“Why They’re Panicking Right Now” – Victor Davis Hanson

The Delusional Defense: How the Establishment Tries to Blame the Fixer for the Hyperinflation They Created

The sheer political theater surrounding America’s current economic climate is staggering in its brazen dishonesty. An entire generation is suffocating under the crushing weight of affordability crises—a direct and measurable result of four years of reckless policy—and the Democratic establishment has the unmitigated gall to blame the new administration for not instantly erasing their disastrous legacy. This is not a policy debate; it is a display of breathtaking hypocrisy, where the architects of the economic collapse are attempting to weaponize the lingering effects of their own mistakes to prevent the necessary course correction.

📉 The Inflation Inversion: Blaming 2.7% for the Sins of 9.1%

The root of the current affordability crisis is the brutal, runaway hyperinflation unleashed during the preceding administration.

The Disaster Years (Biden Administration): Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), spiked to a 40-year high, peaking at 9.1% in June 2022. The average annual inflation rate for the previous four years stood near 5%. This is the measurable reality of “paychecks becoming worthless and grocery bills doubling.”

The Current Reality (Trump Administration, first 10 months): The inflation rate is now hovering around 2.7% (and projected to average near 2.9% for the year).

The illogical leap the opposition is demanding is simple: they want the new administration to be held responsible for not instantly achieving zero inflation—a feat they never accomplished themselves—while simultaneously running an economy that has already seen the inflation rate drop from a high of 9.1% to a manageable 2.7%. Their strategy is transparently cynical: obstruct every solution, watch the lingering high prices they caused fuel public anger, and then pivot to say, “See? Nothing works, give us back the keys.” This is the playbook of demolition, not governance.

⛽ Energy: The Stark, Measurable Contrast

Affordability is most keenly felt at the gas pump, and this is where the policy contrast is sharpest and most easily communicated. The new administration correctly identified that energy independence is the fastest way to put real money back into people’s pockets.

The Preceding Record (Biden Administration): Average gasoline prices remained above $3.00 per gallon for nearly the entirety of the prior administration, soaring to an all-time high of $4.76 per gallon in the spring of 2022.

The Current Achievement (Trump Administration, first 10 months): By rapidly expanding federal land leases and aggressively deregulating production, oil output has increased. The nationwide average price for gasoline has dropped to $2.98 per gallon, which the White House touted as the lowest intra-day price in four years. This is a spectacular difference, a savings of roughly $0.48 per gallon compared to the prior average.

This is not a theoretical model; it is measurable savings for every single working family who drives. The mainstream media’s failure to give this monumental achievement “proper coverage” is not a surprise; it is a calculated effort to protect a failed political narrative.

📊 Economic Health: Dispelling the Doom Predictions

The media machine spent the preceding months screaming about an imminent economic apocalypse, forecasting a catastrophic recession, a stock market collapse, and a devastating trade war. Their predictions were not only wrong but spectacularly reversed by the facts:

GDP Growth: Economic growth is solid. Real GDP increased 2.8% in the full year 2024, and current quarter-to-quarter estimates show strong growth, with the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank even suggesting it could hit as high as 4%. This represents a fundamentally healthy, expanding economy.

Market Performance: The stock market continues to hit all-time record highs, boosting retirement accounts and signaling strong investor confidence, the exact opposite of the predicted “collapse.”

Every single apocalyptic scenario—from the devastating tariff trade war to the inevitable recession—turned out to be false, exposing the media’s narrative as one fueled by political desperation rather than economic analysis.

🚧 The Sabotage Strategy: Shutdowns, Interest Rates, and Illegality

The administration is not only battling the effects of past failures but fighting a coordinated, multi-front war of political sabotage designed to “stall this economy before the midterms arrive.”

The Government Shutdown: Orchestrated to cause chaos and create a “drag on growth,” the longest government shutdown in American history was a blatant weaponization of governance. It ignored the preceding administration’s own moralizing about the illegality of using shutdowns as a political tool. The real objective was not a policy outcome, but the strategic slowing of the economic engine.

The Federal Reserve’s Resistance: The Federal Reserve, under Jerome Powell, continues to resist lowering interest rates, a move that would immediately make housing more affordable by allowing ordinary Americans to obtain 30-year mortgages at reasonable 4% to 5% rates. With inflation sitting at tolerable levels (2.7% to 2.9%), the resistance to lowering rates—despite strong economic growth—appears driven by political motivations, keeping the cost of borrowing and the affordability crisis artificially inflated.

🏛️ Long-Term Transformation: The $400 Billion Commitment

The path to securing a political victory and a sustained economic recovery lies in constantly articulating the vision of long-term transformation, backed by concrete numbers that illustrate fiscal responsibility and energy dominance.

Fiscal Responsibility: The use of tariffs has generated $400 billion in revenue, dramatically contrasting with the paltry $77 billion in tariff revenue collected in the last year of the preceding administration. By wisely applying this $400 billion directly to deficit reduction, the President is sending an unambiguous signal to financial markets: that the dangerous ratio of federal debt to GDP will be managed, strengthening the dollar and reassuring investors.

Immigration and Resource Consumption: The administration has achieved the deportation of 2 million people in one year and is on track to match or exceed that number, a feat never before accomplished. This removal of an estimated 3 to 5 million people from the workforce and social welfare programs will have a massive, positive effect on taxpayer burdens, job availability, and wage growth for American citizens.

Energy Dominance: In addition to the current 1 million barrel increase in oil production, projections suggest a further increase of 2 to 3 million additional barrels, which will continue to drive energy prices dramatically lower for consumers and businesses.

The bottom line is that the administration is engaged in a decisive race against the midterm clock, a race where it must break through the politically motivated narratives of the media, the Federal Reserve, and the Democratic establishment. The numbers speak for themselves: the economy is fundamentally strong, the causes of the current affordability crisis are rooted in the disastrous policies of the past, and the solutions being implemented are designed for sustained prosperity, not quick, inefficient fixes. If the message breaks through, the economic performance will undoubtedly “take off spectacularly and vindicate his entire approach.”