By Don C. Reed
From Donald Trump’s youth, there are hints he might not be a kind and caring grownup. Not that he had a difficult childhood — just the opposite. He appears to have been spoiled beyond belief.
As a child, Trump was given an “allowance” of vast sums of money. A millionaire by age eight, (1) young Donald would eventually inherit $440 million dollars from his father.
Trump can turn on the charm when he wants to, as he did with Elon Musk, the richest man in the world — remember how Trump laughed about Musk being able to fire union workers? (2) He also revealed how he hates to pay time and a half “overtime”, a union-developed benefit. .
The former President uses racism for political advantage.
Remember Trump’s attempted ban on Muslims entering America?? Lawyers stopped that particular nonsense — but things are different today, with a Trump-stacked conservative Supreme Court. If he becomes President again, it will be more difficult to find fair play in the courts.
Remember those Mexican children at the border, lying on tinfoil “blankets” on concrete floors inside barred cages? Forcibly separated from their parents, many have not seen their families since that terrible day.
Who are these people Trump describes as so vile? You have seen them in the distant fields, bending figures, outlined against the sun: families doing work no one else will do, for almost no pay: to keep their children alive.
Trump brags he will order “the biggest deportations in history” (4), eleven million family members or more, many of whom are law-abiding men and women who contributed to America for decades. And now, they may be swept up by police, or ICE, or the military, to be imprisoned for who knows how many years.
Consider the Haitians, whom Trump accuses of eating the neighborhood pets, dogs and cats. He knows it is a lie — he has been told, plainly, and often.
But Trump lies so often that the Washington Post has a department listing his falsehoods. How many lies? “In four years, President Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims.” (5)
The very future of our planet may be affected by Donald J. Trump. As you now, much of Earth’s environmental degradation was nobody’s “fault”. But still the damage must be repaired. This will be a tremendous effort.
For instance, have you heard about the collapsing aquifers? An aquifer is an underground cave full of freshwater, a priceless treasure. But if the water level gets too low, the cave may collapse upon itself, a process called “subsidence” (6). After that, when the new rains fall, they are not gently absorbed, not stored in the aquifers. Instead, the water runs across the earth, making it mud, clogging streams.
And what about those lead-lined water pipes, poisoning our drinking water?
Trump has said he is “in favor of clean air and water”, which seems an odd thing to say — would anyone be in favor of dirty air and water? (7)
In any event, would President Trump actually lead an expensive fight to clean the water and re-line the pipes?
Or would he just do nothing, meaning take sides with the polluters?
1. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/trump-family-wealth.html
5. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/
6. https://www.wired.com/story/the-worlds-essential-aquifers-are-in-deep-trouble/
7. https://www.factcheck.org/2024/10/factchecking-the-vice-presidential-debate-2/