Inflation is heating up again. Now, President Biden is slapping on tariffs Chinese products we mostly don’t buy anyway.

And, meanwhile, our nation’s finances are in complete tatters.

The recent string of hotter-than-expected inflation reports continues with the April producer price index, whose topline number jumped roughly 6 percent at an annual rate.

And small business sentiment from the National Federation of Independent Business continues to hover nearly 20 percent below levels during the Trump years.

And, today, Mr. Biden comes out with a bunch of new tariffs on Communist China, including on electric vehicles and steel products that Americans buy hardly any of.

We already have 40 percent to 50 percent type tariffs on most of these products, plus numerous anti-dumping provisions that were put into place during the Trump years.

There were no counter moves or strategies to help American exporters or American business ownership in China.

No demands made to stop intellectual property theft or the forced transfer of technology, or mandate Chinese purchases of American farm or other commodities.

The Bidens did not address the problem of cheap Chinese cars — manufactured in China, but exported under the radar screen from Mexico to avoid tariff under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and domestic content provisions.

Perhaps, most importantly right now, there were no attempts from Mr. Biden to stop China from importing Iranian and Russian oil, thus breaking sanctions and essentially financing two wars against America.

Too little, too late, too meek.

And, then, there’s the matter of America’s crumbling finances.

Mr. Biden is in denial about $2 trillion budget deficits as far as the eye can see.

Publicly held federal debt is projected to rise to $48 trillion from $28 trillion this year over the ten-year CBO budget window. That comes to 116 percent of GDP.

Interest expense, which is running around $870 billion today, is expected to rise to $1.6 trillion over the budget period. That would put it considerably higher than spending on defense and national security.

Food stamps are exploding, despite recovery from Covid.

And, of the roughly $110 billion spent on food stamps — that’s roughly up 60 percent from pre-pandemic level — only 24 percent of able-bodied recipients are actually working.

These are all reasons why Mr. Biden may have President Trump temporarily locked up in court, but Mr. Trump is pulling away in the key swing states.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.