Trump no longer needs MAGA voters, so he's gutting Medicaid and laying off veterans
As the tens of thousands of federal layoffs continue, Trump voters are going to feel the impact more acutely in their own communities and social circles.
By Rex Huppke
USA TODAY
Dear MAGA voters:
President Donald Trump thanks you for your service, but he has determined you are now expendable. Please enjoy yourDenny’s omelet surcharge and keep buying MAGA merchandise and Trump family cryptocurrency!
If Trump was capable of honesty, that’s the note his supporters would be getting. It would be better than the “So long, suckers” message the president is sending via his administration’s priorities and reckless actions.
Trump promised you a rose garden, MAGA. Instead you'll get dirt.
Outside of some draconian actions on immigration and transgender rights, the kind of cruelty he promised his base, consider where we’re at since Trump has taken office.
An unelected billionaire – Elon Musk – is ripping though the federal government like he owns the place, firing workers right and left, including thousands of veterans while the Republican Congress just watches.
Trump has been musing about taking over Gaza and Greenland and the Panama Canal and Canada while siding with Russia and alienating America’s strongest allies in Europe. His scattershot tariffs have created economic uncertainty, rattling the stock market and leading to economic reports like this, from Reuters:
“The Conference Board said consumer confidence deteriorated in February at its fastest pace in three-and-a-half years, with estimates for 12-month domestic inflation surging amid worries that U.S. tariffs on imports would raise prices for households.”
Layoffs, jittery markets aren't going to help your grocery prices
On Tuesday, the head of Alcoa, a Pittsburgh-based aluminum company, said Trump’s tariffs on aluminum imports could result in 100,000 job losses in the industry.
CEO William Oplinger said: “It’s bad for American workers.”
I’m sorry, but I was told electing Trump would be good for American workers. In fact, I was told specifically that food prices would swiftly go down and that the country would waltz into a new Golden Age.
Well, it’s looking increasingly like that was – GASP! – a lie, and once Trump won the election and was able to do away with his myriad legal issues, he immediately abandoned the “forgotten men and women” he so sincerely promised to champion and went straight to helping himself and his fellow billionaires.
For proof of Trump's priorities, look at the billionaires lining his Cabinet
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts summed it up on the House floor Tuesday while speaking out about a GOP budget that will, among other things, gut the Medicaid program many Trump voters rely on:
“We all saw this coming. ... Last month, Trump’s inauguration, who was in the front row? It wasn't people on Medicaid. It wasn't factory workers. It wasn't nurses or teachers or firefighters. It wasn't even his own Cabinet. It was the richest people in the world.”
For any forgotten men and women of America, that should have been a red flag. Trump had won on the backs of Americans who bought into his dishonest populist message. And since he got what he wanted, since he saved his own hide, the people who matter are clearly the ones with money.
So in comes Musk, deemed brilliant by virtue of wealth. His smug talk of “wokeness” and diversity, equity and inclusion might trigger the pleasure centers of MAGA supporters. But they’re learning Musk’s ax is swinging for necks that include their own.
Wait a minute, I didn't know DOGE might fire people I don't hate!
Consider what Fox News’ Jesse Watters, a Trump toady if there ever was one, said after realizing that a friend of his – “a guy I met at a shooting event in New Jersey” – who is a 20-year military veteran about to get laid off from the Pentagon by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE:
He texted me and he said, ’Jesse, you know, this isn't good. I’m upset. This is really sad.’ And this guy is not a DEI consultant. This guy is not a climate consultant. This guy is a veteran. So when you’re talking about DOGE-ing people, veterans should get priority. Because if you’re going to go out there and kill enemies, put your life on the line for this country, you shouldn't be in the same category as people that are doing DEI.”
Previously on Fox News, Watters had squawked excitedly about the DOGE firings, saying things like “DOGE is dishing out spankings like ‘Daddy Daycare’ ”; “There was a huge exodus over at the National Archives, persnickety librarians were getting DOGE’d silly”; and “DOGE is a blessing from the heavens above.”
Previously on Fox News, Watters had squawked excitedly about the DOGE firings, saying things like “DOGE is dishing out spankings like ‘Daddy Daycare’ ”; “There was a huge exodus over at the National Archives, persnickety librarians were getting DOGE’d silly”; and “DOGE is a blessing from the heavens above.”
You see how that works? It’s all good when it somehow relates to Watters’ definition of “others,” but not when it involves someone he knows – one of those “real Americans,” I suppose.
And of course he overlooks the fact that veterans have long been considered a part of the “diversity” in DEI.
Trump's con was apparent. Those who didn't see it are about to feel it.
As the tens of thousands of federal layoffs continue, Trump voters are going to feel the impact more acutely in their own communities and social circles.
We’re talking about an enormous number of people about to be out of work, and there will be veterans and MAGA supporters among them, cast off from their jobs and forced to reckon with food prices that haven’t gone down and federal services – like Medicaid – that may well dry up.
Trump got what he needed out of his voters. And assuredly, he’ll still do his best to fleece the diehards with dodgy crypto investments and any other thing he can slap his name on and sell.
But for all intents and purposes, he’s done with you all. He cares only about the billionaires who line his Cabinet and his own personal fortune.
And you’re stuck with an extra charge on your Denny’s omelette.
By Rex Huppke
USA TODAY
Dear MAGA voters:
President Donald Trump thanks you for your service, but he has determined you are now expendable. Please enjoy yourDenny’s omelet surcharge and keep buying MAGA merchandise and Trump family cryptocurrency!
If Trump was capable of honesty, that’s the note his supporters would be getting. It would be better than the “So long, suckers” message the president is sending via his administration’s priorities and reckless actions.
Trump promised you a rose garden, MAGA. Instead you'll get dirt.
Outside of some draconian actions on immigration and transgender rights, the kind of cruelty he promised his base, consider where we’re at since Trump has taken office.
An unelected billionaire – Elon Musk – is ripping though the federal government like he owns the place, firing workers right and left, including thousands of veterans while the Republican Congress just watches.
Trump has been musing about taking over Gaza and Greenland and the Panama Canal and Canada while siding with Russia and alienating America’s strongest allies in Europe. His scattershot tariffs have created economic uncertainty, rattling the stock market and leading to economic reports like this, from Reuters:
“The Conference Board said consumer confidence deteriorated in February at its fastest pace in three-and-a-half years, with estimates for 12-month domestic inflation surging amid worries that U.S. tariffs on imports would raise prices for households.”
Layoffs, jittery markets aren't going to help your grocery prices
On Tuesday, the head of Alcoa, a Pittsburgh-based aluminum company, said Trump’s tariffs on aluminum imports could result in 100,000 job losses in the industry.
CEO William Oplinger said: “It’s bad for American workers.”
I’m sorry, but I was told electing Trump would be good for American workers. In fact, I was told specifically that food prices would swiftly go down and that the country would waltz into a new Golden Age.
Well, it’s looking increasingly like that was – GASP! – a lie, and once Trump won the election and was able to do away with his myriad legal issues, he immediately abandoned the “forgotten men and women” he so sincerely promised to champion and went straight to helping himself and his fellow billionaires.
For proof of Trump's priorities, look at the billionaires lining his Cabinet
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts summed it up on the House floor Tuesday while speaking out about a GOP budget that will, among other things, gut the Medicaid program many Trump voters rely on:
“We all saw this coming. ... Last month, Trump’s inauguration, who was in the front row? It wasn't people on Medicaid. It wasn't factory workers. It wasn't nurses or teachers or firefighters. It wasn't even his own Cabinet. It was the richest people in the world.”
For any forgotten men and women of America, that should have been a red flag. Trump had won on the backs of Americans who bought into his dishonest populist message. And since he got what he wanted, since he saved his own hide, the people who matter are clearly the ones with money.
So in comes Musk, deemed brilliant by virtue of wealth. His smug talk of “wokeness” and diversity, equity and inclusion might trigger the pleasure centers of MAGA supporters. But they’re learning Musk’s ax is swinging for necks that include their own.
Wait a minute, I didn't know DOGE might fire people I don't hate!
Consider what Fox News’ Jesse Watters, a Trump toady if there ever was one, said after realizing that a friend of his – “a guy I met at a shooting event in New Jersey” – who is a 20-year military veteran about to get laid off from the Pentagon by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE:
He texted me and he said, ’Jesse, you know, this isn't good. I’m upset. This is really sad.’ And this guy is not a DEI consultant. This guy is not a climate consultant. This guy is a veteran. So when you’re talking about DOGE-ing people, veterans should get priority. Because if you’re going to go out there and kill enemies, put your life on the line for this country, you shouldn't be in the same category as people that are doing DEI.”
Previously on Fox News, Watters had squawked excitedly about the DOGE firings, saying things like “DOGE is dishing out spankings like ‘Daddy Daycare’ ”; “There was a huge exodus over at the National Archives, persnickety librarians were getting DOGE’d silly”; and “DOGE is a blessing from the heavens above.”
Previously on Fox News, Watters had squawked excitedly about the DOGE firings, saying things like “DOGE is dishing out spankings like ‘Daddy Daycare’ ”; “There was a huge exodus over at the National Archives, persnickety librarians were getting DOGE’d silly”; and “DOGE is a blessing from the heavens above.”
You see how that works? It’s all good when it somehow relates to Watters’ definition of “others,” but not when it involves someone he knows – one of those “real Americans,” I suppose.
And of course he overlooks the fact that veterans have long been considered a part of the “diversity” in DEI.
Trump's con was apparent. Those who didn't see it are about to feel it.
As the tens of thousands of federal layoffs continue, Trump voters are going to feel the impact more acutely in their own communities and social circles.
We’re talking about an enormous number of people about to be out of work, and there will be veterans and MAGA supporters among them, cast off from their jobs and forced to reckon with food prices that haven’t gone down and federal services – like Medicaid – that may well dry up.
Trump got what he needed out of his voters. And assuredly, he’ll still do his best to fleece the diehards with dodgy crypto investments and any other thing he can slap his name on and sell.
But for all intents and purposes, he’s done with you all. He cares only about the billionaires who line his Cabinet and his own personal fortune.
And you’re stuck with an extra charge on your Denny’s omelette.
