*** “The most perfect community is one in which the middle class is in control and outnumbers both of the other classes.” [ Aristotle ]
This post will BEGIN. to discuss evidence on how the Trump DICTATORSHIP policies are negatively impacting Americans. Leaving aside damage to the environment, relations with formerly friendly countries, undermining the rule of law, undermining democracy. – this post concentrates on. SOME. reasons most Americans are struggling financially. Often a headline alone is enough.
1] “The Middle Class Is Selling Blood Plasma to Get By” [ Kurtis Lee, Robert Gebeloff; New York Times; 4/5/26 ]: “As living costs rise, collection centers are increasingly opening in wealthier areas of the country.”
2] “The Great American Heist: How Reagan, Trump, and Their Billionaire Backers Stole the Middle Class” [ Thom Hartmann; The Progressive Populist; December, 2025 ]: “Every major social program since the 1930s has been opposed by Republicans…Trump just de-unionized an additional few hundred-thousand federal workers…the middle class has shrunk to fewer than 50% of us, and it takes two paychecks to do it.”
3]. “The Town That Reveals All of Trump’s Bad Economic Ideas” [ bob Davis; New York Times; 4/26/26 ]: “The town is making a comeback..But the reasons have nothing to do with mr. Trump and his signature policies.”
4]. “Republic for Sale”. [ Sabrina Haake; The Progressive Populist; December, 2025]; “Thanks to Citizens United…Trump is indebted to hundreds of industry leaders from tech, auto, education, banking, arms, prison, healthcare, and fossil fuel sectors…Trump is targeting these federal agencies for privatization: USPS, VA, FEMA, TSA, National Weather Service, National Parks, TVA, CDC.”
***. “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”
[ Benito Mussolini ]
5] “To Pay Bills, Seniors Turn To Gig Work” [ Cathy Bussewitz; Associated Press; 4/6/26 ]
6]. “VA eliminates thousands of medical jobs…Despite promises to care for veterans..” [ Nicholas Nehamas, Andrea Fuller, Danielle Ivory, Ellen Barry; New York Times; 3/4/26 ]
7] “Brisk sales at Goodwill suggest shoppers worried”. [ Kim Bhasin, Sophia June; New York Times; 2/1/26 ]
8]. “With Grids Under Strain, Blackout Risk Rises for Millions of People”. { Brad Plumer; New York Times; 2/8/26 ]
***. “No society can..be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of..members are poor and miserable..It is but equity..that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people should have..a share of the produce of their own labor as to themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.” [ Adam Smith; yes – THE Adam Smith ! ]
9]. April 17, 2025 – 5:30 PM CBS News: there are 50 million Americans who are food insecure.
10] November 18, 2025 – 6 PM PBS News Hour: 44% of U.S. wokers are in low-wage jobs; 60% of U.S. workers live paycheck-to-paycheck
11]. January 30, 2026 – 6 PM PBS News Hour: Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” cut back $911 million on services to adults with disabilities
12]. “Parents face tough child care choices”. [ Julie Weil, Joanna Slater; Washington Post Weekly; 1/25/26 ]
***. “We can either have a democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentration in the hands of a few. But we cannot have both.” { Justice Louis Brandeis ]
13]. “Millions abandon pricier ACA coverage” [ Reed Abelson, Margot Sanger-Katz; New York Times; 5/10/26 ]
14]. “Less for Health Care, More for the Pentagon” [ Lindsay Koshgarian; The Progressive Populist; January, 2026 ]
15]. “To Make America Healthy Again, Break Up Big Ag”. [ Amanda Starbuck; The Progressive Populist; May, 2026 ]
16] “Babies become ‘sitting ducks’ in outbreaks of measles”. [ Devi Shastri, Laura Unger; Associated Press; 4/25/26 ]
*** “We will move from a society based on the pretense..everyone is given an okay standard of living in which people are expected to fend for themselves…a world where..10 to 15 percent of the citizenry is extremely wealthy [and has fantastic lives]…” [Tyler Cowen, a “pro-market” economist; in Robert McChesney and John Nichols: “People Get Ready” ]
17] “EPA won’t consider lives saved in setting rules” [ Maxine Johnson; New York Times; 1/13/26 ]
18]. “The Trump Administration’s War on Science Has A Human Cost”. [ Jeneen Interlandi; New York Times; 3/1/26 ]
19]. “Manufacturers not seeing tariff payoff…Trump’s rationale of more factories opening hasn’t materialized” [ Josh Boak; Associated Press; 3/19/26 ]
20]. “Trump’s Betrayal of His Voters Is Now Complete” [ Joe Conason; The Progressive Populist; may, 2026 ]: Trump: “I said to Russell, Don’t send any money for day care because the United States can’t take care of day care.’ That has to be up to a state.’ We can’t take care of day care. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people.”
*** “His entire life Trump has been a con artist. In “The Art of the Deal” he brags about deceptions that enriched him. He has boasted about not paying banks that loaned him billions of dollars. He lost a court case, had to pay back $25. million on his Trump University scam. [ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Worse Than You Think” ]
With Justice For All 