Should Americans should prepare for $5, $6, and even $7 gas prices in the near future because the newly-initiated Trump blockade will be effective only in restricting the flow of oil, natural gas, and other elements critical to the global economy?
That probably wouldn't be a bad idea. As Money Daily has recently been advocating, preparing for the worst while hoping for the best constitutes a rational strategy because the pattern of uneven policy by the Trump administration runs from one extreme to the other. One day it's complete annihilation, the next, seeking compromise, and so forth.
President Trump's narcissistic behavior is beginning to become rather obvious to anybody willing to look. At the bottom of his desire to bring peace through strength to the world with the U.S. at the top of the pecking order is his unfailing commitment to himself and what will be his lasting legacy. Trump needs to win, needs to stay on top, needs America to be the "hottest" country in the world, whether or not reality complies with his wishes, so he will, has, and will continue to drive home the message that only he can save Aemerica and the world, that only he can make the best deals and that he is the messiah on a mission from God.
It would be comical if it wasn't so outrageously close to the truth. The world is being brought to its knees at the behest of some truly deranged, irresponsible, and grossly incompetent individuals inconveniently occupying positions of power in some of the world's great powers. If it's not Trump in America, it's Netanyahu in Israel, Macron in France, Starmer in England, Merz in Germany, von der Layen at the EU, or Rutte at NATO.
By all appearances, leaders of the West have shown the kind of approach reminiscent of the narrative from Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow", suggesting that something has gone awry in the wiring, and that Western politicians have "flipped, when they should have flopped." While this metaphor doesn't go on to explain the causal nuance, the effect is coming to be seen as immediate and gathering momentum, a sublimation of Western values and economies, tying together the bankruptcies of both EU and American philosophy, society, and politics, while at the same time making leaders of Russia, China, and Iran appear positively brilliant in their regard for the future of humanity.
Literary references and political expediency aside, President Trump, in his role as leader of the free world, despite the West becoming more stridently fascist and totalitarian with each passing event, continues to fill the void with his personality, which is noticeably waning and lacking the former luster of his prior campaign and first term, from 2015 through 2019. The Trump of 2026 is an aging Lear-like, Dorian Gray shattered mirror image of his former self. Where the Trump of the previous decade made deals that benefitted his base and the larger constituencies, the Trump of today is bewitched by collapsing narratives, striking out with threats of obliterating whole societies and mass casualty events because the world fails to conform to his imaginary, outdated construct of reality.
As his second term of office has commenced to near-collapse, the trend has been nothing if not obvious. From the "liberation day" tariff shock through "Operation Midnight Hammer" to the ongoing "Epic Fury", Trump's approach has been trending from obnoxious sensationalism to inflamed revenge and retribution towards his unrelenting opponents. Since nobody will heed his warnings and he's uncommitted to carryng out his threats, he's adrift in a tormented place with no exit that would leave his “unerring, all powerful" legacy intact.
Thus, with midterms on the radar and the intractable Iranians unwilling to accept his "surrender" terms, he is likely to gravitate toward more extreme storytelling, devising a fresh set of conditions that will appear to end the conflict on his terms, which is where the "TACO" designation begins to manifest. By throwing colleagues under the bus, particularly his Vice President and Secretary of War, Trump can safely claim to being misled by advisors, whip up some new conditions, and extricate himself from the miasma. It's not likely to be easy nor easily understood, and probably won't be anywhere near the true events, but it will be enough to slip by and rebuild his image in front of November's midterm elections, which, at this point, take precedence over just about everything else.
This may or may not evolve in exactly this manner, but all he indicators point in that direction, so, watch for stocks to continue advancing as the blockade withers away, or, as Scott Ritter recently opined, "parts like the Red Sea." Nothing will come of it. Ships will pass through Hormuz, oil will flow, but not without some dire consequences. Shortages have emerged in Asia and in England and elsewhere and they will continue to become more prevalent as the disruption spills over into varying degrees of chaos.
Tuesday morning opens with earnings from JP Morgan (JPM), as usual, positive, owing to the craftiness of their trading desks which made bank through the chaos. It's easy for the JPM elite. They have enough working capital to move any market whichever way they please.
Also reporting before the bell were Wells Fargo (WFC, down 3.5% pre-market) Citi (C, up 1-2%), BlackRock (BLK, up 2%), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, down 1%).
Stock futures are rising before the open. Gold ($4786) and silver ($77.92) are catching fire. Trends established Monday appear to be gathering momentum. All-time highs are just a few oil tankers safely transiting away.
At the Close, Monday, April 13, 2026:
Dow: 48,218.25, +301.68 (+0.63%)
NASDAQ: 23,183.74, +280.84 (+1.23%)
S&P 500: 6,886.24, +69.35 (+1.02%)
NYSE Composite: 22,940.98, +206.47 (+0.91%)
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