War Tax Report: 07/18/2026

Paying less than $4 for a gallon of gas was nice for the two weeks it lasted. Now it’s back to $4 again and – almost certainly – headed higher since the Strait of Hormuz is closed again, shutting off much of the world’s oil supply. Trump has been using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to buffer the effects of this, but the SPR is reportedly getting close to being tapped out and when that happens, Trump will no longer be able to buffer the consequences of this stupid, evil war he refuses to end.

Why does he not choose to end it? A number of possible reasons come to mind, all of them stupid and evil. He cannot abide being seen as a “loser” – no matter what it costs us (he himself is not paying any costs and won’t, just like Dr. Fauci and Albert Bourla; the people who cause real harm almost never pay any costs; costs – like taxes – are for the “little people,” as Leona Helmsley once put it). Israel cannot abide the Iranians winning, which they have so far. Iran is a stumbling block in the way of their Greater Israel project and Trump is the Golem put in place to further that project. He may be a willing Golem. It does not matter. What does is that he is a Golem for interests that are not in America’s interests.

The interesting thing is that ending the war would be a win for Trump – and America. Most Americans want the war to end; they want to stop paying the War Tax. Trump would be seen – accurately, this time – as the president who ended a war (even if he did start it). Still, ending is much better than starting – and continuing. If the war really ended – not a temporary pause for a couple of weeks – and predictability replaced chaos, the oil would begin flowing again and the SPR would be refilling. A great sigh of relief could be heard – echoing to the surface of the Moon and beyond.

It is interesting that Trump does not grasp this – apparently. It is possible he’s so blinded by his own ego that he cannot see it. That the cordon of braying yes men who surround him echo him so loudly he can’t hear the voice of reason (e.g., Charlie Kirk’s – though Charlie got cursed – before he got killed – for telling Trump what he did not want to hear).

Well, what now?

Will Trump keep bombing in the manner of Nixon in ’72 – hoping that if he drops enough bombs the Iranians will, at last, come back to the negotiating table? Why would they – shy of having to? General Weidling – the last commander of Berlin – had to. The Germans had lost the war. Weidling had no choice. The Iranians have a choice. What choice do you suppose they’ll make? What choice would you make if you were the Iranian in charge?

Trump could, of course, do what the Russians did to get Berlin to surrender. He could send in hundreds of thousands of ground troops – to slaughter and exhaust the hundreds of thousands of Iranian troops. In other words, he could expand the war. Make it – per Dr. Goebbels – a total war. But a war for what, again? It’s not a fight for “freedom” and good luck trying to persuade the American people that it is, no matter how loudly and often the Lee Greenwood song is played. Almost everyone is aware this war has nothing to do with their “freedoms.” While most Americans like the idea of the Iranians having their “freedom,” few of them are interested in fighting for it. Or paying for it.

Of course, they already are. The question now is how much more will they be paying for it because it appears there will be no end to it. It feels like being in the back seat of a fast car with the accelerator pedal stuck and the driver unwilling to try to un-stuck it. It must have felt this way back in the summer of 1914. A very stupid, evil war was about to start and it seemed there was no way to stop it.

What will stop Trump?

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