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How Trump’s Economy Is Crushing Everyday Americans 

As costs surge and safety nets shrink, millions of Americans are struggling to afford the basics.

Surprising pantry staples have seen spiking sales in recent months: Hamburger Helper and canned sardines. Rice and beans.

Americans aren’t just hankering for comfort food. Instead, they’re doing everything possible to stretch their dollars, choosing cheap, shelf-stable options as the rising cost of living strains household budgets. Borrowers are also increasingly falling behind on their car payments and student loans; renters are turning to “Buy Now, Pay Later” services to cover housing costs; and blood plasma sales are booming.

Yet President Donald Trump has deemed the affordability crisis a “hoax,” and he continuously boasts about the strength of the economy. All the while, an array of alarming metrics suggest that his reckless approach to domestic and foreign policy has worsened the existing strain on working people, pushing millions closer to the brink and pulling the promise of economic mobility ever further out of reach.

Farmers were already contending with high costs and plummeting sales thanks to Trump’s unprovoked trade war with China. Now that he’s instigated an actual war with Iran, prices for fuel and fertilizer are sharply rising, too, with the potential to set off a cascade of inflation that spreads from the cost of feed to prices at the butcher counter. Gas, which averaged $2.90 per gallon in February, swelled to $3.70 four weeks later—the second-largest monthly jump in 30 years.

On the domestic policy front, municipalities are bracing for the fallout from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. Already-insufficient SNAP funding is being pared to the bone, placing millions of Americans in danger of having their food assistance slashed or eliminated altogether. These reductions are projected to contribute to 70,000 preventable deaths by 2040, while Medicaid cuts are poised to deprive millions of insurance coverage. New polling also reveals that a third of Americans have already been forced to cut back on essentials or borrow money to afford healthcare.

This is all unfolding as the unemployment rate ticks upward, with hiring stalled and the likelihood of a recession in the next 12 months approaching even odds. Trump and his allies crow over the........

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