Donald Trump spent years mocking Jimmy Carter as the embodiment of weakness, inflation, and foreign-policy failure.
Now he has become Carter.
That’s the devastating conclusion reached by Rolling Stone in its latest analysis, “How Donald Trump Became Jimmy Carter,” in which author Matt Bai argues that Trump’s presidency is being consumed by the same forces that destroyed Carter’s chances for reelection in 1980: an Iran crisis, rising prices, and growing proof that events are spinning beyond the president’s control.
The irony is almost too rich to believe.
Trump campaigned as the man who would end America’s foreign entanglements, lower prices, and restore stability. Instead, America finds itself trapped in a $100 billion confrontation with Iran that has sent shock waves through global energy markets and pushed inflation upward.
Sound familiar? It should.
Jimmy Carter’s presidency was crippled by the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis and the resulting economic turmoil. Historians have long pointed to Iran, gasoline shortages, and inflation as key reasons Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in a landslide.
Now, Trump is staring at a similar political nightmare.
Trump’s Self-Inflicted Iran Problem
Unlike Carter, who inherited a revolution in Iran, Trump helped create his own crisis.
After promising voters he would avoid new Middle East wars, Trump instead plunged the US into a 3-month widening conflict with Iran. The administration initially daydreamed that military action would quickly force Tehran to capitulate. Instead, Iran remains defiant, energy markets remain volatile, and Americans are paying the price.
Nearly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply moves through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran continues to export millions of barrels of oil as around 90 ships cross the Strait of Hormuz despite the war.
Rolling Stone notes that inflation tied to the Iran crisis is becoming a growing political liability for Trump, much as inflation and energy shortages haunted Carter.
The Price of Gas Doesn’t Care About MAGA
Trump built his political brand on one simple promise: “I can fix it.”
But Americans don’t judge presidents by campaign slogans. They judge them by grocery bills, utility bills, and gas prices.
Every extra dollar spent filling up a tank becomes a referendum on the White House.
For years, Republicans hammered Democrats over inflation. Conservative media treated every increase in gasoline prices as proof of presidential incompetence.
Now Trump owns the overpriced economy.
And voters don’t care whether rising prices are caused by OPEC, Iran, global shipping, or White House decisions. They only know they’re paying more.
That’s the same political trap that swallowed Carter.
Commander in Chaos
The problem isn’t merely inflation. It’s uncertainty.
Reports increasingly describe an administration at a loss to define its objectives in Iran while sending conflicting messages about a war settlement. The White House has lurched from threats of regime change to promises of peace without offering a coherent endgame.
Americans have seen this movie before.
Wars that begin with promises of quick victories have a habit of becoming expensive quagmires.
Trump once ridiculed the architects of endless wars. Today he faces accusations that he is becoming one of them.
History Has a Sense of Humor
The most remarkable part of this story is the historical irony.
Trump rose to power by attacking the political establishment, promising strength where others showed weakness.
Yet his presidency increasingly resembles the very Carter-era conditions he once used as a cautionary tale.
An Iran crisis. Inflation. Public anxiety. Questions about leadership.
Even Rolling Stone joked that someone should get Trump a cardigan sweater—a reference to Carter’s famous televised address urging Americans to conserve energy.
Trump won’t like the comparison. But history doesn’t care.
The president who spent years attacking Jimmy Carter is discovering that the Oval Office has a way of humbling politicians who believe they’re immune from the forces that defeated their predecessors.
Jimmy Carter learned that lesson in 1980.
Donald Trump may be learning it now.
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I get the point Rolling Stone is making.
But Jimmy Carter was the exact OPPOSITE of PedoPOTUS in every way other than some current circumstances.
For example, Carter said that becuase he had looked at women with lust in his heart, he had sinned against his religion.
Whereas Donald The Rapist and PDFile Trump is a rapist and PDFile and has only the religion of money.
And rape.
Carter also gave up his peanut farm to be POTUS, PDFile Trump is using his time in office to do the corruption.
Jimmy Carter didn’t leave the White House for over a year while the Iranian Hostage Crisis was ongoing, whereas Don the Pedo is skipping his son’s wedding to play golf while a needless war he started is causing American’s pain.
Just lazy writing by Rolling Stone and to an audience that probably wasn’t around or doesn’t remember Jimmy Carter.
Carter, the guy who went out day after day in his 90’s to help build houses for the needy.
Carter, a nuclear engineer, Trump? Barely literate.
Rolling Stone does some good work, this isn’t that.
Gonna’ drink a case of Billy Beer tonight to wash this sad, lazy writing out of my head.