A recently published economic analysis estimates that President Donald Trump’s illegal war with Iran has cost US consumers an average of $1,760 per household—including a total of $121 billion in extra spending on energy alone—since the conflict began less than 8 months ago. The war, which Trump launched without congressional…
Page F2From§Eachthe early evening edition — 26 September 2026
Maher praises Trump's toughness; economists bill it at $121 billion for the war, $1.8 billion for vanity.
As it ran on the front
Bill Maher told his Friday night audience that it is "childish to pretend" Other desks already had.
On September 17, an economic analysis from Moody's, reported by Common Dreams, put a number on the same toughness Maher was praising nine days later: $121 billion in extra energy spending nationwide, an average of $1,760 per household, since Trump launched the Iran war in February without congressional authorization. The toughness that gets credit for a falling crime rate, in this accounting, is the same toughness raising the price of the gas bill.…
…(cont) On September 23, Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee released their own ledger: $1.8 billion in taxpayer money spent on what the committee's own calculator called the president's vanity projects. The single largest piece, at $927 million, is the White House ballroom; the remainder is spread across the balance of that $1.8 billion total. Neither figure is toughness. Both are bills, and both were tallied before Maher's segment aired.
That is where a savings gets found, when one is needed: not out of the war, not out of the ballroom, out of a refund a kid was owed.
And on September 8, The Nation had already filed the pattern under a different name, describing Corey Lewandowski as a supporting player — "a disposable underling," the piece called him — in what the magazine termed billion-dollar shakedowns run out of the same White House.
Ruth ran the numbers against the transcript, hon. Toughness doesn't show up anywhere in the ledger. $121 billion does. $1.8 billion does. What Maher called an approach, the committees had already called a cost, and the cost was tallied before he ever opened his mouth.
“Toughness didn't lower your electric bill — it raised it, $121 billion worth, while Congress found another $1.8 billion to redecorate the house you're paying for. They hand you a crime-rate graph with one hand and the invoice with the other, and they're betting you only read the graph. Look at your gas bill before you thank the guy for being tough.”
“Look, the crime numbers are down, that's just a fact, so obviously the tough-guy approach is working — the energy costs, the ballroom, those are completely separate line items, apples and oranges, why is everyone conflating— did I bring up the ballroom? I didn't bring up the ballroom, forget I said ballroom.”
Earlier in this story
- Judge asks if national security can ever justify banning reporters; White House tries it again days later By Chip · the supper edition, 26 September 2026
The receipts
Mass shootings in the United States this year: 299 Gun Violence Archive
Bill Maher credits ‘f–k around and find out president’ Trump for steep drop in crimeCriminals have gotten the message from the "f--- around and find out president" leading to big improvements in public safety, talk host Bill Maher told his audience Friday.
Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday released a report calculating that taxpayer funding for President Donald Trump's vanity projects has soared to more than $1.8 billion. Renovations made to the White House—including the president's luxury ballroom—are the biggest projected expenses, as the analysis cites…
Bill Maher praised Donald Trump's tough-on-crime persona on "Real Time," saying the "f---around-and-find-out president" sent a message to bad guys.
Mass shootings in the United States this year: 299 Gun Violence Archive
Bill Maher says Trump’s ‘no more Mr. Nice Guy’ approach partially drove steep crime declineComedian and political commentator Bill Maher partially credited President Donald Trump for the nationwide drop in violent crime on Friday night. Maher said it’s ”childish to pretend” the Trump administration’s tough-on-crime approach hasn’t deterred criminal behavior in a segment about bipartisanship on Real Time with Bill Maher.
· Trump Treasury Would Strip Tax Refunds From Hundreds of Thousands of American Kids, Researchers Warn from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026
· In Trump’s Mafia, Even Goons Can Do Billion-Dollar Shakedowns from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.