Economy
Trump claims Iran war is worth the pain: Some rural voters agree
Standing behind the cash register at the Stubs liquor store, Amy Van Duyn looked through the window at a red-and-green gasoline price sign, which she said seemed to tick up daily.
The price was $4.34 per gallon – about 50% higher than it was in these parts when President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year.
“I used to fill my tank for $36,” said Van Duyn, 42. “Now $36 gets me half a tank.”
Her coworker Tonyah Bruyette said when it’s time to buy groceries, she’s left wondering where all her money went: “We’re putting it in the tank rather than on our table.”
Like most people in and around Wiggins, a farming town of 1,400 people in northeast Colorado, Van Duyn and Bruyette remain ardent supporters of the president, who won surrounding Morgan County by 49 percentage points in 2024.
Nationally, Trump’s political fortunes appear to be waning. His war with Iran has sent fuel prices soaring past $4.50 a gallon nationwide, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found nearly 8 in 10 Americans hold the president responsible for higher gasoline prices.
Trump was asked this week if people’s economic woes were motivating him to reach a deal with Tehran. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” he responded. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
Democrats seized on the comments as evidence of an administration losing touch with an anxious public. Only 30% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy as of a May Reuters/Ipsos poll, an issue that had long been one of his political strengths.
But in two dozen recent interviews along Colorado’s Highway 52 – a two-lane blacktop road punctuated by grain elevators, feedlots and oil pumpjacks – Trump voters echoed the president’s logic.
Across Morgan and Weld counties, which haven’t voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since 1964, voters were willing to pay more for gas if it meant eliminating a possible Iranian nuclear threat. Energy prices had also spiked under formee President Joe Biden, many said.
Some begrudgingly stood by Trump because of their distaste for Democrats; others expressed faith the president had a plan to bring costs down. It was a testament to the durable, personal bond Trump has built with his base, allowing him to weather multiple crises across his two terms.
“It feels like he hears us,” said Bruyette, “that he is fighting for us.”
‘Willing to sacrifice’
About 25 miles southwest of Wiggins, Jim Miller was elbows-deep in the engine of his ailing Dodge pickup.
A 65-year-old retired commodities broker raised in the liberal city of Boulder who now lives in tiny Prospect Valley, Miller considers himself “half-hippie, half-cowboy.”
He said enduring the momentary pain of high gas prices was worth preventing Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon. Miller recalled stories of American resilience during World War II, when goods were rationed and households lived with less.
“I struggle, like everybody else does, but I’m willing to sacrifice a little,” Miller said. “That’s been totally lost in this country, people’s willingness to sacrifice.”
In the unincorporated town of Roggen was Mike Urbanowicz, a 66-year-old trader with multiple college degrees whose farming cooperative moves 150 truckloads of grain each day.
He voted three times for Trump, but like many interviewed by Reuters, he considers himself a political independent, saying he distrusts the Republican Party nearly as much as their Democratic foes.
Gas prices were hurting his industry, he said, and Trump was “naive” to think he could quickly solve the issue. He expected prices would remain high into the fall, even if there was a breakthrough in stalled U.S.-Iran peace talks.
But he preferred the status quo to Democrats, whom he saw as moving towards “full-blown socialism.”
“I voted for Trump because the alternative is so bad,” he said.
Turkish authorities have imposed administrative fines totaling nearly TL 390 million (nearly $8.6 million) so far in 2026 on over 1,200 businesses for excessive price increases, according to a statement on Sunday.
The Trade Ministry, in a written statement, also said that inspections in the market have intensified ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Adha (Qurban Bayram) holiday.
The ministry noted the Unfair Price Evaluation Board imposed administrative fines totaling TL 389.4 million in 2026 on 1,258 businesses for excessive price hikes.
In a statement, it was emphasized that at four separate meetings held this year, inspections and investigations into practices that disrupt fair competition in the market and harm consumer welfare “have been carried out decisively.”
It also provided details and suggested that during inspections of basic food and consumer goods, 13 businesses found to have made exorbitant price increases were fined some TL 9.64 million. Moreover, it added that in inspections of bread and simit products, 75 businesses found to have violated official pricing tariffs were fined about TL 12.95 million.
Similarly, it explained that following the import restrictions on foreign-based e-commerce marketplaces, inspections into price increases on local e-commerce platforms led to fines totaling TL 151.7 million for 840 businesses.
As a result of inspections into extraordinary price increases in fruit and vegetable prices, 330 businesses were fined TL 215.11 million, it added.
“Overall, the Unfair Price Evaluation Board imposed administrative fines amounting to TL 389,430,962.5 on 1,258 businesses in 2026 due to excessive price increases,” the statement read.
At the same time, the statement stressed that inspection activities aimed at protecting citizens’ economic interests and maintaining market balance and fair trade continue without interruption.
It also pointed out that, especially ahead of Eid al-Adha, shopping malls, chain supermarkets, retail stores selling food and holiday goods, bus terminals used for travel, and wholesale markets are under close monitoring by the Trade Ministry, and all practices that could harm consumers are being carefully examined.
Finally, it was emphasized that administrative sanctions against businesses found to be acting against regulations during inspections will be strictly enforced within the legal authority provided by law.
KazanForum, which brings together Russia and the Islamic world, offers significant opportunities for Türkiye in the fields of investment, finance, and participation finance, and contributes to the development of regional economic cooperation, a Turkish official said, according to a report published Sunday.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) during the forum, Burak Dağlıoğlu, the head of the Investment and Finance Office, said that the event has gradually evolved into a multi-dimensional platform that goes beyond economic topics.
This year’s forum, which is seen as the main platform for economic cooperation between Russia and the countries of the Islamic world, took place between May 12 and May 17.
Drawing attention to the cultural dimension of the forum, Dağlıoğlu pointed out that many sessions are also organized in cultural areas, especially under the halal theme.
“It has become a comprehensive platform where participants come together, fairs are held, and meetings take place,” he added.
Türkiye’s focus on investment, finance
Emphasizing that Türkiye’s priority at the forum is investment and finance, Dağlıoğlu noted that there is a strong trade volume between Türkiye and Russia.
He also stated that within the scope of regional economic relations, economic ties between Türkiye and various regions of Russia, starting from Tatarstan, have been diversifying, adding that they see “a wide range of trade diversity, from industrial goods to non-natural-resource products.”
Moreover, explaining that participation finance is an important agenda item for Türkiye and that Russia is also taking new steps in this field through legal regulations, he added: “We see that participation finance instruments are being implemented in regions with dense Muslim populations. We are also carrying out mutual efforts and organizing delegations to grow this ecosystem.”
At the same time, Dağlıoğlu noted that trade ties between Türkiye and Russia are increasing, stating that the total investment value of Russian-capital companies operating in Türkiye has exceeded $6 billion.
He also pointed out that investments from Tatarstan into Türkiye are at a notable level, emphasizing that Türkiye has become an important hub for international investors.
Forum lays groundwork for new cooperation
In addition, Dağlıoğlu said they expect the contacts made during the forum to produce concrete economic outcomes and that Turkish companies have significant market access opportunities in the region.
He noted that there are strong companies in sectors such as industry, petrochemicals, machinery, metal processing and food, adding that the goal is to increase mutual investment and cooperation in these areas.
He also stated that Türkiye would become an attractive center for international companies with its new incentive model.
“We aim to create a trade ecosystem where access to broader geographies can be achieved via Istanbul,” he said.
German industrial decline is slowly starting to inflict pain on communities that have long relied on major manufacturers for employment, prosperity and a sense of stability.
Among the places affected by the downturn is Ludwigshafen, a company town of chemical giant BASF, which has shed thousands of jobs while shifting its focus to China.
“The mood is obviously not good,” Sinischa Horvat, chairperson of BASF’s works council, which represents staff interests, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) during a visit to the city of about 175,000 people.
“The entire market is currently so weak. When you watch the news, you hardly hear any positive messages.”
BASF is among Germany’s manufacturing heavyweights in sectors ranging from autos to steel and factory equipment that have been cutting back in their domestic markets.
They are battling surging energy costs, fierce competition from China, and weak demand at a time when Europe’s biggest economy is mired in a long stagnation.
Some 2,500 jobs have been axed since 2022 in Ludwigshafen, which is dominated by sprawling chemical plants that stretch along the Rhine River, and more cuts are set to come.
A recent decision to sell off thousands of company-owned apartments, many occupied by current and former workers, has added to unease.
“The sale of these apartments sends a signal to the city and to the people who live here and, in some cases, work at BASF – BASF is scaling back its operations,” Patrick Thiel, who lives in one of the apartments and works at the firm, told AFP.
“There is growing concern that this won’t stop at the apartments but will also affect the main plant,” added the 29-year-old, who also ran as a candidate in recent local polls for far-left party Die Linke.
China push
Horvat said having BASF staff in the properties helped create a “symbiosis” between the company and community.
“This has fostered an understanding of chemistry and shaped the relationship with BASF in the city,” he said.
BASF – a supplier of base inputs to the agricultural, automotive and pharmaceutical sectors – says the proceeds will go to bolstering its core businesses, but acknowledged that the sale had “raised uncertainties.”
A company spokesperson, however, insisted that it would handle the sale responsibly, adding: “No one has to fear losing their home.”
“We will continue to see ourselves as an integral part of the local community in the future,” she said.
Underlining its commitment to Ludwigshafen, where the group has over 30,000 employees – around a third of its global workforce – BASF has agreed to hold off on compulsory redundancies there until at least 2028 and continue investing.
But, as it cuts back at home, the world’s biggest chemical firm is investing heavily overseas, last month inaugurating a vast 8.7 billion euro ($10 billion) complex in China, its biggest ever single investment project.
It insists that building up its presence in China, the world’s biggest chemical market, is crucial.
Job losses
BASF is far from the only German company suffering.
Last year industrial companies cut 124,000 jobs, around double the figure in 2024, with hefty losses in particular found in the struggling auto sector, a study by consultancy EY showed.
Germany’s manufacturing sector contracted to hold a share of 19.5% of the country’s economy in 2025, according to official figures – its lowest level for many years.
“The loss of industrial jobs in Germany has accelerated in the past two years,” Marcel Fratzscher, president of the DIW economic institute told AFP.
“Companies that used to be the pride of Germany are suffering.”
Areas that have already suffered industrial job losses see greater social problems and offer fertile ground for fringe parties, such as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), to pick up support, experts warn.
Still, Fratzscher said that Germany had undergone economic upheavals before, and urged politicians and companies to try to ensure the economy emerges stronger.
The current economic transformation should be seen “as an opportunity to move into sectors that have better margins, better jobs,” he said.
“The biggest mistake we can make is to try to cement the status quo, to keep all companies exactly the same. That would lead to a much bigger deindustrialization.”
Eight years ago, when Jerome Powell became Chair of the Federal Reserve (Fed), economists worried that inflation and interest rates were too low and not enough Americans were employed.
Now, as Powell steps down from the post after eight tumultuous years, the U.S. economy is transformed: Inflation soared after the COVID-19 pandemic and has remained above the Fed’s 2% target for more than five years, angering voters and making rents, cars, and groceries harder to afford.
The Fed’s key short-term rate rose to a two-decade high in 2023, even as unemployment fell to a half-century low.
Along the way, Powell shrugged off relentless personal attacks from President Donald Trump that began just months after his appointment. But in January, he pushed back against an unprecedented legal investigation by the Justice Department, becoming one of the few top officials in Washington to stand up to the Trump White House.
Powell, who was named chair pro tempore on Friday until his successor Kevin Warsh is sworn in, said he will continue serving on the governing board until he is confident the Fed’s independence is truly restored. His success at protecting the central bank from day-to-day politics will be a key part of his legacy.
“It is not an unblemished record, but in an extremely challenging context, he’s performed exceedingly well,” said David Wilcox, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and director of research at Bloomberg Economics.
“And my overall assessment is that the country has been lucky indeed to have him as chair.”
Unlike many of his predecessors, Powell, 73, is not a trained economist, but a lawyer who also worked in finance before joining the Fed’s board of governors in 2012. Unassuming in public and private, Powell often introduces himself as “Jay” and would display his guitar-playing skills, honed as a student busking through Europe, at the Fed’s holiday parties.
An inescapable part of Powell’s legacy will be the post-pandemic inflation surge, when consumer prices rose by a four-decade high of 9.1% in June 2022.
Overall prices are now 27% higher than just before the pandemic six years ago, a staggering change for a country that had experienced little inflation for generations. Prices rose just 10% in the six years before the pandemic. Groceries are 30% more expensive than six years ago, after they rose just 3.6% in the six years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Transitory’ inflation legacy
Powell and other Fed officials, and indeed most economists, initially said the inflationary surge was “transitory,” a result of supply chain snarls brought about by the pandemic, as COVID shut down factories and slowed ports around the world.
Their immediate priority was supporting the economy in a crisis.
In two moves in March 2020, they slashed their benchmark interest rate by 1.5 percentage points to near zero. The Fed also bought large amounts of Treasury debt and government-backed mortgage securities to reduce longer-term interest rates and took other steps to pour money into the financial system to keep credit markets functioning during pandemic chaos.
In April 2020, Powell said that the Fed would “continue to use these powers forcefully, proactively, and aggressively until we are confident that we are solidly on the road to recovery.”
Even as inflation zoomed past the Fed’s 2% target in 2021, the central bank kept its key interest rate near zero until March 2022, when inflation hit 6.9%, according to the Fed’s preferred measure.
The Fed’s delay in raising rates was largely informed by a traditional economic view that inflation, stemming from a supply shock, would be temporary and if a central bank cranked up borrowing costs to fight it, the higher rates would just harm the economy and lift unemployment even as the supply crunch faded.
Meanwhile, the Trump and Biden administrations pumped about $5 trillion in government spending into the economy, in the form of multiple stimulus checks, support for small businesses, and other aid. The flow of dollars fueled a spending spike just as supply chains were unable to deliver on the demand.
By keeping its key rate near zero for so long, Powell’s critics charge, the Fed contributed to that excess spending and worsened inflation.
“Even though there was all the evidence there in the data that aggregate demand was going through the roof, they still said it was a transitory supply shock,” said Mickey Levy, a former top economist at Bank of America and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. “The Fed contributed to that inflation and completely misread the tea leaves.”
As inflation began to spread into items such as apartment rents and surveys showed Americans increasingly worried it would last, Powell pivoted and oversaw the sharpest increase in interest rates since the early 1980s to combat the price spike.
Still, many leading economists, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, worried that defeating inflation would require a recession and a sharp increase in unemployment. Instead, inflation dropped to 2.3% by September 2024, according to the Fed’s preferred measure, nearly reaching its 2% target.
By reducing inflation without a sharp economic downturn, Powell largely achieved an elusive “soft landing.” Inflation then moved higher after Trump imposed sweeping tariffs last April.
Fighting inflation was a sharp shift for a Fed chair that began his term more focused on the Fed’s mandate to pursue maximum employment. Before the pandemic, Powell often lauded the benefits of a strong job market for disadvantaged workers, winning plaudits from many progressive economists.
Yet some economists argue the Fed’s focus on employment contributed to its delayed response to post-COVID inflation. In an August 2021 speech, Powell said the then-elevated unemployment rate of 5.4% was a reason to avoid hiking rates too early.
Still, many analysts defend Powell’s support for the maximum employment mandate. Julia Coronado, president of MacroPolicy Perspectives and a former Fed economist, said Powell was right to keep rates low before the pandemic, even as unemployment steadily declined, because there were no signs inflation was worsening.
“If you can actually push a little harder for a little longer with no consequences for inflation, then you should damn well do it,” she said. “He was absolutely right about that. He’s still right about that.”
For his part, Powell said in late April that “overweighting the employment market” had nothing to do with the inflation spike.
“It was a global shock that happened essentially very, very similarly all over the world,” he said.
Trump dispute
Last July, in an image that will likely prove the most enduring of his time as Fed chair, Powell and Trump stood before cameras in hard hats at the site of the Fed’s extensive $2.5 billion building renovation, which Trump had criticized as excessive.
Trump claimed the project would cost even more, about $3.1 billion, and showed Powell a paper listing the costs. Powell took out his reading glasses and corrected the president, on camera, by noting that he had included a third building that had already been renovated.
It was emblematic of Powell’s willingness to push back against Trump’s unprecedented attacks. Economists have long supported an independent Fed because it allows the central bank to take difficult steps, such as sharply raising interest rates to combat inflation, which politicians often oppose because they can be painful.
Powell benefited from a strong relationship-building with Congress. Research by University of Maryland economist Thomas Drechsel has found that Powell met with senators more than twice as often as his two predecessors, with the meetings evenly split between both parties.
During one visit, Powell even endeared himself to North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis’ dog, a move that paid huge dividends. Tillis essentially blocked Senate approval of Kevin Warsh, Trump’s pick to replace Powell, until the investigation of the building project was dropped. The Justice Department eventually gave up on its probe.
Even those who fault Powell on some policy decisions credit him for defending the Fed.
“The big plus is the way he has protected central bank independence,” said Don Kohn, a former vice chair of the Fed. “That is the most important thing for the future of the Federal Reserve and for protecting the public interest in having an independent central bank.”
Powell hasn’t said when he may leave the Fed, though he could remain on the governing board until January 2028.
“You want people to … set interest rates to benefit the general public,” Powell said at his last news conference, “and focus only on that and ignore political considerations. This isn’t bipartisan, this is nonpartisan.”
Syria has appointed Safwat Raslan, head of the Syrian Development Fund, as the country’s new central bank governor, while former governor Abdelkader Husriyeh has been named ambassador to Canada, state media reported Friday.
Reuters reported earlier on Friday, citing two people in the Syrian banking sector, that Raslan was expected to be appointed central bank governor.
Raslan, a former banker who fled Syria to Germany as a refugee during the country’s civil war and obtained citizenship there, did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Husriyeh also did not respond to a request for comment. State media cited the foreign ministry in reporting his appointment.
Syria’s banking sector has been seeking to reconnect with global finance after the fall of former dictator Bashar Assad, whose crackdown on protests in 2011 triggered a 14-year civil war and sweeping Western sanctions that isolated Syrian banks and the central bank.
Most of those sanctions have since been lifted, but the country’s banks remain relatively isolated from the global financial system, hampering efforts to attract funds to boost the economy and support post-war reconstruction.
Husriyeh was appointed central bank governor by President Ahmed al-Sharaa in April 2025. During his tenure, Syria carried out its first international bank transfer via the SWIFT system since the start of the war.
Raslan was appointed director-general of the Syrian Development Fund in 2025. The fund, launched after Assad’s ouster, was set up as a state-backed vehicle to mobilize money for reconstruction and development projects.
Inflation expectations among market participants in Türkiye worsened in May, with forecasts rising for both year-end inflation and the 12-month outlook, a survey showed on Friday.
The deterioration comes amid pricing pressures from the Iran war, which has shut the key Strait of Hormuz, causing what the International Energy Agency (IEA) has described as the biggest energy supply crisis ever.
The higher energy prices and transportation prices were among the main drivers behind an increase in Türkiye’s inflation in April, when it reached 32.37%, compared to 30.9% in March.
Market participants see inflation in 12 months time at 23.82%, a May survey by the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) said on Friday. That’s up from 23.39% in the previous survey period.
Participants also raised their year-end forecast to 28.94%, compared with 27.53% in the previous month.
On Thursday, CBRT raised its year-end inflation forecast to 26% from 16% and warned of risks linked to the Middle East conflict, sparked by the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
The central bank policymakers said there would be no compromise on their determination to bring down inflation and it will continue to use all available tools for disinflation.
The bank kept its key interest rate at 37% last month, holding steady for the second successive policy meeting due to war-related disruptions.
Market participants see the bank keeping the benchmark policy rate unchanged again in June.
Participants also slightly increased their expectations regarding the foreign exchange rate. The year-end U.S. dollar/Turkish lira forecast rose to 51.57, up from 51.23 in the previous survey period.
The 12-month expectation increased more sharply, reaching 54.69, compared with 53.62 previously.
The survey also showed a modest deterioration in growth expectations.
Türkiye’s GDP growth forecast for 2026 fell to 3.3%, down from 3.5% in the previous survey. The 2027 expectation remained unchanged at 4.1%.
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