As of April 2026, inflation in the United States is reported to be 3.8%. It marks its highest level in nearly three years. This increase is attributed to factors such as the ongoing war in Iran and rising energy prices. They are affecting consumer prices.
The annual inflation rate in the US accelerated to 3.8% in April 2026. Figures came above forecasts of 3.7% as the oil shock triggered by the war with Iran continues to push prices higher. Energy costs jumped 17.9%, above 12.5% in March, mostly due to gasoline (28.4% vs 18.9%) and fuel oil (54.3%). Inflation also accelerated for shelter (3.3% vs 3%) and food (2.3% vs 2.7%).
Compared with the previous month, the CPI rose 0.6%, easing from the 0.9% gain in March, the largest monthly increase since June 2022, and in line with forecasts. Core inflation rate also edged higher, albeit at a more moderate pace, to 2.8% year-on-year, the highest level since September, from 2.6% in March and above forecasts of 2.7%. On a monthly basis, core consumer prices increased by 0.4%, up from 0.2% in both February and March, and forecasts of 0.3%. source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
President Trump is reversing America’s decline, which he said includes dominance abroad. It takes time.
The vibes are bad. Gas is up, the conflict in Iran is dragging on, and Iran-related inflation is eating up wage growth. But President Trump’s main campaign promise was to reverse America’s decline, and that’s not something you can achieve overnight. Trump is leveraging foreign… pic.twitter.com/WtkE9EHVYl
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) May 10, 2026
Transcript
“The vibes are bad. Gas is up. The conflict in Iran is dragging on, and Iran-related inflation is eating up whatever wage growth Americans saw this year. There’s a lot of talk from Trump’s opposition about broken campaign promises. Trump promised no new wars, and here we are at war with Iran. He promised to slash prices, yet here we are with gas over $4 a gallon. This line of attack is filtered down to the American people, who are giving the President lower marks on the economy than they gave President Biden, though, on an objective level, inflation and gas are still lower.
“But here’s the thing: the President’s broader campaign promise was to reverse America’s decline. It was the idea that our best days are not behind us, but ahead of us, and that is not something that you can achieve overnight. His promise was to reassert global dominance, to protect and enrich American citizens, and to restore the United States as the world’s only superpower for generations to come, and that’s what he’s been doing every day of his second term: prosperity at home, dominance abroad.
“That’s the Trump agenda in a nutshell.
“But it takes time; you can see how his domestic and foreign policy have worked in tandem to lay the groundwork to achieve these goals.
“On day one, he massively deregulated energy drilling and cut red tape to radically increase the production of oil. And then one year later, he arrested Nicolas Maduro and unleashed even more oil onto the free market, oil that had previously been going straight to China on the cheap. He imposed tariffs on countries that had been imposing tariffs on the US, forcing American companies to re-shore manufacturing, and then, eight months later, drug companies were forced to give Americans most-favored-nation pricing for the first time, saving people who rely on these drugs hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month.
“He secured the border and deported 3 million illegal migrants, resulting in rising wages for working-class Americans. Prior to Operation Epic Fury, wages were finally outpacing inflation, and he’s meeting with China next week to secure a new economic relationship, one that ends the mass fleecing of the American worker that started when China was admitted to the World Trade Organization. These are all pieces of a larger puzzle, the march to re-establish America as the world’s only superpower due to our energy dominance.
“But we’re not there yet.
“A long-term goal like ending America’s decline is not something that happens overnight. In fact, you are here somewhere between the President’s attempt to control every oil choke point on the globe and his effort to ensure Iran, one of our chief adversaries, never achieves a nuclear weapon. This just isn’t the fun part. Gas prices are hurting average Americans and impacting the price of everything, but the short-term pain will have a long-term payoff if the president can hold on to the political runway he needs to carry it off.
“One thing he should absolutely do is work his magic with the CEOs of major American energy companies, explaining that grief inflation at the pump will not be tolerated. The President’s domestic and global agendas are two sides of the same coin; viewed through a wider lens, the entire agenda will make our children and grandchildren exponentially safer and much more prosperous.”