Sean Casten
I am hard pressed to think of any prior President who was solely responsible for causing such immediate unambiguous, and completely foreseeable economic pain. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/19/world/iran-war-news-trump-oil?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Iran War Live Updates: As Oil and Gas Prices Soar, Trump Seeks to Reassure Americans

President Trump said he would do whatever was necessary to lower oil prices, and his Treasury secretary said the government might even take the paradoxical step of lifting sanctions on some Iranian oil.

The New York Times
Mar 19 at 11:16amMastodon for iOS
Show threadSean Casten2d ago
OPEC price shocks, 2008 crisis, COVID… in all those cases you can certainly make a compelling case that the POTUS should have seen it coming / had some agency. But this one is entirely voluntary and entirely self-inflicted.
Show threadSean Casten2d ago
Trump is like a kid who blows off his finger playing with fireworks. He either knew the risks going in and didn’t care, or was such a blathering idiot that the excitement of watching things go boom was as far as his brain could process. But in either case, he alone lit the fuse.
Show threadAllan Chow2d ago
@SeanCasten cept he's lighting the fuse and making everyone else hold it
Show threadAlison Wilder2d ago

@grumpasaurus exactly. And you know he pre-purchased "severed fingers" futures

@SeanCasten

Show threadFrank Frank2d ago

@SeanCasten

Hmmm, is tRUMPy even that smart?

Show threadferricoxide2d ago
@SeanCasten

And, given Trump's "character", completely foreseeable that he'd be its author. When you govern by impulse, have no long-term or second-order thinking capability, hate being told "no" — insisting on surrounding yourself with sycophants so you never have to hear it — and hate not being the smartest person in the room, the outcomes are entirely predictable. Factor in a history that illustrates all of that (how do you bankrupt casinos), severe and obvious mental decline (from an already not-great starting-point) and I don't know how anyone with an above-room-temperature IQ can express surprise.
Show threadDying World 🔥🌎🔥2d ago
@SeanCasten Let's not forget that there are two other branches within the US federal government that could put an end to all this, but choose not to
Show threadbayo2d ago
@SeanCasten The "foreseeable" element is the most damning. This wasn't a surprise attack requiring response. The diplomatic record discussed earlier showed Iran offering significant concessions mere days before strikes began. Foreseeable isn't hindsight, it was foreseen, loudly, by the negotiating parties themselves.
Show threadDarwin Woodka2d ago

@SeanCasten

None of this ends the way the gang of clowns thinks it will. And the consequences WILL eventually fall on them. Trump has gotten away with so much for so long, but the end game is not going to go his way.