those in healthcare and job growth everywhere else being flat.

What we are seeing is the consequence of electing the kind of man who launched an illegal insurrection before launching an illegal war five years later, with the impact of corruption on affordability being felt by an increasing number of people over that time. Feeling pain, some now claim to be shocked. "The no new wars thing is the one that fucked a lot of people," Joe Rogan said this week. "No one thought we were gonna go into this prolonged war with Iran."

No one, huh?

Things are almost certainly going to get worse.

Time reported this week that the president has become "increasingly in thrall to the tech executives surrounding him." In December 2025, Elon Musk introduced him to Grok. Trump asked the AI chatbot how Venezuelans would react to the US kidnapping Nicolás Maduro. Grok reportedly said they would dance in the streets. After Trump ordered Maduro's capture, there was some celebrating. Trump "came away thinking Grok was ingenious."

It is widely believed that the president thought Iran would be as easy as Venezuela. Did he consult artificial intelligence in the run-up to war. Did he privilege Grok's "genius" over the counsel of top Pentagon officials? Trump is an 80-year-old man who is in serious cognitive decline. Is he still using Grok? What is it telling him? That he's winning? That he's won?

If that's not bad enough, consider a new investigation by CNN that found a company owned by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, is the largest shareholder in "a massive Israeli firm" with ties to the Israeli military, providing equipment for its "wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, the same wars Trump sent Kushner to resolve." It's complicated, but the bottom line is this: Whose interests are served by this war? Those of the American people or those of his family?

Poised for victory, the Democrats are being given all kinds of advice on how to hold voters alienated by Donald Trump. The focus is on policies addressing cost-of-living issues, especially healthcare. But from the attack on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, to the grocery aisle today, there is a straight line. We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis. You can't fix one without fixing the other. The most Democrats can do without control of the White House is focus on exposing Trump's corruption every day.

That's all for today. Please consider subscribing! I know you like it. I know you'll love the price! For just $9 a month, you get so much, plus the satisfaction of supporting independent journalism. (Don't know if you're a subscriber? Check your status below.) –JS