President Trump doesn’t give a damn whether you live or die
It only took half of his first 100 days as president to reach this ultimate conclusion: Donald Trump doesn’t care if I live or die. And the same (probably) goes for you.
That’s assuming you don’t like him or his policies, of course. He fucking hates those people. Tweets about them all the time. Usually calls them “losers.”
On the other hand, who exactly is “winning” in the Trump era besides Mr. Tax Audit himself?
If you’re very young, around retirement age or older, or currently battling severe illness, then you probably know how much Trump (along with political accomplice — I mean, House Speaker — Paul Ryan) wants to wipe out affordable health care so the rich can get even more undeserved tax breaks.
And let’s not kid ourselves … we all know Trump doesn’t have an active knowledge about just what the (so-called) American Health Care Act is calling for in regards to individual health care accessibility and affordability. Reading legislation would get in the way of his precious tweeting and cable news viewing, otherwise known as Trump’s “happy time.”
Care to succumb to man-made climate change or die by drinking water mixed with local industrial waste? Oh, the president has you covered with a proposed 31 percent budget cut to the Environmental Protection Agency. If you think Flint, Mich., and other cities around the country have had to suffer from poisoned water supplies for years, then have no fear: your city is next.
Are you a military service member or have a loved one currently deployed? Well, good luck and godspeed because Trump may want you to go get some oil out of Iraq for him — or his pseudo-friend Vladamir Putin and Mother Russia, for which Trump has expressed a willingness to relax sanctions that will potentially allow the frequently shirtless Bond villain and his government to acquire the U.S. stake of a failing oil company, just for starters.
Make no mistake — Trump’s worldview in the context of foreign policy decision-making is focused on “what’s in it for us.” As a commander-in-chief with the maturity of a preschooler-in-chief, there is a high possibility that the U.S. military will merely become President Trump’s toy soldiers. Just like the majority of the Republican Party. Whatever Trump needs to create the facade of American leadership to himself, his staff, the GOP, the country, or the world, you can bet he’ll find a way to justify his authority under any scenario.
Are you an immigrant? Well, Trump definitely doesn’t care about your life, as hard a time he’s having trying to disrupt your pursuit of happiness. Remain weary (that’s more of suggestion than a prediction), because if Trump isn’t working hard enough to kick you out, his chief strategist and favorite neo-Nazi Steve Bannon will certainly give it his best try.
Living in low-income housing? Not for long. Trump is determined to make your life miserable by cutting off any and all programs intended to deliver on the social contract of a compassionate, inclusive American society, like Meals On Wheels or backed up home repair orders from as far back as 2010. Why else would he have put Dr. Snooze (Ben Carson) in charge of the Department of Housing and Urban Development? Expect to be homeless within a year (and I write that with no glib intended).
(For example: According to The Washington Post, the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which provides block grants for local communities to build affordable housing, and Choice Neighborhoods, a program that invests in redeveloping low-income communities, would be among the larger HUD cuts in Trump’s budget proposal.)
Are you a woman in need of affordable health care access and treatments? As much as Trump would love to touch you (and we know how much he would want to), he doesn’t especially care about your medical needs, particularly when it comes to abortion (though he’s been on the record in the past about believing a woman’s right to choose, but I think he thought that phrase referred to her selection of wine with dinner).
Is your skin color non-white? Despite Trump’s self-described “great relationship with the blacks,” don’t think for a moment that he’s going to place support for your civil rights ahead of his support for law enforcement, including the ones who fuck up “bigly” at their work. It’s truly tough talk from a rich white guy who has employed a private security team since at least the late 1990s.
I don’t imagine the president cares about very many people, even amongst his business circle (i.e., his family). But when you’re an aloof egomaniac with a penchant for telling it like you imagine it, is there really any room leftover for empathy?
People will die because of Trump’s choices. At least one already has, despite Trump’s own denial of responsibility. God help us if we ever witness America under attack again similar to Sept. 11, 2001, or in a much worse scenario. Even without it (and let’s hope that will be the case), there will be no time in Trump’s presidency — for however long it may last — in which he will care about your life unless you’re white, rich and a Trump fan who wants to make America “great” again.
But in the event that his time as president ends earlier than he planned, and he’s forced to look himself in the mirror and see failure, I hope to have the opportunity to let him know that I don’t care about his life any more than he cares about mine. Because with his ego, not giving a damn about Trump is the knife that cuts the deepest.
And some day soon, I hope he bleeds out.
I’m David Brandt. I write words. Practice coding. Shoot photos. Make friends laugh. Discuss what truly matters. Forget what doesn’t matter. On Instagram: @davidbrandtwho
