It is not really surprising that the folks at the Bulwark keep harking back to Trump’s promises during the 2024 presidential election campaign to bring prices down on day one given the Bulwark does not have a creatively maladjusted voice.

The Bulwark is not the only media citing Trump’s failure to lower prices, but the Bulwark comes to the forefront of my mind because JVL is disappointingly locked into the same ‘what everybody knows’, failing to apprehend the dark, four dimensional financial chess game Trump is engaged in to bring down prices.

Clearly, Trump’s election promise to bring prices down on day one was bombast and hyperbole given that bringing prices down across the board is a complex problem that requires time to put the required actions into motion and time for the effects of those actions to come to fruition.

Consider this brief synopsis on overcoming ‘everybody knows’ that prices go up not down’ and bringing prices down across the board.

The first step is to ensure the US government is unable to act with effectiveness. Under the guise of waste and fraud DOGE shuts down agencies and inflicts significant, random staff cuts on government departments sufficient to block the ability pf departments to function effectively. The chaos generated by DOGE will also reduce the US government’s functionality. As a bonus the negative effect of the chaos will have negative consequences for the US economy. In addition the DOGE jobs loses serve as an economic poison pill as the US economy falters.

To increase the level of dysfunction in the US government and ensure no actions of the US government interfere with Trump’s actions, no matter how unconstitutional or illegal, appoint incompetent, loyal sycophants to head agencies and departments.

Use the fact that republican members of the House and Senate are more concerned and focused on benefiting themselves and the billionaires financing them, than with the wellness and benefits of ordinary Americans to ensure neither the House or Senate interferes with any actions of the Trump administration and pass the budget and any changes or legislation the Trump administration wants.

Use the rhetoric of deporting murderers and criminals to obscure the locking up and deporting of undocumented immigrants who play a vital role in the American economy.

The Haitians of Springfield, who Trump infamously defamed by insisting “their eating the cats” without any evidence, where invited to Springfield because the rebirth of manufacturing in Springfield needed workers in order to operate.

US farming depends on undocumented immigrants to plant, harvest, milk and process cattle into beef products.

The US house building industry is dependent on the labor of undocumented immigrants.

Trump’s immigration raids have resulted in immigrants not going to work in order to avoid arrest and deportation; leaving crops unplanted, crops rotting in the fields unpicked, animals neither slaughtered nor milked.

The result is higher food costs for American families and lost revenue for farmers that puts farmers at risk of losing their farms.

Unconstitutional and illegal Executive Orders signed by Trump and the illegal actions of DOGE are a direct attack on the Rule of Law.

Placing sycophants in charge of ICE and Homeland Security results in unconstitutional and illegal actions in immigration detention and deportation which provides another avenue of attack on the Rule of Law.

Sycophants in charge of the Department of Justice and the FBI, both of which are suppose to support and enforce the Rule of Law not only support the attack on the Rule of Law by failing to act in support and enforcement of the Rule of Law, but also by engaging in illegal and unconstitutional attacks on the Rule of Law.

The Trump administrations ignoring and/or failing to comply with rulings by the Federal courts is a rejection of the Rule of Law.

By creating doubt about whether the Rule of Law applies in the US, the Trump administration has made the US a less safe place to Invest. This reduces the value of the US dollar, reduces demand for US treasury bonds, raises the interest rate US treasury bonds must pay and makes the US less attractive as a place to invest thereby chasing investment and capital to Europe seeking a safe, rule of law environment.

The raising of questions as to the applicability of the Rule of Law in the US injects uncertainty into the US stock market, the US economy and business planning and/or investment decisions.

Starting a trade war with the world isolates the US and, in conjunction with the lawless actions of the Trump administration, causes nations to question the dependability of the US and be leery of dealing with the US.

In reducing trade the trade war reduces economic activity in the US and around the world.

On again, Off again, Up, Down – serves to increase uncertainty and decrease the ability to plan which increases the negative effects of the tariffs.

145% tariffs on China results in empty ports, reduces trucking and commerce all resulting in lost jobs and less economic activity.

While a reduction to a 30% tariff rate is an improvement on 145% it is not the relief it first may feel like.

The 30% represents a significant price increase on goods from China, a cost which Wal-Mart has stated they will have to pass on to customers and which puts small businesses that import goods from China at risk of going out of business,

A 30% tariff on China added to a 10% tariff on the other countries around the world imposes a significant increase in cost on the US economy.

These cost increases will further reduce consumer confidence already lowered by uncertainty and lead to consumers hunkering down to an increased degree.

After 110+ days in office Trump has the US economy stuttering into recession and has created circumstances that, in undermining the economy and the US governments effectiveness, present a slippery slope that will accelerate and deepen the US economies fall into a deep recession and a flirtation with a depression.

Creating the conditions that will cause prices across the US economy to fall.

Unfortunately for Americans these falling prices will be notably less affordable in the economic wreckage that leads to the falling prices than prices during the Biden administration were.

4D chess, Malicious 4D chess?

Hanlon’s Razor: never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

There is Trump’s non-reality game show host business record of unpaid workers, unpaid suppliers, failed business and bankruptcies.

Then there is Trump’s May 2025 Meet the Press interview where Trump demonstrated complete ignorance and a total lack of understanding of both international trade and tariffs; in addition there is Trump’s demonstrated fixation on tariffs and ignorance of US economic history.

Factor in Trump’s well demonstrated inability to process and analyze facts which leaves him locked in slavish ideology.

Finally consider Trump’s ‘it’s all about me, no one else matters’ egocentrism and…..

Occam’s Razor: when faced with multiple explanations for a phenomenon the simplest is usually the best.

Resulting in the conclusion that the Trump administration’s actions are not a matter of complex strategy but of weapon grade stupidity more than sufficient to torpedo and sink the US economy, no malice required.

Afterword: a significant percentage of voters have stated they voted for Trump because he is a successful business man and Trump’s promise to bring prices down on day one of his administration.

In other words, voters voted for a Trumpression, a Trump caused depression.

Although voters, being human, would mo doubt deny voting for a depression, ignoring and/or denying the reality that the only mechanism that will cause prices to fall across the board is the deflation that a depression causes.

Alternatively, given research showing how seldom, if ever, voter [humans] actually think [employ the critical thinking process] it is entirely possible voters – in their own act of weapon grade stupidity – failed to consider what was required to cause prices to fall.

A conclusion supported by the significant lack of cognitive capacity represented by basing their evaluation of Trump’s business ability on a Reality television game show and ignoring the outcomes experienced in Trump’s business ventures – failure, bankruptcy and the squandering of the $400,000,000+ Trump inherited from his father.

As Forrest Gump would say: “Stupid is as stupid does”.