The midterm elections are already upon us, and every Democrat and Independent running against a Republican should ask voters the question Ronald Reagan asked on 28 October 1980, at the end of his televised debate against Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off now than you were before this presidency?”

Unless you’re very, very rich, the answer is obviously: “No, I’m worse off.”

Start with his tariffs, which are costing every American household an average of $1,100 annually, according to the Yale Budget Lab. (If you don’t trust Yale, the conservative Tax Foundation estimated last year’s tab to be $1,000 per household.)

Even cleaning supplies and toilet paper are up at least 5%. Household furnishings, up at least 8%. Clothing, up at least 14%. Trump’s tariffs have also increased the costs of big-ticket items such as cars and made it more expensive to build new homes.

Other studies find that the tariffs have added as much as 0.7 and 0.5 percentage points to the consumer price index and the personal consumption expenditures price index, respectively.

Then there’s Trump’s war in Iran, which is driving up energy and food prices, as oil tankers remain stranded in the strait of Hormuz.

The war is costing more at the gas pump – about $670 more per household since the war began. Americans face what The Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers describe as “a worsening utility debt crisis”. The groups wrote in an analysis published last month:

Energy bills have increased three times faster than the rate of inflation while Trump has been president. The national average monthly........

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