PEOPLE ARE UPSET WHEN STUFF COSTS MORE THAN IT DID A FEW YEARS AGO, ECONOMISTS LEARN TO THEIR AMAZEMENT

G. Elliott Morris has just published a post under the headline "The Mystery Variable That Explains Stubbornly Low Consumer Sentiment." Morris notes that consumer sentiment is remarkably negative right now.

The University of Michigan has been measuring consumer sentiment since 1952. On Thursday, economist Justin Wolfers flagged that the April reading came in at 47.6 — the lowest in the survey’s 74-year history. That index value is lower than for the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, the worst of the post-COVID inflation surge, the 2022-23 inflation spike, and any point during the stagflation of the early 1980s.

Why would that be? As in the last year or so of the Biden administration, many people think it must be vibes.

There’s a theory popular in certain corners of the very online left that consumer sentiment is inexplicably low right now because of the way the news media is covering the economy. The theory points out that in most of 2024 and 2025 the labor market was doing fine by historical standards, but people still rated the economy poorly. The sentiment numbers, per this view, are a product of news and social media amplifying bad economic stories and data and dragging down the national mood.

Morris sees a possible reason -- a "mystery variable" that economists apparently would never think of looking at when they're trying to figure out why normal people think the economy sucks.

... look at the following chart from the Michigan survey itself. It tracks the share of consumers who cite high prices as the reason they are personally struggling financially.

Before 2021, this number hovered near zero percent. Empirically speaking prices were a non-factor in how people viewed the state of the economy.

Then, everything changed. The share of adults citing high prices asa sources of anxiety went exponential during the 2021-22 inflation spike and never came back down. It’s now above 50%, likely because of the gas prices spike from the war in Iran.

This trend actually looks similar to a chart of cumulative change in food prices since 2014:

And the price of shelter:

... inflation dropping from 8% to 3% reflects a “cooling off” of the economy, but evidently people still mostly just see high prices for things and get upset about that. And fair enough!

I don't want to sound like a right-wing basher of experts, but what the hell is wrong with mainstream economists if it never occurs to them that people feel economic anxiety when prices go up and stay up, especially when they (justifiably) believe their incomes aren't keeping pace?

As an Axios story notes:

Since January 2021, consumer prices have climbed a cumulative 26%.

... Even as price pressures build, job prospects have started looking worse.

The rate at which companies have hired new workers fell in February to match the lowest levels of the pandemic, and the last time it was lower was in 2010....

Wages are no longer rising as they did earlier in the inflationary surge. Average hourly earnings were up 3.5% for the year ended in March, compared with 5.9% in 2022.

And ordinary people are upset? Who could have guessed!

I need to add one more factor that isn't taken into account in these posts: high credit card interest rates. Bankrate reports:

The average credit card interest rate is 19.58%, down from a record-high 20.79% set on Aug. 14, 2024.

But 19.58% is extremely high when average hourly earnings are rising 3.5% a year.

And what are the consequences of this? Here's what Bankrate said in January, before the Iran war jacked up the price of gasoline:

Sixty-one percent of Americans with card debt have been in debt for at least a year — up from 53% in late 2024.

... Forty-seven percent of credit cardholders report having a credit card balance. About 1 in 5 (22%) debtors don’t think they’ll ever pay it off.

... Among credit card debtors, 41% say their debt comes primarily from emergency/unexpected expense(s), including medical bills (12%), car repairs (8%), home repairs (8%) and other emergency or unexpected expenses (13%). Thirty-three percent, up from 28% in 2024 and 26% in 2023, cite day-to-day expenses such as groceries, childcare and utilities.

Americans are drowning in debt -- and then they go to the supermarket and the gas station and prices are still high or rising. And they're upset.

If this is baffling to mainstream economists -- if the usual data points they assess in order to understand consumer sentiment leave them baffled by the current low numbers -- then they need to assess different data points. It should be obvious now which data points they should be looking at.

J.D. VANCE IS COUNTING ON THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA TO HELP ELECT HIM PRESIDENT

As you know if you're a regular reader, I believe that J.D. Vance has a good chance of winning the 2028 presidential election. I don't expect American voters to like Donald Trump any more then than they do now, but I think the conventional wisdom in non-Republican America will be that Vance is different. I wrote this in February:

... mainstream outlets may very well portray J.D. Vance ... as a thoughtful, soft-spoken Republican who wants to move the GOP away from its worst instincts....

We'll get insipid, soft-focus profiles of Vance, and he'll be portrayed as a turn of the page after Trump -- more so than loudmouths like Gavin Newsom and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee.

That's not exactly what we're seeing in the mainstream press as Vance heads to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran, but there sure is a lot of respectful coverage:

* New York Times: Vance Faces a High-Profile Test of His Negotiating Skills With Iran Talks

* Washington Post: Vance, Who Wasn’t Keen on Iran War, Now Tasked with Trying to End It

* Wall Street Journal: How Vance Became the Point Man to End a War He Didn’t Want

The American Prospect's Ryan Cooper sees something sinister in the Times story:

the NYT political desk is facing facts: their boy Trump is in a terminal political spiral and it's time to start polishing the next right-wing turd

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— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper.com) April 10, 2026 at 10:29 AM

But is this coming from the Times (and the Post and Journal), or is Vance courting the mainstream press in advance of 2028? I suspect that he's pursuing these stories as much as these papers are pursuing him.

Each of these stories portrays Vance as a sort of Schrodinger's cat, someone who's both on the Trump train and off it. From the Post:

Six weeks after President Donald Trump started a war in Iran that has proved difficult to end, he has turned to a new approach in negotiations: Putting front and center his vice president, JD Vance, whose reputation happens to be as the administration’s foremost war skeptic.

The peace talks mark Vance’s highest-profile assignment in the 14 months the administration has been in office. Vance has been a constant presence in war strategy meetings, White House officials say, and has spent much of the past week working the phones with negotiators. But the admitted “skeptic of foreign military interventions” had previously played a supporting role in Middle East affairs, behind Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Every story seems designed to appeal to voters regardless of what they think of Trump and his war. From the Journal:

A close friend of Vance who spoke with him recently said he described feeling like he was sometimes walking on eggshells around Trump because of his antiwar views. A Vance spokesman disputed that Vance had said that. “He’s walking on so many eggshells that he’s on his way to Pakistan at the president’s request to lead negotiations,” the spokesman said.

Vance and his team understand that Republicans win presidential elections by holding on to the rabid base while deluding moderate voters into believing that they're middle-of-the-road, too. It worked for George W. Bush in 2000, and it even worked for Trump in 2016 and 2024. (Remember Maureen Dowd's April 2016 column "Donald the Dove, Hillary the Hawk"? Remember how Trump bamboozled many Americans -- and many pundits -- into believing that he'd be a champion for Medicare and Social Security, and was a moderate on abortion?)

I'm certain that Vance operatives worked to get these stories into print. Mostly, these stories are selling Vance to elite-media consumers, without alienating MAGA yahoos. From the Times:

Mr. Vance’s allies say his presence adds formality and heft to negotiations led by Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, whose fast-paced work is often conducted through constant phone calls back to Washington, and by writing, editing and circulating flurries of proposals. Mr. Vance is also joining a pair of negotiators who had failed to avert the war in the first place during an initial round of talks.

Message to upmarket, well-educated suburban readers: Vance isn't an ignorant blowhard like Trump, nor is he out of his depth like Kushner and Witkoff -- he's a smart, serious guy whose presence conveys formality and heft! Message to MAGA: Trump added Vance to the team because Trump is a dealmaking genius, and he knows that Vance is precisely the extra ingredient this negotiation needs.

I think the 2028 GOP primaries will come down to Vance and Marco Rubio, even though I think MAGA would prefer someone who resembles Trump. I don't see any sign that a Trumpish candidate will emerge: Donald Trump Jr. seems committed to profiting off his father's name. Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens seem much more comfortable (and well remunerated) as gadfly podcasters than as politicians. I could imagine a presidential run from either Nick Fuentes or James Fishbeck, the bigoted Florida gubernatorial candidate who's popular among groyper youth, but both will be under the age of 35 in 2028, and thus ineligible to run.

So I think it will be a dull primary season and Vance will win, mostly because his dog whistles will connect with extremist voters, whether he's defending racist group chats or insulting women.

And then he'll seem to pivot to the center, with the mainstream media's help.

TRUMP RETREATS INTO THE RIGHT-WING BUBBLE

If you're looking for a post about Melania Trump's prepared statement on Jeffrey Epstein, just go read Emptywheel, who thinks the First Lady is afraid of Amanda Ungaro, the Brazilian ex-girlfriend of Paolo Zampolli. Zampolli is a former modeling agent and Jeffrey Epstein pal who is now the United States Special Representative for Global Partnerships. The New York Times reported a couple of weeks ago that Zampolli pulled strings to get Ungaro deported, in the hope of getting custody of their teenage son. Ungaro has now threatened legal action against the Trumps.

Melania spoke yesterday either for that reason or because she expects some damaging journalism to drop soon. I think she might be afraid of the forthcoming Maggie Haberman/Jonathan Swan book because that book was the source of a recent New York Times story on how Trump made the decision to go to war. I'd be surprised if any other excerpts from the book appear soon, because it won't be published until June 23. But this might be on Melania's mind.

Melania is talking about Epstein while her husband is fully retreating, at least for the moment, into the right-wing bubble. The most obvious sign of his retreat is a rant he posted on Truth Social yesterday afternoon:

Normal people don't care that Trump thinks Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones are "low IQ." Normal people don't care about these right-wing media figures at all. But Trump's base cares deeply. These are titanic figures in the pathetic world of by the right-wing voters who, regrettably, control American politics.

These voters also hate immigrants and regard immigration as the most important issue ever, apart from the economy, and they agree with Trump that if one Haitian immigrant kills someone, then all Haitian immigrants should be forced to leave. The Guardian reports:

Besieged by questions about his war on Iran and his wife’s statement on Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump tried to shift the national conversation back to his immigration crackdown by posting a graphic, distressing video of a woman in Florida being killed last week by a man he described as an illegal immigrant from Haiti.

The video, taken by a surveillance camera outside a Fort Myers gas station, showed a man identified by authorities as a Haitian immigrant using a hammer to bludgeon to death the woman, who was reportedly a clerk at the gas station.

Substacker Pablo Manriquez notes that the victim was also an immigrant, a Bangladeshi named Nilufar Easmin.

I'm especially offended by the Trumpist core message on immigration -- that everyone in a particular ethnic group deserves to be deported if one member of that group does something pathological -- because I'm Sicilian-American on my father's side. When you say that people sharing an ethnicity with criminals don't belong here, you're saying that I shouldn't be here. You're saying my father shouldn't have been here and his Sicilian immigrant parents shouldn't have been allowed in.

The Sicilian Mafia has committed many crimes in America over the years. Is that my grandparents' fault? Is it my father's fault? Is it my fault?

None of us were criminals -- in fact, my father was a victim, roughed up by loansharks when he couldn't pay back money he'd borrowed. He was an honest truck driver who'd fought in World War II. His brother died in that war.

Trump believes in collective guilt, at least for non-white people. So does his base, which includes millions of voters. But I want to believe that most Americans don't.

And finally, there's this:

The Trump administration is finalizing a report that casts the Biden Justice Department as anti-Christian over its enforcement of laws protecting abortion clinics and enforcement of Covid regulations, among other issues, according to details of the report viewed by NBC News.

Only in the Republican bubble are six-year-old COVID restrictions still a burning issue, and only in that bubble is access to abortion regarded as abhorrent.

Add this to the administration's desperation to save fellow fascist Viktor Orban from electoral defeat in Hungary and you see an presidency that has no perspective on what Americans outside the right-wing bubble care about. It's still sometimes said that Trump has no strong political views, but he's clearly been Fox-pilled for at least fifteen years, and he'd clearly like to live in a world where everyone else is as Fox-pilled as he is. If only we could remove him from office so he could get his wish.

J.D. VANCE IS SO SEXIST THAT HE'S EVEN SEXIST WHEN TALKING ABOUT IRAN'S URANIUM

J.D. Vance traveled to Hungary to shore up the campaign of fellow fascist Viktor Orban. While there, he answered questions on the tarmac about the ceasefire in the Iran war, and he said something peculiar:

The vice president ... mentioned that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, noted that his country’s 10-point proposal to end the war included “Iran’s right to enrichment.”

“I thought to myself, you know what? My wife has the right to skydive, but she doesn’t jump out of an airplane because she and I have an agreement that she’s not going to do that because I don’t want my wife jumping out of an airplane,” Vance said in reaction to Ghalibaf’s comment.

What?

This is a bizarre analogy, but it would be more or less unremarkable if there weren't that I-am-the-master-of-my-domain twist at the end. Usha Vance, mother of three (and one on the way), doesn't skydive because her husband doesn't want her to? He makes that decision? Even if these weren't carefully chosen words, why did his brain immediately go to the idea that this is primarily his choice?

Donald Trump's treatment of women reflects the fact that he's an amoral monster -- a sexual assailant and a man who demeans every female reporter who asks him a tough question -- but while he gave us the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, it's his underlings who advocate broad-spectrum sexism. Pete Hegseth wants to purge women from the upper ranks of the Pentagon just as he wants to purge people of color. And Vance -- well, you remember this 2021 pronouncement:

We are effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. And it’s just a basic fact if you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC—the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?

And this:

In 2021, he told a Christian group, “So many of the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal about this, but they’re people without kids, trying to brainwash the minds of our children.” Did he really “hate to be so personal”? Come on. The comments were directed at Randi Weingarten, the leader of the powerful American Federation of Teachers. Weingarten, he added, “doesn’t have a single child. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the mind of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”

Weingarten is the stepmother to her wife’s adult kids....

This was back when Vance was speaking in favor of a system that would give extra votes to families: an additional vote for each child, controlled by the parents. Vance could have dispassionately advocated this cockamamie scheme, which would advantage Republicans by diminishing the votes of those pesky childless women, who tend to be strongly Democratic. But he made it personal, because, presumably, these women (and Buttigieg) repulse him.

Vance is a manosphere dude in the Executive Branch, a man who, like his boss, thinks women deserve humiliation for failing to breed men's children. This attitude peeks out even when he's talking about enriched uranium: The mother of my children isn't jumping out of any airplanes!

If Vance wins the presidency in 2028, I think we'll see a national abortion ban. Trump, who's probably been the reason for a few abortions in his life, regards a full ban as a political third rail. Vance might also -- but I think his contempt for women will override any political considerations. I hope we never find out.

NOW WHAT WILL HE SCREW UP?

Is the Iran war over? I don't know. I think President Trump might take any deal he can get now, because the Iranian regime's refusal to kneel was making him look bad, but I think we could still arrive at an impasse soon, because the two sides' demands are incompatible. And if all this really is over, or will be over soon that increases my anxiety.

For the past five weeks, we've at least known the main arena where Trump was going to do horrible, ill-advised things. Sure, he was doing other terrible stuff, but Iran was his main focus.

Now what?

Trump is an addict who needs a stronger and stronger dose of edgelordism to satisfy his cravings. He's also an old TV guy who thinks every week is sweeps week, so he wants to devise special stunt programming to keep the audience engaged.

If, in the near future, he's not getting all this from Iran, he'll need to get it somewhere. I know he plans to overthrow the Cuban government, but, sadly, that will probably go more smoothly than the Iran war has. So his need to do something truly horrifying, ill-conceived, and transgressive, something that offends even some of his allies and that he he gets away with by the skin of his teeth, will persist until he satisfies it.

That's why I worry about the elections. Last night we saw again that Democrats are exceeding all expectations in off-year elections.

Democrats won a judicial election in Wisconsin -- a state Trump won -- by nearly 20 points, while also winning the mayor's race in Republican-leaning Waukesha.

I have never seen this much #blue in the state of #Wisconsin Sheboygan (blue collar, #manufacturing Trump +16) is blue The biggest swing was Crawford county, #rural on #Minnesota border- Trump +14 to Taylor (Dem) +22 - a 36 point swing left I think white working class is not buying it anymore

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— Soumya Rangarajan, MD, MPP (@soumya-goblue.medsky.social) April 7, 2026 at 11:23 PM

So I think he's coming for the elections. But he might just as easily find another place to transgress. He mentioned Greenland in Monday's press conference, so I don't think that's a dead issue.

He needs this amount of policy madness. I don't think he'll be satisfied with less now.


*****

I was surprised to see that nearly all of the most-liked comments in response to this Fox News ceasefire story were negative:

I can honestly say that I’ve never been more disappointed in this administration. This changes nothing. I realize I know zero about what is taking place through back channels. But unless this results in both 100% surrender of nuclear materials and 100% surrender of the IRGC and a relinquishment of power, this has all been for nothing. We’re now bargaining over the Straight of Hormuz? That was a forgone collateral damage we knew would happen before we even started this. The IRGC puts civilians around their power facilities, NATO threatens war crimes and we fold like origami. Now who looks like the paper tiger? I thought so much better of this administration.

****

If Iran gets to keep its 60% enriched uranium, then that means that Trump choked and the Iranians won. So disappointed in you right now Prez. So disappointed.

****

The regime is still in place. There has been no change. Trump is negotiating his surrender. Iran will be a problem once again in the future. Doesn't matter what deal is made. China and Russia will see to it.

****

As part of the plan, the US has in principle agreed to lift all primary and secondary sanctions against Iran. It has also agreed to accept Iran’s nuclear enrichment and recognize its continued control over the Strait of Hormuz. What did Trump's war accomplish

****

Trump got suckered, Iran is playing him like a fiddle, and the US is looking the fool for it.

****

I voted for Trump - Twice. He blew this one big time. Iran called Trump's bluff, he folded. There is no negotiating with Iran. He also blew Greenland.

****

Art of the deal:
1) Take something that was already working well
2) Do something to screw it up
3) Whine about it, threaten military actions, and tariffs
4) Negotiate a deal that was worse than where we started at step 1
5) Claim victory
6) Enjoy adulation from not so smart MAGA

****

Alright, who wants to bet Iran will put out a statement in the next 12 hours that they had no idea about this agreement?

****

I am really sick of Trump and his "lets make a deal" vision on every world problem. Mostly hes not solving anything and just stirring crap up for nothing. Tonights latest two week extension is typical Iranian stalling. Everybody saw it coming. So disappointed and tired of Trump.

****

I’m a Trumper but boy what a stupid move 🤦‍♀️

****

Delay has always been in the Iranian playbook and we always fall for it.

****

Everyone knew Trump would back down. Whether a republican or democrat you just knew. Trump talks big on everything then backs down. He just wants attention. Destroy civilization??? Give me a break. Is there no one who will stand up to this idiot?? And you talk about Biden losing his mind. Trump sure as hell is no better. Neither one should be president. We need leaders not over the hill lunatics.

****

Every reason that Trump gave for starting the Trump War still exists:
-Iran still has missiles and drones, and the means to make more.
-Iran can reconstitute its nuclear program
-The Iranian regime is still in place, just more radical than before since the Revolutionary Guard is in control now.
-Iran is still killing its people.
--- Now it's the closing of the strait that's the biggest problem, which was NOT a problem before the start of the war.

The military has done an outstanding job on the military piece of the war. CinC Trump has FAILED on the political piece of the Trump War.

****

Mr. President, you may think you're jerking the Iranians around, being tough and making the deal, but the flip flops, and back and forth silliness not only jerks them around it jerks the American people around, specifically the US military families. Unbelievable. And so much for ending the endless wars.

****

Why does he keep caving to these terrorists? They keep playing him like a fiddle. I’m beginning to lose respect for him.

****

And this solves nothing. Acting like a lunatic for 48 hours and then magically cooking up a ceasefire does not provide anyone with a stable, solid solution. That might assuage the stock market for a few days, we might see a nominal drop in oil prices but we need stable; secure leadership for there to be a long term correction to the damage already done.

****

That's it! I've been a loyal Trump supporter for years. OG proud MAGA man. Even handsomely donated to Stop the Steal. But this lack of follow through leads me to believe he's full of bunk. Should have voted for Nikki Haley.

****

Careful, Mr. President. Don’t believe what they’re telling you. There are fewer honest Iranians than there are moderate Democrats.

****

Until Iran reopens the strait, nothing is certain. Trump may be negotiating with himself again

I'm not cherry-picking these. They're nineteen of the twenty most-liked comments. There's one pro-Trump comment in this group:

I know you TACO texters think you are cute but this is a good thing, both for the safety of our military and the lives of potentially innocent people in Iran. Everyone should be rejoicing in this announcement and hope and pray it leads to a permanent cease fire and a permanent non-nuclear Iran. Maybe we can all stop and pray for freedom for the Iranian people and the families of the tens of thousands of lives lost to their brutality.

Even this is more hopeful than triumphant.

I hope this is representative of at least one portion of Trump's base. If so, he's not fooling as many people as he used to.

DONALD TRUMP PLANS WAR CRIMES AND LONGS FOR PURITY

Yesterday I wrote about President Trump's late-night Truth Social posts of a video showing veiled, presumably Somali women at the Mall of America.

Donald Trump just posted a video of Somali people enjoying the Mall of America to the soundtrack of “Mad World” because he is a bigoted POS

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 6, 2026 at 12:35 AM

That's obviously Trump's idea of a dystopian hellscape. But a few hours before that, Trump gave us another glimpse into his own nightmares, re-posting this tweet of a woman washing her bedding with fire hydrant water at what I assume is a homeless encampment in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles fire hydrants seem to be working just fine now pic.twitter.com/xCCfYXTHHD

— One Bad Dude (@OneBadDude_) April 4, 2026

Then yesterday afternoon -- as he pondered whether to commit war crimes by destroying critical civilian infrastructure in Iran -- Trump gave us the flip side of his nightmares, with two posts of colorized footage from the past:

Trump shares footage of old New York and PARIS after his press briefing on Iran pic.twitter.com/n5JjYfaXbU

— RT (@RT_com) April 6, 2026

The message of these videos, and the L.A. and Mall of America videos, is obvious: In a bygone era, our cities were utopias where well-dressed white people strolled peacefully, and there wasn't a black or brown or Muslim or poor person in sight. This is an idea that right-wingers find captivating -- and plausible, so much so that the right-wing actor Kevin Sorbo recently humilated himself by tweeting this:

Look at this video of NYC in 1975, see how peaceful it was?

Look at how everybody seems to be enjoying their lives, and not contrast it to today. Our country has been ruined.pic.twitter.com/KiqGcmEnp9

— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) April 5, 2026

Those of us who lived in the city in the 1970s could have told Sorbo that New York in that era was broke, crumbling, and crime-ridden. It's richer and safer now. There were 1,645 homicides in the city in 1975. There were only 305 last year.

You might have seen that Kevin Sorbo tweet. What you probably don't know is that a day before he posted it, American AF, aka @iAnonPatriot -- the same right-wing tweeter whose Mall of America tweet was picked up by Trump -- posted the New York City clip Sorbo used, but with an explicitly anti-Muslim message.

Footage of NYC in the 1970s is going viral..

Not a single Muslim in sight — it was perfect. pic.twitter.com/MAMFSJLkli

— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) April 3, 2026

Right-wingers look at the world and see only utopias and hellscapes. A utopia is a place where everybody looks and thinks like them. A hellscape is any environment where some people aren't exactly like them, or do things they don't like -- wear clothes they disapprove of, practice a religion they don't practice, cope with adversity in a way they find unsightly.

This is why right-wingers love AI slop. AI can create images in which enemies are vanquished brutes, Donald Trump is a young, muscular conqueror, and Jesus looks on and approves. Everything in an AI image is exactly the way the creator wants it to be. That's how right-wingers think the world should work -- and could work.

Those of us who lean left and live in cities know that our environment is flawed. We see the flaws every day. We also see the good things. Sometimes we love the balance and sometimes we hate it, but we don't think a place has to be perfect to be good.

We don't like the way our right-wing fellow citizens vote, but we favor government policies that would help them, too, like universal health coverage. Right-wingers, by contrast, look at us and think:

Trump's warning to Iran right now sound like a variant on that: Imagine no Iran.

God help us.

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— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) April 7, 2026 at 8:14 AM

Trump thinks that if he bombs Iran back to the Stone Age, the Persian equivalent of the Paris and New York videos above might magically emerge.

At least he's not promising to build Trump Tehran, complete with a gold statue of himself.



Did I say that right-wingers believe that everything is either a hellscape or (their idea of) a utopia? That's what I mean.

I THINK ILHAN OMAR OCCUPIES MORE REAL ESTATE IN TRUMP'S BRAIN THAN BARACK OBAMA

While we wait to see whether the next phase of the Iran war will be a ceasefire, a massive series of war crimes committed on President Trump's orders, or Trump chickening out on those war crimes because investors and his Gulf pals don't want much more infrastructure damaged, let's look at one of Trump's Truth Social posts from last night's posting spree:

Donald Trump just posted a video of Somali people enjoying the Mall of America to the soundtrack of “Mad World” because he is a bigoted POS

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 6, 2026 at 12:35 AM

I say "one of" his posts, but he actually posted this twice last night -- once with no text and once with the text that originally accompanied the video. That was in a three-month-old X post from an influencer called American AF (@iAnonPatriot), a bigot whose followers include Donald Trump Jr., Lauren Boebert, Megyn Kelly, and Mike Flynn. Here's that original tweet, which offers no evidence for its main claim:

This is literally the”Mall of America” in Minnesota.

85% of these people are on welfare, btw. pic.twitter.com/mf0gzQiYdj

— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) January 15, 2026

Trump's decision to post this has been ascribed to garden-variety racism, but note that he's not showing us Black people in typical American clothes. Trump assumes that the veiled Black women he sees here are Somali. The fact that there are veiled Somali women anywhere in America makes Trump crazy. One veiled Black woman from Africa especially infuriates him: Minneapolis congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

Trump hates Omar so much that he mentions her in social media posts that have nothing to do with her. Here's a message he's posted four times this year, as part of his campaign to oust Greg Goode, a Republican state senator from Indiana who has resisted Trump's call for mid-decade congressional redistricting in his state.

I think Omar sets off a toxic bigotry chain reaction in Trump's brain. On the one hand, she dresses in a way that conceals her hair and skin, which, to Trump, suggests not only disgusting non-European foreignness but also lack of sexual access. (Trump believes women should attempt to live up to male standards of beauty and be sexually accessible, although I suspect that he finds nearly all Black women unattractive.) On the other hand, this traditionally dressed Black woman takes no shit from Trump and pushes back whenever he or any other right-winger attacks her. This plays into a common stereotype amnog white male racists, especially those from the urban North: that Black women are mouthy and rude. (Womnen are supposed to be accommodating and deferential to men, you see. And they should smile more!)

I believe that Minneapolis experienced the worst of ICE because Trump is fixated on Ilhan Omar, a woman whose very existence (and persistence) he finds utterly intolerable. In recent years, I think Omar's rent-free presence in Trump's head has made him angrier than Barack Obama's, and that's saying a lot.