Schmoozing the super-rich to fund a $300m ballroom while cutting food aid for those on low incomes threw the president’s architectural folly into sharp relief
It was a feast fit for a king – and any billionaire willing to be his subject. From gold-rimmed plates on gold-patterned tablecloths decorated with gold candlestick holders, they gorged on heirloom tomato panzanella salad, beef wellington and a dessert of roasted Anjou pears, cinnamon crumble and butterscotch ice-cream.
On 15 October, Donald Trump welcomed nearly 130 deep-pocketed donors, allies and representatives of major companies for a dinner at the White House to reward them for their pledged contributions to a vast new ballroom now expected to cost $300m. That the federal government had shut down two weeks earlier scarcely seemed to matter.
But two weeks later, the shutdown is starting to bite – and throw Trump’s architectural folly into sharp relief. On Saturday, with Congress still locked in a legislative stalemate, a potential benefit freeze could leave tens of millions of low-income Americans without food aid. Democrats accuse Trump’s Republican party of “weaponising hunger” to pursue an extreme rightwing agenda.
Ignorant comment. Fuck America, but not from your perspective. It is deplorable, but the people have been cultivated to be ignorant and malleable. It’s deeply flawed, but it’s system is rigged to beat everyone down and break their collective will.
Those of us who stand up are divided constantly. We’re undermined at every turn. We are marginalized for speaking the truth. Our spirits are broken by the weight of ineffectiveness sold to us as Democracy.
American Exceptionalism is taught from birth and is fully unfounded. There was a time decades ago when the national anthem would give me goosebumps, but now I know that was not excitement. It was subconscious fear of something yet to emerge.
You obviously don’t live here. This is my personal resounding “fuck you” while completely mirroring your words. You have no inkling of which you speak. What you would have us do is nigh impossible.
Our only hope is that a unifying event will de-polarize our population and unify our resolve.
While we stand divided we shall fall united.
I guess I have a bit more faith in the American people than you.
It’s probably easier to have faith in the American people when you aren’t surrounded by American people. Those of us who live here know better than to expect much from the brainwashed.