For years, the Gadsden flag has been a favorite symbol of America’s rugged individualists—the farmers, truckers and working-class conservatives who proudly proclaim, “DON’T TREAD ON ME!” It’s a stirring declaration of independence from government overreach, excessive taxation and politicians who think they know what’s best for everyone else. Unless, of course, the politician doing the treading is Donald Trump. In that case, apparently, the snakes are perfectly happy to be flattened by a Trump wingtip.
Now, with gas and diesel prices soaring thanks to Trump’s ill-conceived war with Iran, the people who depend most heavily on affordable gas are feeling the squeeze. Farmers need diesel to run their tractors and harvest their crops. Truckers need it to keep America’s supply chains moving. And working families need affordable gasoline just to get to work. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs are pushing up the cost of everything from farm equipment and auto parts to groceries and household necessities. The president promised to make America affordable again. Apparently, he meant affordable for billionaires who want to buy political parties.
The irony is particularly rich because these are some of the very constituencies that helped put Trump back in the White House. Farmers, rural voters and blue-collar workers were central to his political coalition, drawn in part by promises of economic prosperity and relief from inflation. Now they’re discovering that tariffs aren’t paid by foreign governments, that wars have economic consequences, and that a politician’s promise to lower prices isn’t quite the same thing as actually lowering them. Who could possibly have predicted that starting a trade war and a shooting war at the same time might make things more expensive?
And yet, the Gadsden flags keep flying. The same Americans who once regarded a modest tax increase as an intolerable assault on liberty are now watching their president impose sweeping tariffs, disrupt global energy markets and send their operating costs through the roof. But no worries. In Trump’s America, government overreach is apparently just fine—as long as the boot on your neck has a MAGA logo.
