by Rex Huppke
On the weekend that millions of Americans saw their insurance premiums skyrocket and their ability to pay for food plummet into uncertainty, President Donald Trump proudly showed he doesn’t give a damn.
Just before Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits expired for millions of Americans, the president took to social media to brag about the fancy, gold-accented marble bathroom he remodeled in the White House.
That same night, Oct. 31, he hosted an elegant Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago estate, complete with a scantily clad woman dancing in a giant martini glass.
As Americans suffer, Trump brags about a bathroom – and parties with rich folks
The theme of Trump’s party was “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel about the excesses of wealth and power and the futility of pursuing the American dream. I’m assuming Trump and his coterie of new-money South Florida weirdos have never read the book and missed the irony, using the theme as a mere excuse to prance about like ignorant snoots.
Regardless, the day after the party, a woman named Lasheika Carter waited in her car for 14 hours with more than 2,000 other families to get a free box of groceries from New Birth Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia.
With the government shutdown and hardships on a lot of families, we just have to do what we have to do to make sure we have what we need,” Carter told WXIA-TV in Atlanta.
Quite the contrast.
The Republican Party’s shutdown puts SNAP recipients in limbo
Starting Oct. 1, Trump has presided over a lengthy government shutdown that has now stalled SNAP benefits, throwing millions of Americans’ lives into chaos. The shutdown is happening because Trump and Republicans want to end Affordable Care Act subsidies, something Democrats rightly refuse to sign off on. Public opinion is already on the Democrats’ side, and now that ACA enrollment started on Nov. 1, Americans are getting a clearer view of why the party’s leaders aren’t budging.
The research firm KFF has estimated that insurance premiums for ACA enrollees will jump by 114% without the subsidies.
Stacy Cox, a Utah photographer, told ABC News that her ACA premium for her and her husband is jumping from $495.32 a month to $2,168.68 a month: “It’s devastating because we can’t afford that. Just that bill right there, that’s more than our mortgage, our insurance, most of our food. That’s what we’re paying per month to live.”
Trump isn’t even trying to hide his lack of concern for regular Americans
But please, President Trump, tell us more about the Lincoln Bathroom and how you had it redone with golden accents.
“I renovated the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House,” he wrote in an Oct. 31 post on Truth Social, accompanied by photos of the fancy can. “It was renovated in the 1940s in an art deco green tile style, which was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era. I did it in black and white polished Statuary marble.”
Statuary marble, you say? Well, I’m sure people waiting in long lines at food pantries or wondering how they’ll afford health insurance this year are beyond thrilled to learn of those improvements!
Congressional Republicans and Trump’s Cabinet members are equally aloof
Of course, it’s not just Trump ignoring regular Americans trying to put food on the table and afford doctor’s appointments. The Republican Party as a whole seems utterly unconcerned with the economic harm about to befall millions.
GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson can’t even be bothered to call the U.S. House of Representatives back into session during the government shutdown, perhaps because once he does, there will be a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, and Johnson is running interference to protect – you guessed it – wealthy America, and possibly the president himself.
Trump will help ‘Dilbert’ creator, but he won’t help you
On Nov. 2, “Dilbert” creator and rabid Trump supporter Scott Adams, who has prostate cancer, posted on X that he planned to ask the president to help him get an appointment for “a newly FDA-approved drug called Pluvicto.”
The president quickly responded, “On it,” and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote to Adams on X: “Scott. How do I reach you? The President wants to help.”
I hope Adams gets his medical treatment, but could there be a clearer example of the wealthy and well-connected getting the help they need while regular folks stand to lose their health insurance?
Trump and Co. are ‘careless people’ who care only about themselves
Whether your SNAP benefits are cut off or you’re being priced out of the ACA insurance marketplace or you simply care about people in those situations, you should know this: Trump spent the weekend focused on helping one wealthy friend. He spent the weekend focused on a snazzy, gold-accented bathroom and having the gall to share pictures of that bathroom, as if struggling Americans would possibly care. He spent the weekend partying with rich friends at his Florida resort, all of them acting like they’re living the life of elite Jazz-Age fools who wouldn’t spit on you if you were on fire.
To paraphrase a line from Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” one I’m sure the unenlightened partiers at Mar-a-Lago have never seen, Trump and congressional Republicans and all their rich friends are “careless people” who smash up things and then retreat back into their money, letting others clean up the mess they made.
But hey, at least the president has a “black and white polished Statuary marble” bathroom to celebrate
