The United States of America is the richest country in the world by gross domestic product (GDP), leading China by over $10 trillion. If broken down evenly amongst the whole population of 346 million, every single person would have nearly $80,000 to their name. In a 2023 survey, the Census Bureau reported that most individuals are lucky to earn half that a year. Where is all of that money going?

Elon Musk

It’s going to fund tax cuts to the ultra wealthy, like Elon Musk; as you probably know, he’s the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $333 billion, which surpasses Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos by over $100 billion. It is impossible to save up that amount of money in a lifetime without the use of unethical practices. Musk has a history of exploiting his employees, cheating his way out of income tax, and making general false claims to cover up budget cuts. Not to say he didn’t work at all! In the beginning, he definitely did, but he swears up and down that “that fake emerald mine thing is so annoying,” referring to his father’s venture that paid for his living expenses during university. 

Musk also donated nearly $300 million to Trump’s campaign, which is why Trump is allowing him to act as an unelected top official in close quarters.

RFK Jr.

Trump-appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not qualified for his position. He’s claimed he’ll be able to find what has caused “the autism epidemic” and “eliminate those exposures” by September, in addition to calling autism “a disease” that must be kept track of via a registry. All these claims are unsettling, unscientific, and harmful. Someone with historically conspiratorial views surrounding vaccines (ex. that they cause autism? why is he obsessed with this?) should not be in charge of the department that regulates them.

Kennedy has also expressed to the New York Times that he experiences “cognitive problems” as a result of an actual worm (taenia solium) in his brain that “ate a portion of it and then died.” He then reported in 2024 that said issues were resolved, likely to clear the way for his failed presidential campaign.

Donald Trump

Many of his supporters would argue that he’s helping the community by “sending people back where they came from,” but he isn’t even doing that! Donald Trump is illegally detaining German tourists and Canadians seeking entry at the border. Why would he be detaining these people instead of barring their entry in the first place? It’s pretty simple, actually; private prison groups profit from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions, and a few of these companies donated to the President’s campaign. Sending 47.6 thousand detainees “back home” wouldn’t make the U.S. government any money.

Trump has also expressed that he wants another baby boom to combat declining birth rates, and is offering up a $5,000 “baby bonus” and a “National Medal of Motherhood” to mothers with six children or more, instead of making it any cheaper or safer to have a baby in the first place. In 2022, WebMD reported that middle-class families could expect to spend $25,360 in a baby’s first two years. Based on figures from 2015, the cost of raising a child has only gone up since then; $5,000 barely makes a dent!

The Trump Administration is not working for the people. If they cared about you, they wouldn’t be hiding the constitution from you, they wouldn’t be allowing previously barred predators into the country, and they definitely wouldn’t be taking money out of your paycheck to line their own pockets and aiding in a genocide across the ocean while simultaneously betraying decades long allyships for the sake of ego.

If you find yourself not caring about “illegals” being deported with no due process, know that you may be next. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed several times over the past days that they have spent “100 days fighting fake news,” whilst Trump has said in the last month that “homegrowns are next.” Deportation of citizens is illegal, unconstitutional, and un-American.

This should scare you, not to the point of paralysis, but into action. Call or email your representatives (Scott Perry for 10th Congressional district). Exercise your right to peacefully protest. Fascism is at our door; staying silent is letting it in.