Greed is Good

Donald Trump never met a problem he couldn’t ignore, deflect from, or falsely claim to have solved. That is his skillset. His Mr. McGoo-like vision and foresight have gotten us, and the world by proxy, into another war. Like all wars, everybody loses. Well, almost everybody. The military industrial complex wins. The oil companies win. China wins. Russian wins. The Trump family wins.

The national debt now exceeds the GDP at a level not seen since the end of World War II. Your children and your children’s children will be paying for the largess of this and previous administrations for decades. We crossed the WWII threshold at the end of the first Trump presidency, and the gap between the GDP and National Debt is now over $7 trillion and climbing.

Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, "If you can't solve a problem, enlarge it." By that he meant, trying to solve a complex issue by focusing only on small, restrictive details often leads to failure. Instead, by expanding the scope to view the problem as part of a larger system, new perspectives, constraints, and innovative solutions become visible. That is the vision of a President and Commander-in-Chief who was qualified for the office. Had Trump looked at the big picture before aligning taxpayers with Israel and before poking the hornets nest that was Iran, he might not be in this smoke filled swamp looking for an exit.

President Trump was warned that the Strait of Hormuz could be used as leverage. Trump’s intelligence sources informed him that Iran's control over the chokehold was considered a more potent tool for disruption than a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump has never been one to use intelligence, facts, or valid concerns to get in the way of making a fast buck. Like all Trump gambles, he is playing with OPM, Other People’s Money. His multiple bankruptcies in business were his guide and we are the victims.

On the other hand, he, his sons, friends, and extended family, are all positioned to profit from the war and its extension. He is in no hurry to end the war. He has no realistic chance of running for office again, so this is his last hurrah. His last chance to turn an outrageous profit while others suffer.

As of May 2026, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have invested in several military-connected companies, focusing heavily on drone technology and defense contracting, particularly companies that stand to benefit from increased Pentagon spending and the war. The grift is on and Trump family fortunes and our national debt are on a similar chart path, “to infinity and beyond.” As a side note, in 2026, 37% of Americans have less than $500 in savings.

So, while gas prices are placing the lower classes at risk of financial ruin, the Trump family is counting their bitcoins. Meanwhile, people around the globe who are dependent on fertilizer for crops, are risking starvation. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed. President Trump tells us that we are winning. This is like Gen. Douglas MacArthur talking about retreat saying, “We are advancing in another direction.”

I mentioned earlier that Trump should have seen his Iranian military quagmire coming and should have considered Eisenhower’s advice to always look at the big picture. I called the president myopic and chastised him for his lack of vision. This could have all been avoided with a bit of planning and foresight.

This of course ignores the fact that this accomplished grifter might be playing the long game. This might be just what he wanted. A protracted war, the loss of military weaponry now in need of replacement, a huge boost in the already-bloated Pentagon budget, and a big win for the companies in which the Trump family now has a vested interest. We do know that the Trump family has already generated an estimated $4 billion in value and revenue since January of 2025. A simple presidential tweet can send stock prices and stock futures bouncing like balls in a Pachinko.

Most of the recent Trump family financial windfalls have been from cryptocurrency ventures, international real estate deals, and licensing fees. He and his family have been leveraging and profiting from his presidency. Their financial gains from the protracted war in Iran will depend on how much money the Pentagon gets to put toward new missiles, drones, and materials. The latter two are of financial interest for the Trump empire as they are invested in drones and the mining of materials with defense applications.

Myopic and clueless, or clever like a “greed is good” Gordon Gekko acolyte. I give you our very own President Ivan Boesky, aka Donald J. Trump, aka Don E. Coyote.