America: Bank of America vs. The Real America

As American families gather this Thanksgiving, the aroma of roasted turkey might be familiar, but the price tag attached to it is anything but. The 'America First' doctrine, championed by the current administration, promised prosperity and a return to domestic strength. Yet, when we dissect the numbers, the picture that emerges for the average household is less about triumph and more about a quiet, persistent squeeze. This isn't just about economic theory; it’s about the tangible cost of policy decisions landing squarely on kitchen tables across the United States of America.

The Tariff's Bite at the Dinner Table

Let's get straight to the data, because opinions often buckle under the weight of hard figures. This year, the average price of a 15-pound turkey has hit approximately $30. That's a staggering 25% jump since October 2024 (a period of just over a year). Purdue University researchers, who track these metrics with a clinical eye, point directly to the administration's reciprocal tariffs on imported agricultural inputs. Animal feed, for instance, which constitutes 60% to 70% of a producer's operating costs, relies heavily on specialized mixtures, vitamins, and minerals sourced from abroad. These, my friends, are now significantly more expensive.

While bird flu certainly hasn't helped, causing the death of over seven million commercial fowl this year, Purdue analysts concluded that higher bird populations could have stabilized prices, meaning the tariffs are the primary, undeniable culprit in this price hike. This isn't just about turkey. We’re seeing imported coffee beans up 18–22%, cocoa and chocolate products jumping 15–20%, and even basic canned vegetables and fruits from tariffed countries showing a 10–14% increase. Spices, those subtle but essential elements like cinnamon and nutmeg? Up 12–18%. These aren't minor fluctuations; these are significant shifts impacting every aspect of a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

The White House recently put out a press release claiming prices were falling, citing holiday promotions as proof America is "winning the war on high prices." A nice narrative, perhaps, but the data tells a different story. Independent analyses, like those from Groundwork Collaborative and the Century Foundation, show overall Thanksgiving food prices are nearly 10% higher this year, particularly for name-brand products. Even a Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute report, which suggested a slight 2-3% saving if shoppers only stuck to store-brand items, implicitly acknowledges the underlying cost pressure. The discrepancy here isn’t trivial; it points to a significant gap between official pronouncements and the grocery bill reality. How, precisely, does one "win" a war when the cost of living for staple goods continues its upward trajectory?

Beyond the Plate: A Broader Economic Strain

The economic drag doesn't stop at the dinner plate; it extends to the journey to that dinner plate. Thanksgiving is a peak travel period, and families are feeling the pinch here too. Airfares have risen 3.2% year-over-year, marking the first increase since February 2025. Overall US travel expenses are up 2% compared to 2024, according to NerdWallet's Travel Price Index. This is a direct residual effect of the longest government shutdown in US history, which occurred just weeks prior and cancelled over 10% of flights in October. The ripple effect on operational costs and consumer confidence is, as my analysis suggests, undeniable.

I've reviewed countless consumer spending reports, and this particular trend in credit card reliance for staples is genuinely alarming. Many Americans are reportedly turning to credit cards to cover these escalating expenses. This isn't discretionary spending; this is covering the basics. Consumer debt already hit a peak of $1.233 trillion in Q3 2025 (to be more exact, $1,233,000,000,000), and the holiday surge is expected to compound it further. When families are forced to leverage future earnings just to put food on the table today, that's not a sign of economic strength; it's a structural vulnerability. It's like patching a leaky roof with a credit card: it might hold for a bit, but the underlying rot is still there, quietly spreading. What kind of economic resilience are we truly building when the foundation of household budgets is increasingly reliant on debt for essentials?

Echoes of "America First" – A Historical Recurrence?

While the immediate focus this Thanksgiving is on the price of a bird, it's worth taking a step back to view the broader context of 'America First' rhetoric. This isn't merely an economic policy; it's a worldview that, when applied to foreign policy, often echoes historical patterns of US intervention, particularly in Latin America. The recent strikes on Venezuelan boats by the Trump administration, justified as anti-drug trafficking operations, with talk of potential land operations, feel strikingly familiar.

The United States has a two-century-long tradition of such interventions in Central America and South America. From the late 1800s 'Banana Wars' protecting corporate interests, to the post-WWII era where the CIA coordinated numerous operations to overthrow elected left-wing leaders — think Guatemala in '54, Cuba in '61, Brazil in '64, Ecuador in '63, Bolivia in '64 and '71, Chile in '73, and the multi-national Operation Condor in '75. These weren't subtle nudges; they were overt or covert actions designed to align sovereign nations with US priorities. The narrative then, as now with Venezuela, often involved national security concerns or economic interests, sometimes thinly veiled by other pretexts. Many observers believe Trump’s allegations regarding Venezuelan drug trafficking are a cover for regime change, a playbook we’ve seen executed repeatedly across the map of America. Does the public genuinely understand the historical precedents informing current foreign policy rhetoric, or is it merely swayed by the latest catchy slogan? The data, both historical and contemporary, suggests a consistent pattern of prioritizing perceived US interests, regardless of the cost to others, or, increasingly, to its own citizens. For a deeper look at this history, see A timeline of CIA operations in Latin America.

The Bill Always Comes Due

The data is unequivocal. 'America First,' in its current manifestation, has translated directly into 'America More Expensive' for the vast majority of its citizens. The tariffs, initially touted as a mechanism to boost domestic industry, have instead acted as a regressive tax, disproportionately burdening middle-class households struggling to afford basic necessities. When a nation’s citizens are forced to choose between paying bills and putting food on the table, or are racking up credit card debt just to celebrate a traditional holiday, the policy has failed its most fundamental economic test. The real cost of this ideology isn't an abstract economic theory; it's the empty feeling in someone's stomach, the stress on a parent's face, and the silent calculation of whether there will be a Christmas after Thanksgiving. That’s the unvarnished truth, and no amount of White House press releases can change the numbers in the grocery cart.