This is an adapted excerpt from the April 28 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”
There were two kings at the White House on Tuesday — that was the message the administration put out into the world as King Charles met with President Donald Trump for an official state visit, ostensibly to mark America’s 250 years of independence from royal rule.
In a social media post following the king’s appearance earlier that day, the official White House account posted a photo of the pair with the words “two kings” and a crown emoji.
By now, we are all well aware of Trump’s kingly demands; he wants a ballroom built and his enemies persecuted.
As both of those whims dominated the headlines on Tuesday, millions of Americans learned about the other breaking news: U.S. gas prices hit their highest level, a single-day jump of 1.6%, since Trump launched his ridiculous war with Iran. The average cost for a gallon of regular gasoline is now around $4.20, according to the AAA.
This is just the most tangible example of all the ways Trump and the Republican Party have acted to make prices higher for everyday people, at a time when all anyone has said in any poll or focus group across the political spectrum is things are too expensive.
That includes a new report from The New York Times, in which a dozen unhappy Trump voters shared their concerns. One voter said under this administration, “Life is becoming more and more unaffordable.” Another told the Times that the U.S. is “headed in the wrong direction.”
Late last week, the CEO of United Airlines said on an earnings call that the company was already jacking ticket prices as much as 20% to offset rising fuel prices from the war with Iran. And on Tuesday, the CEO of the European airline Ryanair said fuel costs could break much of the commercial air industry in Europe within months.
Gas prices have continued to surge because Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil and gas passes daily.
Before Trump’s war, 150 ships a day moved through the strait freely. But on Tuesday, just six commercial ships passed through, according to NBC News. Iranian news claimed one of them was a Japanese tanker that paid Iran a toll in Chinese currency.
To make matters even worse, Trump decided the United States would blockade Iran’s blockade of the strait. That bottleneck has caused global shortages and massive disruptions in billions of lives.
In response, governments and consumers have started shifting away from combustion engines and pivoting to electric cars and renewable energies after the Trump administration announced a deal to pay two energy companies nearly $1 billion to stop building wind farms and shift to oil and gas.
So, here we are. Trump launched a war against Iran three months ago, and he can’t figure out how to end it because he has more important things on his mind, such as a grand, golden ballroom where the East Wing used to be. And Republicans have tried to indulge him, using Americans’ money.
On Tuesday, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Katie Britt, R-Ala.; and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., announced they would introduce a bill to authorize $400 million to fund the White House ballroom construction.
As Republicans have rushed to use taxpayer money for a new wing in Versailles for the would-be king, our Justice Department has been turned into a private vengeance squad for enemies of the court.
Also on Tuesday, Trump’s DOJ indicted former FBI Director James Comey again. This came after a judge tossed the first politically motivated prosecution against him last year.
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Comey is now facing charges related to a now-deleted Instagram photo he posted last May of seashells on a beach that spelled out the message “86 47.” The claim was the image was Comey threatening to “kill the president.” (Yes, they indicted him for seashells.)
Even Trump’s acting attorney general, his former criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche, had trouble sounding confident about the case during a news conference.
I don’t think that federal case will survive very long, but it’s clear it’s what Trump wants.
Just like he has always wanted ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air. He tried last year, and now he’s trying again.
On Monday, the president and first lady Melania Trump put out separate posts calling for Kimmel’s firing over a one-line joke he told last week.
And on Tuesday, just like clockwork, in an obvious appeal to the boss, Trump’s Federal Communications Commission, led by his handpicked chair, Brendan Carr, announced it would review the broadcast licenses of ABC’s top eight network affiliates in major cities from New York to Los Angeles.
On a right-wing podcast, Carr suggested the incredibly sudden license review was part of a deeper probe into parent company Disney for its diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
But all of this kingly behavior is Trump’s obsession. He wants the ballroom, and he wants the people he hates to suffer.
He also wants his face and signature on American passports. According to reports, the State Department plans to release a limited supply of U.S. passports featuring a picture of the president to mark the country’s 250th anniversary this year.
It’s clear our nearly 80-year-old president’s authoritarian obsession with remaking America in his image has distracted him from the enormous international crisis he caused and the lasting, tangible damage that it has done globally, from the Middle East to the middle of your driveway.
Allison Detzel contributed.
Chris Hayes hosts “All In with Chris Hayes” at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday through Friday on MS NOW. He is the editor-at-large at The Nation. A former fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Hayes was a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation. His latest book is “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource” (Penguin Press).