Inflation, a general rise in prices, increased in April due to higher costs for energy primarily, at 40%; food; and shelter.

"The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, after rising 0.9% in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.8 percent before seasonal adjustment."

Energy prices are up in no small way due to the unprovoked US-Israel war against Iran begun on February 28, 2026. That violation of international law has caused 3,468 deaths and over 26,500 injuries in Iran, according to Iranian authorities, and closed the Strait of Hormuz.

An estimated 20% of the world's petroleum passes through this route, which was open for business before the war began. Moreover, that closure is evidence of a US defeat, writes Robert Kagan, a leading neoconservative and Iraq War hawk who co-founded the Project for the New American Century, in The Atlantic magazine recently.

To say the impacts of the Trump tariffs on aluminum, steel, and other commodities from abroad has been chaotic understates the case.

There's another factor driving inflation, according to Dan Anthony, head of We Pay The Tariffs, a grassroots coalition of nearly 1,200 small US businesses that advocates against tariffs. “Tariffs raise prices," he said in a statement. Basically, the tariffs are part of a trade war spurring inflation.

Recall that President Donald Trump imposed tariffs, or taxes on imports from US global trading partners, on March 4, 2025. The tariff rates have increased and decreased since then. To say the impacts of the Trump tariffs on aluminum, steel, and other commodities from abroad has been chaotic understates the case.

Recent research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas agrees with Anthony's assessment of tariffs and inflation. The Fed researchers found that import-dependent businesses passing along the cost of tariffs on imports have added a full percentage point to the inflation of consumer prices. What can be done?

“There aren’t many levers the government can pull to lower prices," according to Anthony, "but permanently eliminating tariffs is one of them." That is accurate and also unlikely at least in the short term. Further, a brief look back reveals another presidential lever available, and a precedent for it, one that coincides with a past US military defeat and its role in........

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