Political scientist and scholar Norman Ornstein warned of an impending “double-triple whammy” about to hit Americans’ finances on Saturday, one he attributed directly to what he described as an “insane policy” of President Donald Trump’s.
The policy in question was the Trump administration’s ongoing war against Iran, which has already sent gas prices skyrocketing to levels not seen since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ornstein warned, however, that the current price increases were only the beginning.
“As we go further on, and as demand for oil inevitably is going to have to drop because the supplies are going to be not there, then we're going to see gas prices go up even more,” Ornstein said Saturday in an appearance on MS NOW’s “Velshi.”
“And let's face it – the fertilizer shortage during planting season means that we're going to have food shortages and more increases in prices there. The double-triple whammy of this insane policy going forward is going to hit voters harder than what we've seen up to now.”
Ornstein also warned that the cost of the war – which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed this week to be $25 billion as of Wednesday, though officials have said the true cost is likely closer to $50 billion – would further drive up inflation, only exacerbating the cost spikes he predicted Americans will soon be confronted with.
“The cost of the war itself [is] much more than the $25 billion that they've suggested – our bases have been decimated, we're talking billions more!” Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said on “Velshi.”
“We're going to have to replenish all of our armaments, and we're going in the wrong direction there, we're not prepared for a 21st century war. That's going to add to budget deficits, this $1.5 trillion crazy Pentagon budget, which also will increase inflation and add to our costs.”