The Out of Touch Trump Administration

One of the main reasons cited by those who voted for cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump was their belief that he cared about issues important to them. The Trump campaign explicitly encouraged this idea with anti-transgender campaign ads using the tag line, "Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you". Trump and his campaign relentlessly focused on the price of eggs, even when that required lying (J. D. Vance once claimed that eggs were selling for $4.00 while standing in front of an egg display with a sign showing the price was $2.99). Given that Trump is a notorious liar, it is remarkable that anyone believed anything that he had to say. But any voters who did have faith that he would address issues relevant to their lives must surely be disappointed by now. Since taking office, both Trump and his top officials have shown themselves to be out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. An administration that promised prosperity is not only leading the country directly into recession but acting as if Americans should enjoy it.

To demonstrate the detachment from reality of Trump and top members of his administration, let's start off with the price of eggs. Far from Trump's fanciful claims that he would lower egg prices on day one, the cost of eggs skyrocketed soon after his inauguration, reaching an all-time high of $8.17 a dozen in March. The reaction of Trump's Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, showed a distinct lack of concern for "you". Rollins went on "Fox & Friends Weekend" to brag about how she raises chickens in her backyard and, therefore, is not affected by high prices. She went on to say that others were thinking, "Wow, maybe I could get a chicken in my backyard!" and that this was "awesome". To be clear, I am all in favor of backyard chickens and even did a brief experiment with chickens in my own backyard. But Rollins is delusional if she believes that backyard chickens are the solution to the high cost of eggs. Many, perhaps most, Americans simply don't have the space — or a backyard at all — for chickens. The upfront investment costs and the required time and effort for caring for chickens are likely beyond many folks. But the worst problem with Rollins' solution is that the main contributor to high egg prices was the spread of Asian bird flu. Just what we need is for that to be spread through our backyards.

One of the most controversial, and out of touch, components of Trump's second round as President has been the activities of the U.S. DOGE Service. Many Americans fully support increasing government efficiency. However, most were not happy with the way Shadow President Elon Musk went about it. Trump voters expected "Washington bureaucrats" to lose their jobs and weren't going to shed many tears in response. However, when job cuts started hitting close to home, their reaction was much different. This was especially true when it came to veterans. Veterans have long held a special place in government hiring with preferences favoring their employment. This was one DEI program that even Trump voters favored. But when veterans were showing up, disproportionately it seemed to many, among those being cut by DOGE, there were loud complaints. But if anyone was expecting sympathy from the Trump administration, they were sadly mistaken. Alina Habba, once Trump's personal lawyer and a senior advisor early in the administration (she is now the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey), took to the White House lawn to tell reporters, "I really don’t feel sorry for them. They should get back to work for the American people, like President Trump and this administration." Ironically, Alina, Trump, and his administration have government jobs, just like the fired veterans previously had. She then went on to say about veterans that "perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment". Lest you think that this sentiment was confined to Habba and the White House, Republican Member of Congress Brendon Gill defended the firing of veterans, telling CNN that "Nobody in the United States has a right by God to have a job at taxpayer expense at the federal government."

It has long been held that Social Security is the third rail of American politics and, whatever politicians do, they should not interfere with Social Security. But, like many Trump administration officials, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is a billionaire who has not been in touch with normal people for decades. When DOGE activities threatened the stability of Social Security, creating the possibility that some seniors would not receive their checks, Lutnick showed how little he understands the average retired American. Lutnick argued that "Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who's 94, she wouldn't call and complain". That's probably true. The mother-in-law of a billionaire can afford to miss a monthly check. However, that is not true for plenty of other mother-in-laws. More revealing was that Lutnick suggested that the only people who would complain would be those cheating the system. According to him, "A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining." As anyone with even the slightest connection to Social Security can tell you, complaints from legitimate Social Security recipients are nearly constant. That is a major reason for the "third-rail" designation.

Beyond the out-of-touch statements, Trump administration actions show a similar detachment from the reality of most Americans. Trump's opposition to migrants had strong support,  based on his frequent claims that immigrants were violent and committed serious crimes. However, when Secretary of Deportations Marco Rubio began devoting the bulk of his time to attempting to deport students for such things as co-authoring an op-ed in a school newspaper, most Americans were not impressed. Similarly, the plight of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father that Trump falsely accuses of being a member of MS-13 and has shipped off to potential life imprisonment in El Salvador, has contributed to turning Americans against Trump's policies. Astonishingly, polls now show that Trump is actually underwater when it comes to approval of his immigration policies. Instead of rapists and murderers, Trump is deporting children, including those who are American citizens, and other harmless individuals. Many of those who voted for Trump did not vote for this.

Similarly, one of Trump's stronger campaign pledges was that he would end American participation in foreign wars. He managed to attract considerable Muslim and Arab support based on their belief that he would stop the fighting in Gaza. Instead, Trump has adopted former President Joe Biden's policy of unconditional support for Israel. Beyond simply supporting the continued genocide in Gaza, Trump has also deployed U.S. forces in a war against the Houthis in Yemen in order to defend Israeli shipping. The U.S. has waged daily attacks against Yemen for nearly a month, though that fighting is invisible to anyone not actively searching for news about it. Hundreds of Yemeni civilians have been killed and yesterday it was reported that the U.S. has struck over 1,000 targets. There are also indications that one of those attacks may have been based on nothing more than a post on X. After a poster on X suggested that a gravel pit might be a Houthi hideout, the site was bombed, killing 8 civilians. While the dead and wounded Yemenis get almost no attention in the U.S., a scandal involving Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's use of Signal for discussing classified information has dogged the administration. Trump promised both competency and accountability in his administration. Hegseth and the war in Yemen show that he is providing neither.

Finally, to wrap up this post, I will return to Trump himself. Remember that Trump campaigned on returning the United States to prosperity. Now he is telling us that we should be happy to pay higher prices and have fewer choices in the stores. During the campaign, Trump was adamant that the tariffs he promised would be paid for by China. Just like the wall for which Mexico was supposed to pay during his previous administration, that is not going to be the case. Now Trump has come to accept that Americans will pay higher prices as a result of his policies. His reaction, however, was to essentially tell Americans to suck it up. Yesterday, Trump said, "You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open.’ Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally." He said this at the same time it was announced that the U.S. economy had suffered one of the first retractions in years. In the meantime, Trump is arranging dinners with the largest investors in his memecoin. Trump claimed that he would be for "you". Instead, he is really only for himself and his rich buddies. The rest of us can go suck eggs, except that we can't afford them.