Good morning and welcome back to today’s edition of The Wolf’s Den. It is Thursday, May 7th, and today we have two stories for you: rising gas prices and a concerning public health report. Both of these stories tell you a much larger story about the Trump Administration’s failure to govern with seriousness, competence, or urgency.
Before I continue, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today. Becoming a paid subscriber gives you access to additional exclusive content and helps ensure I can keep producing these reports and fight back against the MAGA media machine. Thank you.
Let’s start with the story that should be setting off alarms inside the White House: gas prices.
New reporting (I said Punchbowl in the video, but the report is actually from the Wall Street Journal… link below) indicates that the Trump Administration is now panicking over the political fallout from rising gas prices. And honestly, it is shocking that it took them this long to realize what everyday Americans have already been feeling for weeks. When gas prices surge, it is not an abstract economic indicator. It hits people directly. It hits the worker commuting to two jobs. It hits the parent driving their kids to school. It hits small business owners, truck drivers, delivery workers, and anyone already struggling to make ends meet.
The American working class cannot afford more inflation. They cannot afford another burden placed on their backs. They cannot afford more chaos from a president who promised to “rapidly reduce prices” and instead has watched costs rise.
That is the political problem for Donald Trump. He made affordability the centerpiece of his campaign. He promised relief on day one. He told voters he alone could fix inflation, lower costs, and bring stability back. But now, Americans are seeing the exact opposite: rising gas prices, weakening job growth, and an administration that appears more focused on managing political damage than solving the real economic pain families are experiencing.
And the reason this matters so much is because gas prices are one of the clearest ways Americans measure whether the economy is working for them. People do not need a cable news panel to explain what they are seeing at the pump. They know when filling up their tank costs more. They know when their paycheck is stretched thinner. They know when the promises they were sold are not being kept.
Even worse for Trump, this crisis is connected to his broader foreign policy failures.
At the start of the conflict with Iran, the administration laid out sweeping objectives: ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions, stopping its ballistic missile program, and ensuring Iran could no longer fund terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. But now, weeks later, the conversation appears to have narrowed dramatically. Instead of achieving those major strategic goals, the administration is reportedly focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz — a passageway that was open at the start of the conflict.
That is not strength. That is not strategic success. That is a retreat from the original mission after creating massive economic consequences for American families.
Trump’s defenders will try to spin this. They always do. But the basic reality is clear: the administration escalated a crisis, failed to control the fallout, and now working Americans are paying the price. That is not leadership. That is failure.
The second story is different, but it raises a similar question about competence.
There are now concerns about a Hantavirus outbreak connected to passengers on a Dutch cruise ship, with individuals in the United States reportedly being monitored for possible symptoms. To be clear, this is not a moment for panic. The individuals being monitored in the United States due to being on the Dutch cruise ship are currently feeling well and have not shown symptoms.
But it is absolutely a moment for vigilance.
And that is where the concern comes in. Because public health requires trust. It requires competence. It requires seriousness. It requires leadership that communicates clearly, acts quickly, and puts science above politics.
That is not what many Americans associate with Donald Trump.
After everything this country lived through during COVID, the idea of another public health concern emerging under a Trump Administration is deeply unsettling. Not because every health warning becomes a pandemic — it does not — but because Americans remember what happens when leaders downplay risks, politicize science, and treat public health as an inconvenience rather than a responsibility.
That concern is even greater now with RFK Jr. playing a major role in the administration’s public health apparatus. At a time when Americans need steady, credible, fact-based leadership, the administration has chosen chaos, conspiracy, and distrust.
So whether the issue is gas prices or public health, the through line is the same: Trump is failing the basic test of governing.
Presidents are not judged by slogans. They are judged by whether they make people’s lives better, safer, and more affordable. Right now, Americans are seeing rising costs, foreign policy confusion, and deep concerns about whether this administration can handle a serious public health challenge.
That is why these stories matter.
They are not isolated headlines. They are evidence of a broader failure. Donald Trump promised strength and stability. What he has delivered is chaos and consequences.
-Ethan
