Donald Trump spends entirely too much time inside our heads. A new outrageous antic nearly every day.  Profane middle-of-the-night Truth Social posts. Almost daily press sessions in the gilded Oval Office with a yammering chief executive edging closer to 25th amendment consideration.  Cabinet meetings that are simply sycophantic opportunities to extol Mr. Trump rather than address the serious issues affecting the American people. And a 24-hour news cycle that hypes it all.   

Despite Trump’s free rent in the White House and in our crania, many ordinary activities seem to be unaffected by the current national and international chaos.  Easter services, Passover seders, and recent Eid celebrations reinforced the protections of the First Amendment. Fans of college basketball were thrilled by both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournament, highlighting sportsmanship and pure delight in the faces of the young athletes on the court. Another major league baseball season has begun. Spring is blooming in a riot of color: pink and white cherry blossoms, bright yellow daffodils and forsythia, the soft pale green of new tree leaves, vibrant fuchsia of early azaleas and rhododendrons, orange honeysuckle strands, creamy magnolia blossoms. Grocery stores and gasoline stations are open, fully stocked, and crowded.

BUT – prices are high and moving higher as the war against Iran impacts energy prices globally; climate change affects growing seasons; and the specter of greater global disruption grows every day. The highest gasoline price in Annandale was $4.39 last week although the same national brand was $3.89 two miles down the road. The cost of fuel is reflected in prices at the grocery store since every item on the shelves is delivered by a truck.  Farmers are not making money from those higher prices, but somebody is.  Spring planting is in danger since fertilizer components must travel through the now-closed Strait of Hormuz. Reduced harvests will mean consumer higher prices in the fall.   

All this comes at a time when budgets are being considered at every level of government.  If a budget is supposed to reflect the values of the organization, Mr. Trump’s request to increase the federal defense budget by nearly half, to $1.5 trillion, appears only to reflect his obsession with using military might to wage war and threaten allies.  His request for more taxpayer dollars for defense also proposed devastating cuts to “non-defense” spending, those programs that invest now and in the future for health care, education, environment, energy and, important to local services, community development block grants (CDBG). Last week, Mr. Trump ranted that the federal government cannot cover childcare, Medicaid, Medicare, and other programs important to ordinary citizens, insisting that the states should take over the responsibility.  He proffered no comment about how the states and, ultimately, local jurisdictions would raise the billions of dollars needed to assume those federal tasks. Local programs that provide a network of human services support often use CDBG funds to expand limited community resources.  A basic economic premise is modelled on the concept of “guns or butter,” whether governments should opt to spend tax dollars on military defense or on social services. Literally and figuratively, Donald Trump has chosen guns.