Arthur E. Sowers is a resident of Harbeson.
This letter is composed of: (a.) a short story about how Donald Trump is on the path to creating increased world chaos, and (b.) a short report on how Trumponomics is not making our economy great again.
The recent and very spectacular Trump-driven military takeover of Venezuela took place by forcefully kidnapping Nicolás Maduro from the Venezuelan office of president and by Trump’s announcement that the U.S. is now “running” that country, its oil industry, its future oil exports and maybe some other things. I got a transcript of Trump’s Jan. 11 New York Times interview (revised Jan. 12), and — yes — he did say nothing can stop him now and that international law doesn’t matter to him. One of many articles on this is available for free on thehill.com and is titled “Trump says ‘own morality’ is only limit on his power: ‘I don’t need international law.” It may be a spoiler, but this easy-to-read MS NOW article shows how Trump is going to fail: “Trump’s autocratic moves begin to backfire.”
Please recall that, one year ago, Trump talked about annexing Canada, taking Greenland and taking back the Panama Canal. Months ago, Trump inserted himself into whatever is happening in Gaza and said “we are taking over” there, too. Media buzz is about what Trump will do next in Colombia, Cuba and Mexico, in addition to Iran. So far, all this has paralleled with Adolf Hitler and how he militarily expanded into and “took over” all the countries around Nazi Germany during World War II. Worldwide anxiety is way up with Trump.
Recently, I discovered that Trump’s behavior and actions have strong parallels with those of Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon carried out major wars throughout his rule from 1803-15. This was extensively discussed in a biography on Napoleon by Frank McLynn (which includes images of Josephine Bonaparte and others, and is a free download if you search for: “frank-mclynn-napoleon-a-biography-2003.pdf”). Napoleon had a strong, dogmatic, manipulative and dominating personality (see Chapter 9 in the biography). Napoleon’s goals were more about expanding his own power and less about doing anything for France. He lied to the media like Trump has. He became an “emperor” by promoting himself in an informal event that was not even historically official or widely recognized (compare that with how Trump inflates himself). He owned two Paris newspapers, which published only his successes (and some of those successes never happened) but never any of his failures. Napoleon also had a sordid, soap opera private life. Over about a decade, he caused wars, death, pain and destruction far beyond the limited good things he did. Like Hitler, Napoleon also failed massively and died in infamy. I think Trump’s headstrong attitude and false sense of invincibility are going to lead to another bad ending.
Shifting to the subject of how the U.S. economy is doing under Trumponomics, the general media suggested that the expected increase in inflation from Trump’s tariffs, over the last few months, was not as bad as originally anticipated. But the actual tariff increases were also much less (on average about 14%) than what they were publicly understood to be (about 28%). One good study of actual tariff-induced grocery price inflation — by npr.org — said groceries cost 5% more by the end of 2025. The article title is: “How have prices changed in a year? NPR checked 114 items at Walmart.”
My additional, artificial intelligence-assisted internet searches on as many specific economic components I could think of showed that, in 2025, compared to 2024, all the economic trends were bad. Here are the examples: (1.) Corporate bankruptcies are up 14%; (2.) Farm bankruptcies are up 60% (due to Trump’s squabble with China); (3.) Twenty percent of cars on the road are uninsured; (4.) About 7%-8% of homes have no homeowner insurance; (5.) Homeowner insurance costs are up 10%-20%; (6.) Car insurance is up 12%; (7.) Sixteen percent of life insurance holders canceled their policies; (8.) Costs of health plans are up 10%-20% and up to 100% more for Obamacare because subsidies were not funded; (9.) Home heating this winter will be about 9% higher; (10.) U.S. manufacturing has continued its decline, for 14 months in a row; (11.) While a few drug prices will go down, the majority will go up; (12.) U.S. unemployment is 4.6% now versus 4.2% a year ago; (13.) Overdue payments on car-financing loans are up; (14.) Rejection rates are up on loan applications; (15.) 2025 store closings were 15,000, while store openings were 5,800 (for 2024, store closings were 7,325, while store openings were 5,970; (16.) One business website reports, “There were 103,000 foreclosure starts in Q3 2025, a 23% increase from the same period last year”; (17.) According to cnn.com, “The number of available jobs in the US just hit its lowest level in more than a year”; (18.) Delaware unemployment is now up to 4.9% over 3.6% before; (19.) Households with electricity disconnected for nonpayment went from 3.5 million in ’24 to 4 million in ’25; (20.) Mall closings are up, as 2025 vacancy is 9% versus the 2024 vacancy of 5%; (21.) Fewer and fewer people want to visit the U.S., as reported in an internet article titled “US International Visitor Arrivals Drop for Eighth Consecutive Month.”
So, while Trump’s actions and hot air are continuing to produce more of his usual “sparks, smoke and noise,” the actual trends in the real America are solidly getting worse and a lot of other countries are turning to China.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
