By Todd Lassa

President Trump famously, or infamously, has never expressed a coherent foreign policy, though his introduction of the “Donroe Doctrine” with the US Military attack on Venezuela and capture of its authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, just after New Years 2026 has boosted his State Department’s belief in itself and hints at what could lead to a more coherent strategy. 

Trump is of the age to have vivid memories of news broadcasts following Cuba’s Marxist revolution of 1959, the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis of the Kennedy administration, the Mariel Boat Lift of the late Clinton administration and the custody fight over six-year-old Elián Gonzalez after he was rescued on a sinking boat between Havana and Miami (he was eventually returned to Cuba) in the second Clinton administration.

Certainly, Trump closely followed Iran’s 1979 revolution, the hostage crisis at the end of the Carter administration and chants of “Death to America” coming from leaders of the Islamic Republic in subsequent decades.

We’d bet Trump had little or no knowledge of Cuba’s dictatorship under Fulgencia Batista, from 1952 up to Fidel Castro’s revolution.

We suspect Trump does not think much about the Shah of Iran’s CIA- and MI6-assisted coup ď état of democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 (when the president was seven years old).

But the Trump administration seems to be connecting the two nations. As the war on Iran drives up oil prices, pushing the US Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index to 3.8% and putting pressure on the global economy, Trump’s State Department, led by Cuban-American Marco Rubio – who has more expertise by far than anybody else in the president’s cabinet – is using the early January attack on Venezuela and capture of Nicolás Maduro as a template for its actions in Cuba and potential capture of its former president Raúl Castro, brother of the late Fidel.

Chances of something that looks like regime change on the island are probably better than in Iran, where our initial attacks killed off palatable alternatives to the late Ayatollah Khamenei, or in Venezuela, where Trump is copacetic with the leadership of Maduro’s subordinates. Shutting off oil shipments to Cuba from Venezuela and anywhere else makes potential regime change in Cuba much easier, satisfying generations of Cuban-Americans in South Florida while opening up the possibility of Trump Organization-style beachfront projects in Havana. 

The upshot is this could happen as the US is in the middle of yet another ceasefire with Iran.

If and when Trump can finally end the war (which he has said many times has already ended, and we’ve won) with any agreement that neutralizes Iran’s nuclear enrichment program beyond what the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action achieved during the Obama administration, a Venezuela-like victory in Cuba would top the headlines, especially on Fox News and its cohorts to its right. 

This could be the sort of Trump administration “win” that would do more for the GOP in the midterms than the mid-decade gerrymanders in Republican-led states.

•••

CORRECTION: A report in Thursday's center column, "Castro, Meet Maduro?" misstated former Cuban President Raúl Castro's age. He is 94.

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FRIDAY 5/22/26

Scroll down this column for details on Debate & Donuts III, May 27

Is a “guarantee” that Iran will “never” build its own nuclear arms worth the highly inflated cost of filling your car’s fuel tank with gas and the price of food delivered to your grocer by a diesel-chugging semi-truck?

Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay has his own opinion on this in today’s right column. Please read it and weigh in with your own opinion, with an email COMMENT to editors@thehustings.news.

Also, watch for pro-MAGA Contributing Pundit Rich Corbett’s comments on the subject, also in the right column, later this week. 

•••

The Allen Theatre and The Hustings are happy to announce Talking With, Not At … Debate & Donuts III on the US war with Iran, Wednesday, May 27 at 6 p.m. Eastern time. 

Was the US Military attack on Iran at the end of February a good idea? 

Whether you lean left or right, we want to hear from you. Please join us in person at the Allen Theatre in Annville, Pennsylvania May 27.

Pre-register at info@allentheatre.com for this free event and please indicate your stand on the war, for our planning purposes. [Please note: it’s perfectly OK if you lean left and support the war or lean right and don’t. This is about free, open and civil discussion around the political horseshoe.]

Voice your opinion on the war here, at editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leaning in the subject line so we may publish your comments in the proper column. –Editors

_____
MONDAY 5/18/26

Goldphoner – The long-awaited-by-MAGA Trump T1 smartphone began shipping last week, according to USA Today. Scroll down this column for details in Monday's report.

THURSDAY 5/21/26

Republican Senators Wake Up and Take Notice – After losing his GOP primary to a self-proclaimed Donald J. Trump yes-man Tuesday, Sen. Thomas Massie (R-KY) warned the president he still has seven months remaining in his term. Lame duck Republican senators are now leading a revolt against two of President Trump’s pet programs: His golden grand ballroom with $1 million in security enhancements, where the White House East Wing used to be and his $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” paid by tax dollars from his “settlement” with the Internal Revenue Service.

The Senate is to hold an initial procedural vote Thursday evening and begin a vote-a-rama on a $70 billion-plus Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol reconciliation bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) cannot start a floor vote process until he has locked down 50 votes, Punchbowl News reports. There are 53 Republicans in the Senate.

“Imagine that,” Tillis said, “a fund that is set up to compensate people who assaulted Capitol Police officers. How absurd does that sound coming out of my mouth?”

Thune can’t count on Massie, fellow primaried Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-SC), who is not running for re-election this year, plus Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rand Paul (R-KY).

Thune might count on Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), to brings him back to 48 votes.

Earlier this week, Cassidy, Paul, Collins and Murkowski voted to advance Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-VA) war powers resolution out of the Foreign Relations Committee. Trump is expected to veto the resolution.

•••

Bibi Will Follow – In comments that contradict the nature of the relationship many analyst-pundits have understood since late February, President Trump says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will “do whatever I want” when it comes to extending the ceasefire with Iran. Trump’s comments came a day after he and Netanyahu reportedly had a tense phone call on the subject, according to The Times of Israel. 

“He’s a very good man, will do whatever I want him to do,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “And he’s a great guy. Don’t forget, he was a wartime prime minister.”

Trump’s call with Netanyahu came the day after Trump cited progress in negotiations with Iran, prompting him to (again) suddenly pull back from plans to restart military attacks on the country.

Sources have told Axios that a proposal Qatar and Pakistan drafted with input from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt would entail a “letter of intent” to end the war to begin 30 days of negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz and limitation of Iran’s nuclear program.

•••

Fuel Up – The national average price of a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.564 Thursday, up 0.9 cents from Wednesday and up $1.583 from February 28, the AAA reports. Diesel is up 0.4 cents to $5.656, or $1.859 higher than the day before the war began. 

•••

Castro, Meet Maduro? – It would take a Venezuela-like US invasion, which is not out of the question after the Trump administration’s perceived success in that operation from early last January, to bring former Cuban President Raúl Castro to trial. Cuba has no extradition treaty with the US, making that the only likely option for the Trump administration. 

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday announced indictment of Castro, 94, and four others in connection with the 1996 killing of four humanitarian workers with Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue by Cuban fighter jets in international waters (Politico). 

A Miami grand jury returned the charges following  unsealing of an investigation led by federal prosecutors in South Florida. The indictment alleges conspiracy to kill US nationals, destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder. 

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the charges a “political maneuver” without legal foundation.

This comes amidst US pressure on Cuba via sanctions, a recent visit by CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Trump administration threatening sanctions on other countries that try to deliver oil to Cuba after cutting off oil from Venezuela after that January capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro. –TL

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WEDNESDAY 5/20/26

Generalissimo of the GOP – While America’s political animals from center-right to left remain mired in arguments of where to rate Donald J. Trump on the authoritarian measurement scale (“competitive authoritarianism,” Viktor Orbán style is a popular answer), there can be no question about the president’s supreme control of the Republican Party. 

On Tuesday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) lost the Kentucky GOP primary in his bid for an eighth term in the House of Representatives. Massie, who voted to convict Trump in January 2021 for his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, introduced with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) the Epstein Files Transparency Act, voted against Trump’s One Big Beautiful spending and tax-cut bill and opposes the war on Iran, lost the primary with 46% of the vote to Kentucky farmer and ex-Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein who campaigned he will vote in lockstep with the president on everything and thus snagged 54% of the vote.

Massie’s loss came three days after fellow maverick-y Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) lost his primary to Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA). 

Trump endorsed Gallrein, of course, in the costliest House campaign on record, with an estimated $34 million spent by 4:30 p.m. Monday, the eve of the primary, according to The American Prospect. 

A day earlier, the president Truth Socialed that Massie is the “worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country” (per The Guardian).

Turn back the calendar further, to May 11, and there’s this from Trump during a campaign rally-like speech in Kentucky: “We’ve got to get rid of this loser. He’s disloyal to the Republican Party. He’s disloyal to Kentucky. And most importantly, he’s disloyal to the United States of America. He’s got to be voted out of office as soon as possible.”

Not soon enough for Trump.

Massie, who claimed victory among young voters, at least, who he said are fed up with such politics, noted that Tuesday marked six months after he and Khanna introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and Massie has seven months left in his current term.

Massie is not your typical Republican. He will not be your typical lame duck congressman.

•••

RIP Rep. Barney Frank – Capitol Hill staffers many times voted Barney Frank, Democratic congressman for a diverse suburban Boston district from 1981 to 2013, “brainiest,” “funniest,” “most eloquent” in an annual poll by Washingtonian magazine. Frank died Tuesday, age 86, at his home in Ogunquit, Maine, about a month after his friend, James Segel, said the former congressman had entered hospice care with congestive heart failure, according to The New York Times obit. 

Frank publicly declared he was gay in 1987, helping “normalize being openly gay in public life,” according to the obit. 

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 he co-sponsored with Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) “helped reshape the US financial system” after the 2007-08 financial crisis (worst since the Great Depression), according to The Wall Street Journal.

“This country has never had a congressman like Barney Frank, and the House of Representatives will not be the same without him,” President Barack Obama said upon his retirement 13 years ago.

•••

…And Worser – This supplemental to the Internal Revenue Service’s $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund settlement with President Trump’s $10 billion suit against his agency was “quietly” added Tuesday and signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, according to The New York Times: the government is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing” pending tax claims against Trump, his family and his business. 

Meanwhile … Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges, both veterans of the January 6^th attack on the US Capitol, filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop President Trump’s $1.776-billion Anti-Weaponization Fund.

•••

More Time, More or Less, for Iran – Giving a tour to reporters Tuesday of construction at his Grand Ballroom site where the White House East Wing used to be, President Trump said he was “an hour away” from new strikes on Iran when “serious negotiations” for a permanent ceasefire progressed, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, standing in for expectant White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters there are two serious pathways for Iran, according to the report: Continue to negotiate or restart the US Military campaign. Vance also repeated, in week 12 of Trump’s four- to six-week war on Iran, that this is not a “forever war.” 

•••

Fuel Up – The national average price of a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.555 Wednesday, up 2.2 cents from Tuesday and up $1.574 from February 28, the AAA reports. Diesel is up 0.2 cents to $5.652, or $1.855 higher than the day before the war began. --TL

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TUESDAY 5/19/26

TACOs for Tuesday? – It didn’t take long after President Trump’s latest threat of annihilation Monday to announce he had postponed another US Military strike on Iran. This happened not in preparation for TACO Tuesday, but because leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates begged him to hold off as negotiations are progressing (again) (per Newsweek).

The circumstances didn’t stop Mohsen Rezaei, top Iranian advisor, from taking a TACO mock. He said Trump had cancelled the military strike on his own and that Iran’s “iron fist” would force the US to retreat, even surrender.

•••

Fuel Pains – The national average price of a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.533 Tuesday, up 1.8 cents from Monday and up $1.552 from February 28, the AAA reports. Diesel is up 1.9 cents to $5.65, or $1.853 higher than the day before the war.

•••

It Gets Worse – Treasury Department General Counsel Brian Morrissey resigned Monday, seven months after he was confirmed by the Senate and hours after the department’s Internal Revenue Service announced the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund as settlement for President Trump’s suit against the agency, The New York Times reports. Morrissey worked for Trump 45’s Justice Department and was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The settlement over Trump’s $10 billion suit alleging the IRS leaked his tax returns was signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and IRS Chief Executive Frank Bisignano, according to The Wall Street Journal and will pay people who claimed they were targeted unfairly by past presidential administrations. 

A five-person commission to the Anti-Weaponization Fund to be appointed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche can be fired by the president. Blanche was to testify before a Senate subcommittee Tuesday on the Justice Department’s budget, though the settlement – considered the most blatantly corrupt by watchdog organizations and many Democrats on Capitol Hill – will certainly come up in testimony, Marketplace Morning Report notes. –TL

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MONDAY 5/18/26

$1.776B of Taxpayer Money to Trump Allies – Hours after President Trump announced he would drop his $10 billion lawsuit against his administration’s Internal Revenue Service (which was based on a leak of his returns by a federal contractor, and not a full-time federal government official), his Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” to settle to pay cases for his allies over unlawful, politically motivated investigations and prosecutions (scroll this column for earlier story), NPR’s All Things Considered reports. 

Ethics watchdogs and congressional Democrats are trying to intervene. 

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) called the “anti-weaponization fund,” apparently set at an amount to celebrate the semisesquincentennial the “single most corrupt, self-serving act of any president in American history.”

•••

T1 Details --Trump Mobile, headed up by Don Jr. and Eric has taken an estimated 600,000 deposits at $100 each, while disclaiming, “a deposit is not a purchase” and “does not guarantee a Device will be produced or made available for purchase.” The T1 will not be produced in the US as first promised, though final assembly will be here. Chipset is by Qualcomm (per The Verge) whose president and CEO, Christiana Amon, was among the oligarchs who accompanied President Trump in China last week.

•••

Tick, Tick, Tick or TACO Tuesday? – Time is just about up, again, for Iran as President Trump Truth Socialed the US ceasefire with the country will end if our enemy does not agree to a peace deal, The Guardian reports. As is usually the case, such a deal hinges on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Tehran has demanded a lasting ceasefire in Lebanon before there could be a broader peace deal.

“For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE,” Trump's Truth Social post reads.

At least TIME will BE OF THE ESSENCE Tuesday, when Trump is scheduled to meet with national security advisors to discuss next US Military steps, Axios reports. 

The ceasefire did not keep Iran from hitting the United Arab Emirates with a drone strike that caused a fire at a nuclear power plant, according to The Guardian. UAE officials called the strike a “dangerous escalation” and blamed Iran and its proxies. 

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, reported intercepting three drones.

•••

Trump Drops IRS Suit – President Trump moved Monday morning in a federal court in Florida to withdraw his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service – his own administration’s IRS – over past leaks of his tax returns, The Associated Press reports. A deal to drop the suit if the IRS paid $1.7 billion to his allies over what they claimed were unlawful, politically motivated investigations and prosecutions was not mentioned in the filing in the Florida federal court, where Trump filed the suit in 2025. 

ABC News first reported the potential $1.7 billion deal, the AP reports, which drew instant Democratic backlash. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called such a deal “unconstitutional.” 

“This, of course, is a political grievance fund that Donald Trump can use to pay off his friends,” Raskin told ABC News This Week.

•••

Fuel Pains – The national average price of a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.515, down 1.3 cents from Friday and up $1.533 from February 28, the AAA reports. Diesel was down 3.1 cents to $5.631, or $1.834 higher than the day before the war.

•••

No Crying in Politics – Two-term Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who voted to convict President Trump in January 2021 for his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election was defeated for his shot at a third term in Saturday’s GOP primary with just 25% of the vote, according to The New York Times. 

Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA), with 45% of last weekend’s vote, faces state Treasurer John Fleming in a June 27 primary runoff. Fleming is an ex-Trump administration official who garnered 28% of the vote. 

Trump Truth Socialed after the vote that Cassidy’s “disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now part of a legend, and it’s nice to see his political career is OVER!”

Conversely, Cassidy told supporters in Baton Rouge Saturday, “When you participate in a democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to. But you don’t pout. You don’t whine. You don’t claim that an election was stolen from you.” –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 5/18/26

The Allen Theatre and The Hustings are happy to announce Talking With, Not At … Debate & Donuts III on the US war with Iran, Wednesday, May 27 at 6 p.m. Eastern time. 

Was the US Military attack on Iran at the end of February a good idea? 

Whether you lean left or right, we want to hear from you. Please join us in person at the Allen Theatre in Annville, Pennsylvania May 27.

Pre-register at info@allentheatre.com for this free event and please indicate your stand on the war, for our planning purposes. [Please note: it’s perfectly OK if you lean left and support the war or lean right and don’t. This is about free, open and civil discussion around the political horseshoe.]

Voice your opinion on the war here, at editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leaning in the subject line so we may publish your comments in the proper column. –Editors

_____
THURSDAY 5/14/26

FRIDAY 5/15/26

What Hath Trump-Xi Wrought? – Not much, according to most reports and analyses. In his final remarks before departing Beijing Friday, President Trump claimed “fantastic trade deals” between the US and China. Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping settled “a lot of different problems.”

China’s warning shot at the beginning of the summit that the US must leave Taiwan’s fate to China was not one of the problems settled, The Guardian reports. Trump said “nothing’s changed” about US policy toward Taiwan, though he said he might not approve a major arms sale to the independent, democratic island northeast of Hong Kong.

Even the Murdoch-owned New York Post concluded “pomp and pageantry reigned supreme.” The NYP began its five-takeaway news piece with a much-quoted clip from Murdoch-sibling Fox News’ interview with Trump telling eponymous host Sean Hannity China’s leaders from Xi on down “are a very organized people.” 

The Fox News clip ends after one-minute, 58 seconds without revealing much else. 

NYP takeaway #2, however, says Xi has shown willingness to help Trump on Iran.

“Anybody that buys that much oil has obviously got some kind of relationship with him,” Trump said. “He’d like to see the Hormuz Strait open. He said, ‘If I could be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help.’”

But if China lets the war with Iran continue to deplete US arms stockpiles, might that make it less likely the Trump administration will complete the arms deal with Taiwan?

•••

Less Gassy – The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular dropped by half a cent Friday to $4.528, according to the AAA, while diesel also dropped a half a cent, to $5.662. That’s up $1.546 for gasoline and up $1.865 for diesel since February 27.

•••

About Those Skydance-CBS Weasels – Stephen Colbert began the last Late Show on its penultimate week with a shot at how CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil failed to get a Chinese visa in time for the Trump-Xi summit and had to host the CBS Evening News 100 miles off the Chinese coast in Taiwan. CBS news chief Bari Weiss was collateral satirical damage in the cold open. 

Colbert ended Thursday joining The Late Show founding host David Letterman dropping CBS assets from the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater. (Colbert noted that CBS barred him from the theater’s roof when he took over from Letterman, who regularly dropped watermelons and other smashable items onto the street below.)

But on Thursday’s show, Letterman and Colbert took great delight in dropping what Colbert said were the show set's custom-made guest chairs and the host’s Eames office chair from the roof, hitting and breaking a large CBS eyeball badge placed on the sidewalk. They followed that up with a couple of watermelons and a cake embossed with “The Late Show – 1993-2026.” 

Letterman thanked Colbert for “everything you’ve done for this country.” Colbert returned the compliment and asked his predecessor if he had anything else he wanted to say.

“Well, not necessarily to the audience but to the folks at CBS,” Letterman replied. “In the words of the great Ed Murrow, ‘Good night and good luck, you motherf***ers'” (CBS’ censorship).  –TL

_______________________________________________

THURSDAY 5/14/26

President Trump in Beijing – As President Xi Jinping dazzles President Trump with his country’s pomp & circumstance without public protest that lesser authoritarians sometimes suffer, the Chinese government has gone straight to the point of its number one goal of this historic two-day summit.

Taiwan.

This is the fifth paragraph of China’s readout of the first in-person meeting of Xi and Trump since 2017:

“President Xi stressed that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations. If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy. ‘Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water. Safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the biggest common denominator between China and the US. The US side must exercise extra caution in handling the Taiwan question.”

Pump up the pomp … President Trump told President Xi months ago he wanted the biggest display in the history of China, and he got it, according to NPR’s Tamara Keith. Trump and his entourage of 17 corporate leaders/oligarchs, plus Melania director Brett Ratner, who reportedly is scouting locations for his Rush Hour 4, stepped off Air Force One onto a red carpet while a military band played. 

The entourage was greeted by China’s vice president and 300 Chinese teens in matching outfits colored in Air Force One’s iconic livery, who were waiving US and Chinese flags in-sync. Trump would look forward to bilateral talks, about trade in the wake of the president’s Liberation Day tariffs from April of last year, plus teas and a grand banquet. 

Trump is hoping for announcements of big Chinese purchases of US goods, including possibly oil, US access to China’s rare earth resources and a crackdown on fentanyl coming into the US. Melanie Hart, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub told Keith on All Things Considered this adds up to the type of made-for-TV gala Trump relishes.

•••

YOUR COMMENTS on President Trump’s historic visit to China are, as always, welcome. Email editors@thehustings.news

•••

Trump’s Fed Chief Confirmed – The Senate Wednesday confirmed President Trump’s nominee for chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, by 54-45 vote, The Hill reports. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the only senator to cross the aisle and vote with the 53 Republicans.

•••

Uh-oh – We assiduously cover the Consumer Price Index and the monthly jobs reports issued by the US Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. But Wednesday evening APM’s Marketplace alerted us to another monthly number reported by the BLS, the Producer Price Index, that deserves attention. This is the inflation rate for producers that typically, eventually, get passed on to consumers when their goods come to market.

And for April, the PPI is not pretty: Up 1.4% for the month and a rate of 6% year-over-year, highest since a 6.4% annual figure as supply chains began to open up during the pandemic, in December 2022. April’s CPI rose to 3.8%, ICYMI.

You’re up next, Fed Chair Warsh.

•••

At the Pump – National average for a gallon of unleaded regular hit $4.534 Thursday, up 2.3 cents over Wednesday and $1.552 over February 27. Diesel is $5.667, up 0.8 cents over Wednesday and $1.87 over February 27. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY 5/14/26

Inflation rose 0.6% month-over-month in April, for an annual Consumer Price Index of 3.8%, the Labor Department reports. That’s up from a March CPI of 3.3% marking a reversal of the still Federal Reserve-antagonistic 2.4% for January and February, an improvement over December's extra-tariffy 2.7%. Energy rose 3.8% month-over-month in April, to equal 40% of the increase for all items. Shelter was up 0.6% for the month, with food prices up 0.5%. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]

About Your Finances – In what The Late Show host Stephen Colbert calls “chopper talk” President Trump Tuesday responded to a reporter’s question as he was about to board a helicopter on the White House lawn, on whether he considers the financial situations of Americans in light of the economic ravages of the Iran war (see CPI chart above).

“Not even a little bit,” Trump responded (per The Hill). “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump was on his way to Air Force One, which would then fly to Beijing for Trump’s economic summit Wednesday and Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for their first in-person meeting since 2017. 

Except maybe finances of these 17 Americans … Here’s the full list of American business leaders who have accompanied Trump to Beijing (as compiled by SFGate):

•SpaceX/Tesla CEO and X-Twitter owner Elon Musk

•Apple CEO (about to retire) Tim Cook

•Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

•Boeing CEO Robert “Kelly” Orrberg

•Blackrock Chairman/CEO Larry Fink

•Blackstone CEO/Co-founder Stephen Schwarzman

•Cargill Chairman/CEO Brian Sikes

•Citi Chair/CEO Jane Fraser

•Coherent CEO Jim Anderson

•GE Aerospace Chair/CEO H. Lawrence Culp

•Goldman Sachs Chair/CEO David Solomon

•Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen

•Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach

•Meta Vice President/Vice Chair Dina Powell McCormick

•Micron Chair/President Sanjay Mehrotra

•Qualcomm President/CEO Cristiano Amon

•Visa CEO Ryan McInerny

More Kirkland for China … Iran has allowed a China Costco Shipping supertanker cross through the Strait of Hormuz without paying tolls as a “gesture of goodwill,” according to a Costco official, The Wall Street Journal reports. The US war on Iran will be a talking point between Trump and Xi, as China is Iran’s closest trading partner.

•••

Care About This? – National average for a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.511 Wednesday, up $1.529 per gallon over February 27. Diesel is $5.659 per gallon, up $1.862.

•••

$4 Billion in Two Weeks – Cost of the 11-week war on Iran is up $4 billion over the last two weeks to $29 billion, Pentagon comptroller Jay Hurst told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee Tuesday (per The New York Times). 

“That’s because of updated repair and replacement of equipment costs and also just general operational costs,” Hurst told the subcommittee.

The figure does not include costs of repairing US Military installations hit by Iranian drones. Nor does it account for an apparently growing shortage of US munitions.

In back-to-back testimony before the subcommittee, war/Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to say when the Trump administration would request more money for the war effort. The White House has requested $1.5 trillion in defense spending for the coming fiscal year. –TL

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TUESDAY 5/12/26

De-Gas Tax – President Trump says he will suspend the federal gas tax, which has been frozen at 18-cents per gallon for gas and 21-cents per gallon for diesel for decades. This will require congressional approval, though for that matter so does the US war on Iran.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pushed for a temporary gas tax suspension, the Chicago Tribune reports, though member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chris Murphy (D-CT), told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Monday on The Source he’s not likely to support any such action that lets Trump extend the war. But will that backfire on Democrats who oppose even temporary gas-price relief for consumers?

Meanwhile, at the pump … Average national price for a gallon of unleaded regular continues to notch down and was at $4.504 per gallon Tuesday, down 1.6 cents from Monday and up $1.521 since February 27. Diesel inched up 1.2 cents to $5.644 per gallon, up $1.851 since the beginning of the war.

Doing the math … Which means that with the federal taxes suspended, a gallon of unleaded regular would cost you $4.324 while a gallon of diesel fuel would cost that semi delivering food to your local grocery $5.434.

•••

Project Freedom Redux? – President Trump’s plan to free blockaded oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz last week lasted a bit more than two days before the White House dropped it like a cold attorney general. 

It’s back. For now.

Trump called the Iranian counterproposal to his administration’s proposal for a ceasefire that presumably would extend or supersede the ceasefire that officially ended Monday evening “that piece of garbage they sent us – I didn’t even finish reading it,” (per The Guardian).

“I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says: “sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living.”

Trump says he’s considering restarting US Navy escorts of the ships stopped up in the Strait to try and end the blockade. Check back tomorrow.

Oil price futures rose Monday and so did the stock market, buoyed perhaps by better-than-expected Big Oil financial results last week. Or they know or understand something the rest of us don’t.

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Good Jobs Report – While we were debating the merits or lack thereof regarding socialism in America the Labor Department put out its jobs numbers for April, last Friday. And they were good, at 115,000 added last month. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3%. 

Marketplace Morning Report’s fave economist, Julia Coronado of the University of Texas at Austin and founder of MacroPolicy Perspectives LLC says the better-than-five-digit number is the result of record April temperatures, which drove growth in seasonal jobs (including, for example, construction). –TL

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MONDAY 5/11/26

Ceasefire, Not Ceasefire? – Tehran has rejected the Trump administration’s latest peace proposal, warning Iran would not hold back from responding to any new US military strikes or allow more foreign warships in the Strait of Hormuz, The Guardian reports.

President Trump Truth Socialed news of Washington’s latest proposal, which he did not detail according to NPR’s Morning Edition. The Islamic Republic’s leadership wants economic sanctions lifted and billions of dollars-worth of its liquid assets in foreign banks released.

Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Iran are engaged in a "shadow war," according to the NPR report, in which each country says it continues to intercept military drones.

About that blockade … Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS News’ Major Garrett on 60 Minutes Sunday that an end to the US-Iranian war does not necessarily mean the end of Israel’s war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. But the US-Iranian war will have to end with the US seizing Iran’s enriched uranium, Netanyahu said, which means the likely end of Iran’s support for Hezbollah, Hamas and “probably” the Houthis, Netanyahu said. 

The PM acknowledged that Israel and the US did not anticipate the likelihood that Iran would block tanker ships navigating through the Strait of Hormuz.

“I think – I’m not sure it was misread,” Netanyahu told Garrett. “But the – you know, there’s a – great risk for Iran to do it. And it took a while for them to understand how big that risk is, which they understand now. No, I – I don’t claim – perfect foresight, and nobody had perfect foresight. Neither did the Iranians.”

•••

More About That Blockade – Oil prices rose 4% Monday morning after the war of words between President Trump and Iran’s leaders escalated, but the price of unleaded regular gasoline and diesel fuel notched down a bit from weekend prices, according to AAA. The national average gas price was down 1.6 cents from Wednesday, May 6 – the last day we published prices – to $4.52, while diesel was down 3.8 cents to $5.636. Those averages are up $1.537 for gas and $1.839 for diesel since just before the war began February 28.

•••

Up on The Hill – The Senate is in session Monday with confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell with Kevin Warsh a top priority for Republicans. Off the floor, Senate Republicans are preparing for upcoming votes on budget reconciliation bills, including $1 billion in funding for Secret Service security upgrades for Trump’s ballroom on the former site of the White House East Wing and a filibuster-proof bill for immigration enforcement spending, according to CQ Roll Call.

The House of Representatives returns Tuesday with 2027 military construction and Veterans’ Affairs spending and biofuels legislation on its agenda.

Democrats are expected to force action on war powers in each chamber, Roll Call reports. – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 5/11/26

The Army-McCarthy Hearings, 1954 [PHOTO: Library of Congress, Thomas J. O’Halloran]

By Todd Lassa

After former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was hospitalized May 3^rd with pneumonia President Trump blamed the far left, Truth Socialing, “what a tragedy he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL.”

[READ ‘The Economics of Engagement’ by Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay in The Gray Area.]

After Trump took office for his second time last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) launched his Fighting Oligarchy Tour, co-starring his fellow democratic socialist (note the lower-case “d” and “s”), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). 

Political rhetoric from the progressive left is that the nation is becoming – or has become – a tech-oligarchy under the Trump White House, with David Sachs, Peter Thiel and, of course, Elon Musk leading the way.

Once politically liberal – at least on social issues -- Silicon Valley and even its cosmopolitan bastion of the left to the north, San Francisco, are leaning rightward from the influence of those tech-oligarchs, who oppose DEI, city streets open to the unhoused and neighborhoods open to the undocumented, and especially, Democratic politicians proposing wealth taxes and imposing stiffer corporate regulations.

Are these tech-oligarchs hard-right populists? Laissez-faire capitalists? Straight-up libertarians (though not in terms of religious beliefs)? All of the above?

Likewise, are politicians like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani who favor rent control, free city buses and those wealth taxes progressives? Socialists? Marxists? All of the above?

That’s the question tackled by our pro-MAGA right-column Contributing Pundit Rich Corbett and left-column Contributing Pundit K.E. Bell. 

In the spirit of our no echo chamber civil media ethos, please be sure to read both columns and consider voicing your own opinion on the issue with an email to editors@thehustings.news and be sure to indicate your political leaning in the subject line, irrespective of which side here you agree or disagree with.

THU-FRI 5/6-7/26

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THURSDAY 5/7/26