Trump posts this image of him as Jesus Christ…
And a lot of Christians now see this…
and this…
After my post on Saturday, “Is it just me???” Texas Dan brought something to my attention…and I just had to do some follow-up on it.
So last year on multiple occasions President Trump claimed the title “Peace President” for himself. And last year he appealed directly to Norway’s leaders to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. And when he didn’t receive the Nobel Peace Prize he complained bitterly to Norway, and publicly complained about not winning.
Item #1 – Data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) indicates US forces, under orders from Trump, have executed or partnered in 622 air and drone strikes across seven countries in 2025 alone.
Item #2 – On orders from Trump…in just 2026 US forces bombed at least 7 different countries; Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria.
Item #3 – Venezuela and Iran represent two sovereign nations that the US military, under orders from Trump, have either kidnapped or killed their leaders; and have, or currently are, committing regime change.
Item #4 – The US, under Trump’s leadership, is still supporting the Ukraine in its war with Russia. Hundreds of thousands of casualties from both sides, military and civilians in the last year.
Item #5 – The US, under Trump’s leadership, still supports Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. And in 2025 the estimates are 10’s of thousands of casualties, more than 2,000 death…mostly civilians…at the hands of US backed and US funded Israel.
Item #6 – Trump claims he ended 6 wars in his second term. Problem is…there is no independent verifiable list of him ending any war or conflict. Even the peace agreement between Israel and Gaza hasn’t held…1200 Palestinian casualties, including at least 300 deaths since the so-called “peace agreement”; 11 killed just last week.
Item #7 –15 Months Ago, Donald Trump Promised “I’m Not Going to Start Wars, I’m Going to Stop Wars”. During his 2024 campaign for President Trump pledged, “no new wars”. Let me think about that one for a minute…
So maybe Trump shouldn’t be so surprised he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize. And, just a thought, maybe he should stop whining about it. “Peace President”…doesn’t seem like it to me…how about you?
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Look, I’m not professional economist, numbers brainiac, wealth manager, or banker…but, I think I have a pretty good grasp on what is happening economically. But then again…what the heck does a senior citizen (i.e. old) retired firefighter wannabe glamsteader know? Let me take a stab at answering a couple of questions that came to me.
Well, that answer depends on who is answering it, there are generally two answers…both of which are correct…but, the first is caused by the latter.
First answer: the general increase in the price of goods and services.
Second answer: the decrease in the purchasing power of money caused by the increase in money supply.
There is a third answer but it is the weakest and least reliable: supply and demand. This is generally referred to as “too much money chasing too few goods.” But, the “too much money” part of it is caused by the money supply being increased. There is a semi-accurate, although seldom, aspect of “supply and demand”.
To get this out of the way first off…I will give you a “supply and demand” example but it is seldom actually seen in real life. Let’s say there is a state, call it Ohio. For this example say there are 100’s of farmers raising cattle, thousands and thousands of them. Now Ohio hits a dry year and 2million of the 12million residents also leave due to immigrants being deported and companies closing. So we see lot’s of people leaving (demand lowering) and farmers selling off cattle due to the cost of hay & feed skyrocketing (supply increasing). At the livestock sale barns the price of cattle goes down due to way more cattle being taken to market and far fewer people buying hamburger. But, these types of “supply and demand” issues are usually short lived and not indicative of the economy in general.
Now on to real life…
We all can see inflation easily when we go to the store and see an item that was $2.99 two years ago now priced at $3.99. Even worse when viewed over a 10 or 50 year time span. An obvious example would be home prices. In 1965 the average house price was less than $22,000. In 2025 the average house price was $360,000. That’s an increase of 1536% in 60 years. Few reasonable people could question that is a huge increase in price.
So you go back a bunch of years and “inflation” meant one thing…an increase in the money supply. When you think about it, when you just use the term inflate, what comes to mind? Yup, to make something bigger, like a balloon or football.
When you talk about the price of goods and services going up what comes to mind is a price “increase” not price “inflation”. So the term “inflation” when applied to economics has become seriously transformed/corrupted over the years.
So, when you see prices go up it becomes necessary to compare it to the money supply. Let’s start by looking at US inflation, the best way to do that is to look at $1,000 in 1900 by 1965 you would need $4,000 to have the same “buying power” as the original $1,000 in 1900. That means the original $1,000 (money) lost ¼ of its buying power over 65 years. Now, look at the next 60 years…1965 – 2025. In 2025 you would need $38,000 to match the same “buying power” of the $4,000 in 1965. That is a HUGE loss of buying power. It takes nearly 10 times more dollars (money) to equal the same buying power.
What? Yup, when you look at it that way…the dollar lost most of its value from 1965 – 2025. The reality comes into focus when you see the average price of a home go from $22,000 to $360,000 during that same times period. Simply put…the dollar lost a huge amount of value…most of its value actually.
When you look at the inflation chart for that $1,000 in 1900 you see it is pretty stable for the most part until about the mid-1970’s. What happened then to make a huge spike begin? The United States went off the gold standard and became a fiat currency.
In 1900 the average price of a home in the US was about $2000 and could be bought with 95 ounces of gold. In late Sept 2025 the average price of a home in the US was about $360,000 and could be bought for about 95 ounces of gold. Do you see a relationship there?
The price of gold and the price of a home each went up 180 times; meaning that it took $180 in 2025 to equal $1 from 1900. That equates to the dollar lost most of its value in 125 years!
So why does the price of gold fluctuate in comparison to the dollar? It doesn’t. The value of the dollar fluctuates in comparison to the value of the gold. That is the whole point. In Sept 2025 it took $3760 to buy an ounce of gold. In 1900 it only took $21 to buy an ounce of gold. The dollar in 1900 was super strong…in Sep 2025 the dollar was super weak.
Now gold is about $5,200 per ounce. That means the value of the dollar went down just about 38% in five months (Sept 2025 – Feb 2026).
I will give ground on one thing…in the last 25 years gold has taken on an element of speculation. Meaning, people are “betting” the dollar goes up or down based on what the future US and world economies look like, along with the global geopolitical outlook as well. So the price gold became a “bet” or “gamble” to some degree. But it is still tied to the value of the dollar…the “bet” that the dollar will go up or down in price. And people were buying gold to hedge that bet. Meaning that gold would hold its value and offset the loss of value in the dollar. Why do people “bet” on the value of the dollar? Because the dollar has no intrinsic value…it has no value in and of itself…it is a speculation or guess of what it can buy at some future point in time.
Bottom line…when you see the price of gold go up, the value of the dollar is going down. When gold goes down, the value of the dollar goes up. Gold is not changing value, the dollar is changing price.
That same principle applies to most prices of everything…when money supply goes up…prices go up because the value of the dollar is going down. That is called inflation in true terms.
Theoretically, yes. What the principle is that…the value of the dollar in 10, 20, or 30 years from now is much lower than the value of the dollar in today’s terms. As the money supply increases the value of dollar goes down. So, the Fed increases the money supply to stratospheric heights driving the “value” of the dollar down. Thus, a dollar used to pay the debt in 30 years is worth only a fraction of what it is now. And remember, it is the Federal Reserve (private bankers) that control the money supply, the national debt, and the interest rate paid on that debt.
In theory that means that the Fed could simply digitally create $39trillion dollars right now and pay off all the US national debt tomorrow. Done! Over! No more US debt. Nice! Sweet! Clean slate!
But here’s the catch…the current US money supply is about $22trillion. And the Fed now creates $39trillion to pay off the debt. What happens to the value of the dollar?
Think of it this way…Today there is money supply of $22trillion, tomorrow there is money supply of 61trillion US dollars ($39trillion addition to pay off the national debt). The very best case scenario…the value of the dollar is cut by about 60%. Yup, that means for every dollar you had in the bank it is now only worth 40cents in terms of buying power.
That is how the US government (via the Federal Reserve) could inflate its way out of debt…destroying the value of the dollar. Think of it this way…milk is about $3.50 per gallon today…tomorrow it would be right at $9.00 per gallon. That is called inflation…and inflating our way out of national debt.
Ask yourself this…if the Fed along with the US gov’t decided to inflate its way out of debt today…would your salary go up 2.6 times to match the inflation rate? The 2025 average salary in the US was about $66,000. That means overnight that salary would have to go to $172,000 just to maintain the same buying power.
That is called hyper-inflation.
You see, it is not about national debt, inflation rate, price of gold, or the value of the dollar…none of that! It is about “buying power” of a dollar. And folks…we are losing that fight BIG TIME!!! Yup, the buying power of the dollar keeps tanking year after year after year.
Question to ask yourself…Why is that happening? What is the purpose behind it?
Consider this…the 3-fold mission of the Federal Reserve is to conduct the nation’s monetary policy to promote:
In 1913 the US federal government turned over that authority to a group of private bankers to control those 3 things. Have you ever wondered “why?”
And actually, ask yourself this…What gives the US federal government the “authority” to control those things, let alone turn that authority over to a group of private banks?
But maybe about now you are starting to see why the economy is a complete wreck, for over 50 years the middle-class has been disappearing, we have no hope of ever paying off the national debt in a responsible way, and the dollar is virtually worthless compared to 112 years ago when the Fed took over controlling the country’s economy.
Wait, here’s my bottom line…
What are you doing to prepare for these continued economic problems and the coming crash?
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Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said…”OOOpppppsssss!” On Friday they announced that their 2025 job creation numbers were off by 900,000. Yeah, BLS…the Federal Government…overestimated the number of jobs created in 2025 by nearly a million. Son of a gun…just a minor mistake…no big deal.
Knowing the government’s track record do you think it might have even been worse?
Oh, but wait…BLS announced DOUBLE the number of jobs created in January 2026 vs expert projections…DOUBLE!!!! Yeah, happy times are here again!!!!
Oh, wait…BLS reported that January estimate on the “birth-death model”…which is notoriously unreliable. And that model is well known to be inaccurate and to significantly overestimate actual jobs created. Of course that is only based on the model’s historic performance numbers…you know, facts. So what’s the big deal…right?
To reinforce the fact that the economy is headed downward 10year Treasury yields jumped from 4.15% to 4.2%…a notable move indicating an increase in concern about the economy. As a secondary effect is it makes it more expensive for the federal government to borrow money…which it is doing at an alarming and near historic rate.
And last Tuesday it was released that in 2026 Trump’s tariffs will cost each US household over $100 per month. If you look at it in “tax” terms, it is the largest tax increase in almost 40 years. That equates to about an additional 2% loss of disposable income for middle-income households.
Try this one on…in January 2026 there were over 40,000 home foreclosure filings. But that is a fluke…an anomaly…right? Well, not exactly…it is the 11th straight month of increase in home foreclosures. Oh, and increase of 32% over a year ago.
Don’t forget that last month I reported Macy’s, Kroger, Walgreens, Wendy’s, JCPenny, Saks Off 5th, Yankee Candle, Orvis, REI, Foot Locker, GameStop, and Carters have all announced huge numbers of store closings. Also, Big Lots filed for bankruptcy in early January. Now add Eddie Bauer, Saks Global, Fat Brands, Francesca, and Sailormen to that list of bankruptcies. The Economic Times reported on February 12th, at least 18 companies with $50 million or more in liabilities have gone under in the last three weeks alone.
As further indication of a problem in the economy…Bitcoin is down 34% since Trump was elected. And Bitcoin is down 45% from its high 6 months ago. You know Bitcoin…the cryptocurrency that has ZERO tangible value to it. You know what I mean…Bitcoin has no intrinsic value whatsoever…”thin air” to quote our President (during his first term).
But speaking of cryptocurrency…There is one HUGE winner in the cryptocurrency part of the economy…the Trump Family. The cryptocurrency World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is making HUGE profits…for the Trump family. Latest reports show the Trump family has made over a BILLION dollars in pure profit from WLFI since they founded it in 2024…you know…right before Trump was elected President. Problem…ah, WLFI is down 68% since its start. To recoup that loss WLFI would have to go up 300%…yeah, just to break even. Trump family owns 60% of WFLI.
Just a thought on Trump and cryptocurrency…during his first term Trump declared Bitcoin “not money” and criticized it as “highly volatile and based on thin air.” He cautioned that “crypto assets helped facilitate illegal underground markets.” Yeah but…in the summer of 2024 the crypto industry poured $26,000,000 into Trump campaign for President. Oh yeah…that was right before WFLI was founded by the Trump family. Oh, and one last thing…I already mentioned that the Trump family has already made a BILLION dollars ($1,000,000,000) in profit…but the Trump family holdings of WFLI has made the Trump family an additional 5 BILLION dollars net worth richer on top of the BILLION $’s of pure profit. So not all parts of the economy are doing poorly.

While the Trump family is adding $6 BILLION to their net worth the economy is tanking, bankruptcies are soaring, home foreclosures are out of control, inflation is eating low & middle-class Americans alive, the federal budget deficit grows, the national debt grows, consumer debt grows…and on and on and on. Hummm…Am I just being paranoid, not seeing the bigger picture, suffering from TDS, or is there actually something odd about all of that?
Oh well, moving on…
Personal bankruptcies hit over 500,000 in 2025…the highest since the Great Recession in 2009. For 2026 personal bankruptcies are running more than 11% above that rate. Corporate bankruptcies are running 76% over last year.
Okay, I’m not going to keep going on…you get the point…could 2026 be a “crash” year?
Maybe, I don’t know. For us mere common folk…get ready…get prepared…this may need your attention.
You decide…I have.
2009 - 2026 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved No reproduction or other use of this content without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed. I may receive compensation from advertised/mentioned products on this website. See Content Use Policy for more information.
Remember the book “1984” by George Orwell? At the time it was Orwell’s view of the future. Now, depending on which US political party is in power, the book is used by the opposing party to criticize the government and the party in power. Yup, claiming all the evils in the book against the opposition. The pendulum is well known to swing after the results of the next election. I myself used the relativism during the Obama and Biden years myself. I should have done more during the Bush years…both Bush’s.
If you remember from the book there are three main super-powers in the world; Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. They are continually at war with each other resulting in huge causalities and mammoth consumption of resources on all sides. Peace alludes them, and their respective governments use continual “war” as one way to unite & control their populations.
Oceania, is led by Big Brother, a dictatorial leader, staunchly and blindly supported by a virtual cult…a
cult of personality based on Big Brother…blind obedience is required. In Oceania the government is everywhere, it is a violent police state, surveillance of everything and everybody, there is a constant stream of propaganda from the government, and there is widespread persecution of individualism and independent thinking. You are either with the party and obey the government, or you are “dealt with”.
Over the years I’ve heard lots of comparisons with different aspects of life in the world, countries, leaders, etc.. Not long ago I heard that Eurasia was the USSR/Russian Empire (includes Europe), Eastasia was the Chinese Empire (all of Asia and Africa), and Oceania was the American Empire (western hemisphere). Could seem possible…but still somewhat in the future. Although it does appear that we are at war with China for the last 10 years and with Russia for the last 80 years. And most recently some say we appear to be willing to go to war, at least economically, with Europe and all NATO countries. And with the recent re-implementation of the Monroe Doctrine, it looks like the US is creating an Oceania by subjugating all other countries in the western hemisphere. But I am not buying into all of these comparisons just yet…potentially not at all.
What if 1984 wasn’t about three world super-powers such as the empires just mentioned?
First off, George Orwell wasn’t “George Orwell” at all; he was actually Eric Arthur Blair. “George Orwell” was his pen name. But, we will continue to call him George Orwell. He was born in India, but a British citizen, and grew up in England. He staunchly opposed totalitarianism, authoritarianism, communism, fascism, and democratic socialism. Few know he was a combat veteran and fought in the Spanish Civil War. He was also a police officer for a portion of his life. Interestingly, Orwell’s wife worked in England’s Censorship Department of the Ministry of Information during WW2. Some irony there.
Back to my thought about 1984…
There have been plenty of parallels drawn between 1984 and the world. Many have speculated that Oceania was, and is, the United States. Any reasonable person can see that as being applicable at different times in the last 80 years. But what if it isn’t about the “world” and Oceania isn’t the US? I was thinking this morning about an alternative.
What if it was all about the US…but in a different sense?
What if two of the 1984 super-powers are the US political parties, Republicans & Democrats, and the third super-power
being Independents? Think about that for just a minute…both the Republican Party and Democrat Party are super-powers in the US…the only actual political super-powers. They each run the country, sometimes with absolute authority when/if they are in office holding power…especially if they control both Houses of Congress. Both parties “disappear” those who violate the norms of their leadership and question the party.
Look at the US Presidents for the last 100 years…with rare exception they have been very strong personalities with virtual cult-like followings. That is especially true with at least 3 out of the last 4 US Presidents. The sole exception in the last 100 years was definitely Jimmy Carter…worthless…milk toast.
Continuing the comparison…both parties spew nothing more than propaganda supporting their party’s positions and achievements; and the government spews propaganda that is designed to keep itself in unquestioned power. No one can realistically challenge that the US is a
surveillance state. A strong case, could be made that the US is also a police state for the last 25 years…or very close to it…and getting closer every day.
You look as someone like Rand Paul and his father before him, Ron Paul, they were regularly criticized when they broke with the Republican Party and
took an independent position. That was true even when they opposed the Republican Party and embraced a principle of the Founding Fathers and/or held a strict Constitutional position. Recently you can see the same thing when it comes to the Epstein Files…advocates for release on either side of the aisle are often criticized by their party leadership either publicly or privately. There is a long list of Republicans on the “black list” with this current administration for doing so, MTG being the latest high-profile example…15 more added to the list last week.
Both parties appear to be continually at war with each other. It’s hard to find a single issue with which both parties can agree. There are some rare issues where they readily agree; expanding the national debt, large annual budget deficits, draconian federal law enforcement and surveillance powers, military might, etc.. Yeah, basically they can agree on virtually anything that gives the federal government power over individuals…at the expense of rights, liberties, and freedoms of US citizens. Anyone who disagrees with either or both parties…well, it appears that both parties despise these individuals…especially when they are collectively referred to as “independents”.
Think about this round of statistics of a recent poll:
That poll result is when people are asked to identify with a particular party or if they even “lean” towards a particular party…but they are only given two party choices. But when given three choices; Republican, Democrat, or Independent the results are a significantly different:
When you get right down to it there are three groups of Americans, politically speaking. There are two organized political groups and one group that doesn’t like either political party. But which two parties are the ones obsessed with, and lust for, power? Yup, the Republicans and Democrats…two political super-powers. Which parties have run-up the national debt? Which parties have accrued massive annual budget deficits? Which parties have voted over and over again to give draconian laws to the federal government? Which parties have allowed torture of America’s enemy prisoners? Which parties are ever-so-ready to get us into wars? Which parties…
Well, you get my point…the answer is unquestionably both political parties.
Back to 1984…what if the book is all about the US? What if the book is about continual war between political parties?
What if the US is (and has been) led by Big Brother(s), dictatorial leader(s), all of whom are staunchly and blindly
supported by a virtual cult (political party members)…a cult of personality based on party leadership (i.e. Presidents)…requiring blind obedience to the party and its leadership.
In Oceania the government was everywhere; is it not the same in the US? Is the federal government creating a police state, surveillance of everything and everybody…or has it done so already? Does the federal government spew a constant stream of propaganda? In the world of politics is there not widespread persecution of individualism and independent thinking? Do both parties demean and revile “independents”…at the same time seek their votes? Are we not seeing that people are either with the party or they are demonized? Are we not seeing now in some quarters that you are either blindly with the government or you are demonized?
Odd, 1984…the world? The US? The political ideology of the US?
No wonder George Washington warned us against political parties and their lust for power…and how it would ruin the country. No wonder the Founding Fathers were so concerned about an all-powerful central government. No wonder that the Constitution was designed to severely limit the power of the federal government.
And no wondering why we are in the situation we now find ourselves.
2009 - 2026 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved No reproduction or other use of this content without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed. I may receive compensation from advertised/mentioned products on this website. See Content Use Policy for more information.