Trump's "Grand Thing" -- Not if you're paying attention

 

Terre Haute Tribune Star, September 10, 2025

Letter was indigestible

“It is a grand thing,” a local Trump supporter writes [Terre Haute Tribune Star, Reader’s Forum, August 15, 2025], “to see the new direction of this country.”

We should put aside the letter’s obligatory sour and stale opening. It’s made up of the standard stuff from true believers who turn resentment into verbal revenge, smugly attacking the conspiracy inspired “deep state” and the Trumpian bluster about Hillary, Joe and Kamala all being a part of gauzy scandals. Just the usual fact void screed you can hear from Fox commentators most nights.

But then there is the uncooked and indigestible meat of this acolyte’s letter.

For starters, we find it peculiar to hear about a “new direction” from this Trump admirer. After all, MAGA chants have a central hope in seeing a return to a “Great Again” past. (An impossible fantasy always to be specified at a later date.) But this “It’s a grand thing” sketch does take a crack, make that a faint tap, at listing some vague blurbs uncritically praising 47’s clumsy blitzkrieg of actions.

So we read of “great strides” taken on immigration, of an economy “doing well,” tax benefits coming our way, tariffs filling the nation’s coffers, respect for America in the international community and “Here at home, our military has been refocused on the mission of combat.”

And all this supposedly constitutes a “great turnaround for the better in this nation in less than a year.” Some missing elements and the costs of this “great turnaround,” however, can make a person very dizzy. Or some, those sensitive to truth and upholding democratic values, even sick.

Immigrants have long been Trump’s target of choice. And yes, some Americans applaud his sending of the innocent — snatched at the school door, at work, on the steps of our courts or near churches or victims of administrative mistakes — off to wretched foreign prisons. All without a nod toward due process. Can’t you hear Trump? “These prisons are a great deal. I always make the best deals. The country knows only I can make such great deals.”

The economy? It zooms along, virtually for most, onward and upward for the rich and well placed. We should remember Trump’s 2024’s gas and groceries promises. And if the hard facts aren’t showing how well you are doing, just wait a minute. Trump is getting a new and better statistician into the Department of Labor to fix any vexing basic math results he doesn’t like.

Taxes and tariffs? These hardly belong in the “great strides” category. Though we can rest assured the super-rich are already spending their ever ballooning tax breaks. Tariffs? Nothing here gives any indication, to the relief of most economists, of being a done deal. With Trump it’s been an up and down, an on and off game. But be certain China will be handled with kid gloves and Switzerland’s Toblerone will be priced beyond my reach but not those of Elon Musk’s and Jeff Bezos’s.

International respect? Really!?! Can you find many nation’s around the world that respect the United States under Trump’s heavy hand and light intellect other than those headed by some species of authoritarianism? I didn’t think so. Respect is earned by actions of mutual agreement and benefits, not from practicing the dark side of gangsta rap, intimidation and fear.

On our military, it was doing its best parading by executive order on T’s birthday in the streets of D.C. two months ago. Now it’s ordered to throw the elderly, the sick, the unlucky homeless out of whatever shade they can find in our nation’s sweltering capital. I guess you can call this a military “refocus.”

You must admit this “grand thing” Trump supporter has the ugly game plan of his overlord down perfectly. Never show weakness. Never apologize. Never explain. Attack, never defend. Engender loyalty through intimidation.

Simple and direct, right? But are these the qualities of mind and spirit that can take us to a place where we can begin to solve our nation’s complex challenges?

— Gary Daily Terre Haute