Before the shopping cart was invented in Oklahoma in the 1930s by a supermarket owner, people could shop only what they could carry in their hands. A cart, mostly full, being rolled through the alleys of a store, has become a symbol of America.

If there's one constant in American society, it's consumerism.The Ford heralded the wide highways, the gas stations and motels along them, and boosted the 'buy-now, pay-later' culture. Entire ecosystems in the US have been built around consumption.

One doesn't need to look beyond the Golden Arches of McDonald's or the disposable coffee cups. And the portion sizes.

They are much larger (at times double) in the US, compared to what's served across Europe and Asia.Americans are consumed by consumerism and personal consumption accounts for 70% of the total economic activity in the US. So, when that culture is disrupted by a high cost of living, Americans won't take it kindly.And that's where karma has returned to bite President Donald Trump.

The Middle East, the energy hub of the world, has been in flames since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, and took out its top leadership. Iran has targeted the oil assets of neighbouring countries and imposed a blockade of the Gulf of Hormuz, a strategic passage for energy trade.The disruption is resulting in flare-ups half-way across the world.

The massive protests by workers of the ready-made garments industry in Bangladesh have high prices for Qatar LNG as the fuel. Trump thought America's geographical distance from Iran would act as a buffer, but he didn't realise how fast petroleum fires spread.

A barrel of Brent Crude Oil that was around $70 before the Iran war is now at $105, after breaching $125 in April. Gasoline (petrol) prices at American pumps have risen by 40%, while diesel has surged by 60-70%.

Americans drive everywhere, from their work to their holidays, and 90% of their goods are moved by diesel-fed trucks."The Iran War is the greatest political blunder in the last two decades at least. A catastrophically stupid decision.

An unforgivable betrayal of America First principles," wrote author and far-right commentator Matt Walsh on X.Trump, who promised to extricate the US from all wars, plunged it into a never-ending war. The US is the big daddy and Trump has been the PITA (pain in the as*) for the world.The midterm elections in which the Democrats have taken control of the Congress by flipping traditionally red states, show deep-seated anger against Republicans, particularly against Trump.Kansas elected a Democratic senator for the first time since 1932.

Texas, a long-standing Republican stronghold, elected Democrats to both the Senate and the state's governor's office. Ohio and Iowa, two states Trump won comfortably in 2024, also swung towards the Democrats this year.The high cost of living has triggered protests across France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland among several other countries.

In the US, the people didn't take to the streets, they took to the polling stations in battleground states with vengeance.Inflation in the US, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) climbed from 2.4% in February, right before the Iran war, to 3.8% in April and 3.7% in September. And that must have dealt a blow to the shopping cart and psychology of Americans.A Reuters/Ipsos poll found the rising cost of living was the top issue for 48% of registered voters.

Some 49% of Americans believed their household finances have got worse since Trump was returned to the White House in January 2025. "They thought of their ballots as a vote against Trump," reported Reuters on November 3, after speaking to people who had already voted or were going to vote.Countries have increasingly become inward-looking, but the world is still interconnected. The dominoes will fall.

Trump said the protests took place in France because it had been "conquered, looted, and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists." The rising cost of living, worsened by Trump's war on Iran, and beyond the control of governments, was also to blame for the rioting. The US wasn't and hasn't been immune, and karma has returned to bite Trump.

Someone summed it up well on X, "Trump got a regime change in Texas before Iran".- Ends