On the way back to Floyd from Christiansburg Saturday, we saw regular gas for $4.19 a gallon a the independent station in Riner and $4.25 a gallon at the Shell location. Both were cheaper than the $4.29 a gallon in Floyd.

With the unconstitutional war against Iran by convicted felon president Donald Trump, the gas prices will continue to rise. The lower prices provided in Riner brought a stop to fill up our 27-year-old pickup. As retirees in our 70, Wife Amy and I face declining health and fixed incomes. Our friends say the rising cost of gas and rampant inflation threatens their resources too.

Trump, however. says he doesn’t care about the problems Americans like us face.

“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” he says. “Not even a little bit,” he says while he wastes billions on an unconstitutional war against Iran and work on lavish memorials to his obsessive, destructive path as the most unpopular leader in the nation’s history.

As Erica L. Green of the New York Times reports today:

In recent weeks, as Americans feel deep economic strain from the war he launched in Iran, Mr. Trump’s actions and words have opened him up to accusations that he is either out of touch with — or indifferent to — the lives of everyday Americans.

The costs are ballooning from his renovation, re-decoration and building spree in Washington, D.C., and at the White House. He goes on social media posting frenzies that often focus on his pet projects, gripes and personal triumphs, including a 22-year-old newspaper review of his television show, “The Apprentice.” But perhaps the most striking example came on Tuesday, when Mr. Trump was asked whether the economic hardship Americans are feeling would motivate him to make a deal to end the war.

“Not even a little bit,” he said.

“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” Mr. Trump continued, a stunningly frank admission that came after weeks spent either downplaying the conflict’s economic toll or simply asking Americans to be patient. His only consideration, Mr. Trump said, was preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon: “That’s all.”

That same day, the Labor Department reported that last month, inflation in the United States accelerated at its fastest rate in three years, and gas reached more than $4.50 a gallon.

In recent weeks, as Americans feel deep economic strain from the war he launched in Iran, Mr. Trump’s actions and words have opened him up to accusations that he is either out of touch with — or indifferent to — the lives of everyday Americans.

The costs are ballooning from his renovation, re-decoration and building spree in Washington, D.C., and at the White House. He goes on social media posting frenzies that often focus on his pet projects, gripes and personal triumphs, including a 22-year-old newspaper review of his television show, “The Apprentice.” But perhaps the most striking example came on Tuesday, when Mr. Trump was asked whether the economic hardship Americans are feeling would motivate him to make a deal to end the war.

That same day, the Labor Department reported that last month, inflation in the United States accelerated at its fastest rate in three years, and gas reached more than $4.50 a gallon.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, fired back, saying he was quoted correctly.

“That’s a perfect statement,” he said. “I’d make it again.”

Green, White House correspondent for The Times, notes:

In his second term in office, Mr. Trump has profited from the presidency like never before. Most recently, his middle son Eric accompanied him to China, raising questions about the lines between government business and private enterprise. Eric Trump leads the Trump family business, which has flirted with Chinese business deals over the years.

A new CNN poll found that 77 percent of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, thought Mr. Trump’s policies had increased the cost of living in their communities.

Inflation rose a startling 3.8 percent in April. The average price of gas has gone up more than 40 percent since the war with Iran started in February. And grocery prices soared faster in April than any month in nearly four years, driving up the cost of everything from tomatoes to seafood.

James Carville, longtime Democratic strategist who worked on former President Bill Clinton’s campaign when he famously declared “I feel your pain,” said that Mr. Trump’s declaration was at least not “pandering.”

But, he added, it broke a cardinal political rule: do not confirm an existing suspicion.

“It’s what lawyers call an admission against interest,” he said. “It’s the greatest admission against interest in the history of the presidency.”

As someone who writes about politics on another website, I try to avoid the subject here on Muse, but, as an American, I cannot avoid what I and others see as rampant corruption, hypocrisy and criminal behavior by a wannabe fascist dictator like Trump. He is a convicted felon, a civil court adjudicated sexual predator, a serial liar and documented fraud.

Latest polls show up to 80 percent of voters disgusted with his actions against Iran, mishandling the economy, creating an energy crisis and rampant inflation.

“Donald Trump just said the quiet part out loud: he doesn’t care about Americans who are struggling to make ends meet in his economy,” Rosemary Boeglin, the communications director of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement.

On the Republican side, Vice President JD Vance tried to say Trump was misquoted. “Well, I don’t think the president said that, I think that’s a misrepresentation of what the president said,” Vance said when asked if he agreed with Trump.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, fired back, saying he was quoted correctly.

“That’s a perfect statement,” he said. “I’d make it again.”

That is exactly what we expect from the first convicted felon in the White House.