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Trump and Republicans are tearing the soul out of America. We used to have a diverse country of decency and compassion, but no more.

The years of Trump’s lying, his hateful language and his stoking of violence on his own behalf have overwhelmed civility and tolerance.     

One of the first things the Trump Administration did when he returned to office is to destroy USAID. For more than 50 years USAID saved children around the world from starvation and provided emergency medical care. Nearly 250,000 children are estimated to have already died in less than six months because of Trump’s actions.

Programs that people depend on for basic food and nutrition like SNAP, meals on wheels, the Emergency Food Assistance Program (which delivers food to food banks) and the National School Lunch Program are being slashed by Trump’s administration or facing cuts in Congress. These services provide for the basic needs of the most vulnerable Americans.      

Trumps second administration spent several months firing federal employees indiscriminately.  Many of the terminations hampered delivery of services to seniors and veterans. 

Our national government’s compassion is eroding fast, whether it is helping people who have been devastated by natural disasters through FEMA funding or finding cures for diseases by the National Institutes of Health. Rural aid for farmers, businesses and individuals is being gutted.      

There is only one purpose for these and many other programs being cut that ordinary people depend on. Massive tax cuts for billionaires. There will be trivial tax reductions for lower income people and any gain will be quickly overshadowed by the increased costs caused by federal aid reductions. For example, higher property taxes will be necessary to maintain current standards for our children’s education.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine famously said of her vote to acquit Donald Trump in 2020, “The President has been impeached. That’s a pretty big lesson.”  He is incapable of learning a lesson. My engineering training taught me to know what I know but it was more important to know what I did not know. Trump’s knowledge and character deficits were not a big problem when just his businesses were in jeopardy. His arrogance is much more dangerous when our country and our youth in the military are in harm’s way due to irrational decision making.       

Joe Pacovsky

Hayward, MN