Qu’ils mangent la salle de bal
“The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran [is] they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters at the White House before boarding a plane to China. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
- ‘I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,’ says Trump amid Iran talks, Guardian
By Gregg Wall (5-16-2026)
The "let them eat ballroom" presidency was in full force this week, when Trump downplayed the latest inflation report, released Tuesday, with headline CPI of 3.8%. Producer prices bolted 6%. Trump of course, is using the fear surrounding Iran possessing nuclear weapons to justify skyrocketing prices and oil and gas; but that’s a difficult sell when Trump assured everyone a year ago that America had broken off negotiations with the Iranians to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and subsequently “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. Mission accomplished… well, apparently not so much, at least not to Bibi Netanyahu’s liking, who appears to be dictating Iranian and Middle East foreign policy. Even Trump acknowledged Israel drives ME foreign policy this week.
Whoever is calling the shots, it spells out sky-high energy prices around the globe and expedited timetables for migration to alternative and renewable energy. In fact, renewable energy is so plentiful in Europe that the turbines are turned off to subsidize higher retail energy prices and justify utility electricity prices (for essentially free energy). Antiquated grids are used as the excuse for not passing on the savings and free energy onto the Europeans, so the establishment can profit off an antiquated energy source, oil and gas. As of this writing, the average price per gallon of U.S. retail gas, per AAA, is 90% greater than when Trump left office in January 2021. Trump’s lack of worry about the finances of the American people seems to correlate with the explosive growth in his and his family’s personal wealth, which has said to have climbed sixty percent to more than six billion dollars, since returning to office. The transactional POTUS appears to have possibly ripped off MAGA, set up a pay to play pardon service for the wealthy, many insiders are making a fortune on front running Trump’s zig-zag decision making, and Jared is jetting around the Middle East doing what Jared does best, hoover up cash from oil & gas dictatorships. Et al, et al. Trump style grandeur and opulence culminated in the ballroom and luxury bunker, that was going to be privately funded, then publicly funded, or some combination thereof. The bunker and Trump’s Arch also screams Versailles before the revolution, as does the POTUS’ entourage of billionaires that travelled with him to Beijing this week (all of them, apparently, walked away empty handed). Xi confidently educated and warned Trump on Thucydides Trap and the collapse and rise of empires, one of my favorite topics.
Trump’s damage to America and Americans is, of course, catastrophic. Trump loves to bitch about Biden, but Biden no longer resides at the White House… Trump and MAGA own the chaos w/in the nation and the world today. In the span of sixteen months, the Epstein administration has seen the national debt shoot up to $40 trillion, the dollar devalue at least ten percent, seen his DOGE & tariff policies collapse; in sixteen months, Trump has managed to alienate the world with his boorish behavior and bad manners, Trump allowed himself to be blackmailed -- or sucked into -- more Israeli wars and extended genocides, and the lives of tens of millions of Americans have been turned upside down by a failed dereg, financialization, necro-neoliberal economy … many struggling just to survive. Seventy percent of Americans can’t afford the basics, fifty percent of Americans can’t afford healthcare… that fifty percent number seems low, when we consider the seventy percent who can’t afford the basics, sure as hell can’t afford American healthcare (which is two times the per capita cost of most peer nations, all with universal healthcare).
And always and forever, seemingly, the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein with one hand on the president’s shoulder, as Trump falls asleep and nods off for the hundredth time, after a night of ranting on social media.
Epstein presidency or the POTUS of pain -- or “the let them eat ballroom” presidency -- it all rolls up to one of the greatest catastrophes and incompetents to ever walk into the Oval Office. Trump’s greedflation… Trump’s out of control spending… his micromanagement of the Federal Reserve… Trump’s debt & deficits, his wars, the collapse of his tariff policy, the failure that is DOGE… Trump’s failure to rein in billionaires, corporate, monopoly, private equity, and Wall St. greed… are wholly responsible for America’s affordability crisis. Our depraved, debauched, day trading congress isn’t riding to America’s rescue, and neither are the courts – beyond tariffs, which leaves the Federal Reserve. But alas, even the Federal Reserve is not immune from Trump’s insatiable desire to micromanage, dominate, and control. Quite the opposite, the FED’s dual mandate stands as a direct affront to Trump’s dictatorial and spendthrift ways.
This Friday was Jerome Powell’s last day, and now, a new FED chair will take the helm: Kevin Warsh. Mr. Warsh will be the wealthiest FED chair ever appointed and is married into the Estee Lauder fortune. Given congressional failure to address corporate greed and monopoly concentration… and a President that cares zero for the American people’s finances… it will now fall upon Mr. Warsh to fight inflation. Will he step up? The history of the FED shows there are precious few Paul Volckers and a great number of Arthur Burns and Jerome Powells. Goddess only knows what Mr. Warsh promised Trump to become FED chair. Trump, Wall Street, catastrophic national debt and deficits, rabid financialization, the insatiable empire and war machine, the incompetents and idiots that make up the U.S. congress, and Wall St/M&A all thrive on cheap debt. The pressure on Mr. Warsh will be enormous.
As I’ve pointed out recently, all this free money, easy money has led to unstable prices, since 2008, has led to financial engineering, corporate consolidation, with colossal amounts of debt… which demands sacrifice. That sacrifice, w/out fail, falls upon hardworking Americans (indeed, labor throughout the West). That sacrifice is borne on the backs of children, families, and labor so the rich can grow obscenely rich… the sacrifice often arrives in the form of job cuts, suppressed real wages, nonliving wages and stripped benefits, and higher prices for products and services to pay absurd CEO pay packages, growing shareholder returns, endless demand for stock buybacks and manipulation, and service epic debt. In short, central bank free money is a direct threat to the FED’s dual mandate, democracy, and the American people. America is told we are at or near maximum employment and yet, 65% to 70% of Americans don’t earn a living wage, which I estimate – using the 30% rule of rents - at eighty thousand dollars per annum.
Will Mr. Warsh stand up to Trump, will Mr. Warsh stand up to congress and force them to earn their pay and make hard budgetary decisions… will the new FED chair shut down the imperial war machine and foreclose upon financial engineering and financialization? Will Xi’s warning to Trump… Thucydides… come to life? There’s one sure way to shut down the house of cards, put a stop to the money printing, and force a long overdue conversation and debate that America’s failed elites have delayed for decades. Crisis provides opportunity, rampant greedflation provides an opportunity and cover. The most powerful man in the world could jack interest rates to the moon and shut down this catastrophe. Slam the brakes, just as Mr. Volcker did so many decades ago. Such an act would likely earn Mr. Warsh nearly universal condemnation, would take tremendous courage. And yet, that’s exactly what is required to bring greed, inflation, the U.S. empire, and Trumpian dictatorship to heel. Call it a monetary coup d’etat.
Truly, this will be Mr. Warsh’s Volcker or “let them eat ballroom” moment. I bet he chokes.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2026
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