We radical leftist “Dumocrats” — as Trump calls us — don’t have to make things up about how callous Trump is about the everyday struggles of we ordinary Americans. He proudly states how little he cares about us and our problems.
NBC news reports that at a meeting in the Oval Office with Republican lawmakers in recent weeks, ostensibly to discuss housing affordability legislation, Trump “talked about his building stuff for all but about 15 minutes,” said a person familiar with the meeting.
“He then said, I don’t care about housing, but if you want me to help, I will,” the person added.
This is what Trump himself posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social:
“The Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren centric housing bill, which is of minor importance compared to lower interest rates, and even FISA, pales in comparison to passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.”
Trump states clearly that he considers affordable housing of “minor importance”.
I don’t know about you, but affordable housing is of major importance to me. Especially since my housing isn’t actually affordable. My social security check only covers half of my mortgage. There is no retirement for me if I want to keep my house.
Twice in my life I went from rentals to buying a home, when rent payments grew to match what a mortgage payment would be. The last move was from an apartment in Austin to a townhouse in Santa Fe, where the mortgage payment is actually less than the rent on my apartment was. Rent is higher in certain areas, such as California, and Austin, Texas, than mortgages. And both are out of reach for far too many Americans.
Renting or buying, I was and am paying more than a third of my income for housing. In many situations, people are paying up to half of their income for housing. In Los Angeles, where my son lives, Millennials live three to five in a house in order to afford the rent.
Habitat for Humanity, the home building foundation started by President Jimmy Carter reports:
“Today, 20.3 million U.S. households pay over half of their income on a place to live. That means nearly 1 in 6 families are denied the stability that safe, decent and affordable housing provides.
Too many people are having to make tough choices, the result of two major trends — lagging incomes for low- and moderate-income families, and the soaring cost of housing, says Chris Herbert, managing director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. “You look at this and say, ‘Is it a housing problem, or is it an income problem?’ I would say it is both.””
When one in six American families don’t have the stability of “safe, decent and affordable housing”, when those same families have to choose between paying for housing or buying food, clothes, or medication, what does Trump think is important?
He believes we need a voter ID bill — the SAVE act — which will effectively keep trans people and married OR divorced women from voting along with others. How, you ask? Read my article linked below on the perfidious intent of the SAVE act. Instead of keeping non-legal immigrants from voting, it will stop women, military, disaster survivors, Native Americans, rural, disabled, and the elderly from casting their ballots. Trump refused to sign the bipartisan affordable housing bill UNTIL and UNLESS Congress passes the SAVE act.
What else does he consider more important than affordable housing for Americans? Reinstating FISA, a way for the government to use warrantless surveillance of Americans. Critics of FISA have long been concerned that American’s information and communications with people in other countries are swept up in the surveillance of those from other countries.
Do you have friends or relativews who live overseas? Are any of them in countries our government is targeting? Are any of them in Gaza, Iran, Venezuela or Cuba? Do you text or call them? Then you have likely been surveilled under FISA. I traveled to Cuba in 2019, and kept up communication with some people there for a time. If we were still in contact before FISA ended recently, I could have been surveilled.
“Critics want changes, including a requirement for warrants before authorities can access the emails, phone calls or text messages of Americans. They also want limits on the government’s use of internet data brokers, who sell large volumes of personal information gleaned online, offering the government what critics say amounts to an end-run around the Constitution.”
The latter fits with the government’s negotiations with AI companies, asking them to build surveillance programs to gather data on every American citizen. That request is one reason Anthropic opted out of the negotiations. The company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, refused to gather such data on citizens.
a statement from Anthropic makes clear the company’s stance:
“Using these systems for mass domestic surveillance is incompatible with democratic values.”
According to Trump, incompatibility with democratic values is no barrier to domestic surveillance of citizens.
What is really important to the President of the United States
Surveillance of and data on citizens. A voting ID act that will eliminate the voting rights of people across all demographics.
What isn’t important to the President of the United States
Affordable housing for Americans. And he will tell you that to your face.
—
This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
—
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock.com
Carol, Sadly, Trump does not care about much beside himself and his dynasty. We can innumerate the many, many examples of that fact. Thanks for elucidating another example. Richard Templeton, psychiatrist badmalebehavior.com