A veteran Republican strategist has questioned whether President Donald Trump even knows how to end the economic crisis sparked by his war in Iran.
Political operative Chuck Coughlin, who leads the public affairs firm HighGround, suggested there is no indication that the erratic 79-year-old president will be able to address rising gas prices, control inflation, or deal with oil climbing above $100 a barrel, all problems caused by the president dragging the U.S. into a Middle East conflict.
“The thing that underlines every strong economy is consistency and progress, things that promote confidence, and I just don’t see any of those attributes being displayed on a disciplined, routine basis by the White House,” Coughlin told Politico.
“Most of the country is looking at the president and going: ‘What is he doing?’”
Trump has repeatedly suggested that the war in Iran will end soon, even though there is no real indication that this is true. The president will not be able to declare victory while Iran continues to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping route through which around one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.
Trump has also insisted that the multibillion-dollar war is going well, while simultaneously demanding that multiple countries, including China, immediately help the U.S. resolve the Strait of Hormuz crisis and free up trapped Gulf oil shipments.
The fallout from the war in Iran could have a devastating effect on the Republican Party in November’s midterms, where the GOP is widely expected to suffer major losses.
Trump was already recording dire polling numbers on his handling of the economy since returning to the White House, with the 79-year-old frequently dismissing suggestions that tens of millions of Americans are suffering through a cost-of-living crisis.
The voter backlash could get even worse for Trump, with the Pentagon preparing to ask the White House to request more than $200 billion from Congress to continue funding the U.S. war effort, according to The Washington Post.
“Until this war happened, everyone thought we were going to have a pretty good growth year,” Bob Elliott, the co-founder, CEO, and CIO of the investment firm Unlimited Funds, told Politico. “Now it’s pretty clear that growth is going to be soft.”
In response to the criticism, a White House spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “President Trump and his Administration have consistently slashed regulations, cut taxes, encouraged investment, and raised real wages.”
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced that interest rates will hold steady while citing uncertainty surrounding the war in Iran. Powell, a longtime nemesis of Trump after resisting the president’s demands to lower interest rates, also cited the conflict as one of Trump’s policies that have damaged the economy.
“It has been five years, and we had the tariff shock, the pandemic, and now we have an energy shock of some size and duration. We don’t know what that will be yet,” Powell said.
