While President Donald Trump is living his Marie Antoinette fantasies, millions of people across the country are stressed about how they will make it through the holidays.
Antoinette was rumored to have said “let them eat cake” when told the poor had no bread. While there is no proof she said that, the saying has since symbolized the insensitivity rich people in power have towards the poor.
While Trump is drenching the Oval Office in gold, having a ballroom built in his honor and hosting elaborate parties, millions of people are struggling with food insecurity across the country he is supposed to serve.
On Halloween, Trump threw a “Great Gatsby” themed party at Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Florida, just hours before millions of Americans lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
SNAP is a federal program that provides monthly benefits to low-income households to help them buy food. On Nov. 1, due to the longest government shutdown in American history that lasted 43 days, families in need were informed they would not receive their November benefits until the shutdown ended.
While the SNAP program resumed normal procedures after the shutdown ended on Nov. 12, the delay cost many people the right of having food on the table, including many TCC students.
Food is a human right. Trump has claimed his goal is to save money, but he has done nothing but spend Americans’ money on useless renovations instead helping feed them.
Not only has Trump threatened the well-being of Americans, he also has done nothing but ruin the White House since he has been in office.
He has paved over the rose garden, taken down former President Joe Biden’s portrait in the “Presidential Walk of Fame,” covered the interior of the White House in cheap looking gold decor and demolished the East Wing to build his ballroom even though he initially said the project wouldn’t “interfere with the current building” and would be “near it but not touching it.”
Now, what do these two aspects of the White House have in common? They were both spaces that were used by past first ladies.
The Rose Garden was created by first lady Ellen Wilson in 1913 and traditionally maintained by the first ladies. He paved it over and called it a patio.
The East Wing had served as the first ladies’ office and staff space since 1977. He demolished it.
Healthcare premiums will soon skyrocket due to the changes passed in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” In this bill, credits that have kept health care premiums affordable for millions of Americans will cease to exist, forcing many to go without insurance altogether.
Trump does not care about the people he serves. He cares more about his fancy ballroom and throwing parties than about starving children in America.
He is a self-interest-seeking leech draining the livelihood of the American people and the history of the spaces he is renting. He does not own the White House. He is only a temporary tenant of the house that the American people own.
As we learned in the French revolution, humans will only take so much persecution before they act. Violence is not the answer, so we must vote for those who will make choices for the majority of Americans, not the wealthy few.
