You May Have Voted for Trump—But Did You Approve This?

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Podcast 129

By Jackalyn Rainosek, PhD

Introduction: What Did You Really Vote For?

I am hearing more people say to me I did not vote for this ____________________when I voted for Trump. I am sure that I cannot list all the statements people would say about what they do not approve of  in Trump’s second term as President; however, I want to take a moment with you—wherever you are, whatever your politics, to walk through what’s happening right now in America. I invite you to ask yourself honestly: Is this what you wanted? Is this what you voted for? Or is this a betrayal of everything you hoped for when you cast your vote?

Let’s look at the facts, one by one.

  • Musk eliminating of massive amount of job in the U.S. Government with no consideration of what the government does for the citizens of the United States; not considering the impact on hundreds of thousands of people without job or the impact on the economy in the U.S.
  • Trump never taking responsibility for any action that Musk has done or others in his administration. Trump chooses to put out lies or he attempts to explain away the actions of the people in his administration.
  • Musk buying the presidency for Trump by paying out millions to create misinformation that would get Trump elected.
  • Musk attempting to buy the Supreme Court election in Wisconsin for his preferred candidate.
  • Trump withholding aide to save children in various countries throughout the world that will die due to his stopping the fund. Musk lying that there have been no deaths, which is not true since there have been death of children and women.
  • Trump using money to bribe universities to let him supervise what they teach and how they manage their student population, or they do not get their federal funding.
  • Millions of people rely on medical devices like hearing aids or insulin pumps face higher prices due to Trump’s tariffs.
  • The U.S. Government has been instrumental in the development of lifesaving drugs for decades, including treatments for cancer and Alzheimer’s, heart disease and arthritis, COVID-19 and HIV and more. Every single one of the 210 drugs approved from 2010 to 2016 were built upon National Institutes of Health-funded research. Due to the withdrawal of funds federal agencies such as NIH and the National Science Foundation have ended or are in the process of ending hundreds of active research projects and patients will pay the price.
  • Do you want your children to learn how to avoid responsibility, and do you believe it is acceptable to blame other people as Trump, Musk and MAGA Republicans do? Are these the  types of people who you want to model your own behavior after or have your children behave like them?
  • Trump has destroyed the healthy economy that Biden built, and now he wants to blame the Federal Reserve chairperson, Jerome Powell, for the disaster Trump has created with the economy with his tariff war he implemented.
  • Trump and MAGA Republicans use gerrymandering to minimize persons of color, women, Democrats and anyone that does not support their ideology to establish state electoral districts to win elections. I live in Texas and gerrymandering is the reason we are currently a red state, with a state legislature that is controlled by MAGA Republicans.
  • The SAVE ACT just passed the House of Representatives which is the most extreme voter suppression bill that imposes the most burdensome voter registration restrictions in modern history.
  • Medicaid isn’t just for the poor, yet the Republican controlled Congress has eliminated it from the federal budget.
  • $10 trillion has been wiped out from the U.S. economy, pensions, retirement funds, savings accounts, 401(k)s, and portfolios due to Trump’s tariffs.
  • Trumponomics and the Trump administration’s moves and countermoves on tariffs, deportation and spending cuts are to address the federal deficit; yet the actions being taken will not address the federal deficit.
  • Thanks to Trump America’s whole reputation is shot. The U.S. and past presidents have spent centuries with strong alliances with other democracies; however, those relationships are gone now.
  • Massive cuts to NASA science was in the White House budget plan, people familiar say, this will  impact future missions. NASA’s science budget, which supports space telescopes and interplanetary robotic missions, could be cut nearly in half.
  • Trump plan to eliminate NOAA climate research by deep cuts to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who research weather, climate and oceans is terrible. Imagine what will happen when Trump and Musk eliminate labs and reduce their budget by 27 percent. The comments are that this is misaligned with the “will of the American people.” This will devastate global climate science and make weather forecasts less accurate.
  • Stock Market has crashed more in Trump terms than other presidents. Yet, Trump promised an economic bomb and that certainly is not happening. Economist have said that his aggressive measures with tariffs can affect 11 percent of the nation’s gross domestic (GDP) product.
  • Trump’s tariffs are making stagflation a real risk for the United States for the first time since the 1970’s. Stagflation is persistent high inflation combined with high unemployment and stagnant demand in a country’s economy.
  • Trump’s refusal to respect the courts and rule of law have created a disturbing realization that the three branches of our government (Legislative, Judicial and Administration) are negatively affecting the checks and balances that have been a part of our nation from its inception.
  • Members of Congress that are Republican are fearful to speak out against Trump which lessens the power and authority of our nation and threatens our democracy.
  • Hear the many stories of immigrants that have been deported that are not criminals, and all of this is a hateful vendetta that Trump has against specific groups of people or wants to attack groups of people that Biden and other Presidents supported being a part of our communities in the U.S.
  • Small business owners are receiving the brunt of Trump and Musk attacks, and an example is that numbers of “mom and pop” restaurants that have been in DC for years will go out of business due to the severe cuts of employees from the federal government.

The are hundreds of thousands of examples that I could give that show the pain and anguish that Trump has brought to our nation. I want to move to provide some detail of actions being taken and statements made in the legitimate press that can allows us to make better decisions on how to resist and stand up for the values, principles and rule of law that makes who we are not what Trump and MAGA Republicans want us to be.

Let’s have a check with reality of what we need to know to stand up and refuse to participate with Trump, Musk or any of the cowardly Republican representatives in the House and Senate.

Breaking the Backbone of American Progress

In the Forbes newsletter on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at 6:43 AM, they provided us the cost of medical devices. “Unlike pharmaceutical companies, medical device makers did not get carveout from the levies. Some 40% of all devices are manufactured overseas, including Mexico and Europe, which now face tariff rates 25% or 20%, respectively, Even devices manufactured in the U.S. may require imported parts, which are subject to tariffs. The CEO of one health system based near Seattle told Forbes its costs could go up $10 million to $25 million a year due to tariffs.”

In The Conversations, Friday, March 28

, 2025, 9:23 AM gives us an examples that will happen all over our country due to the cuts in science funding and the harm it will bring to America’s health. “Fuller and Mitchell are scientists at the University of Washington whose own work has been supported by the NIH” (National Institute of Health). They’re seeing firsthand the effects these cuts are having on the scientific work that leads to breakthroughs. Let’s Consider just a few of the medical advances that have benefited from federal support. They suggest, this could clarify what benefits Americans are at risk of losing.” I live in Houston, Texas where we have MD Anderson, which is a world renowned cancer center. Without federal support the essential medical breakthroughs patients will pay the price. I have read and heard multiple examples of people that are genuinely concerned about their research study that is keeping them alive will be terminated due to the lack of federal funding.

Bill Penzeys owner of Penzeys Spices has an excellent comment in his Sunday, March 30, 2025, 7:08 AM newsletter: “On 11.5.24 we really were asleep. We had no idea just how far Musk and the rest of the media-owning billionaires had progressed in rewiring our social media to amplify pro-Trump misinformation and drowning our actual economists, environmental scientists, and all the rest who have the knowledge we need to make good choices for our future.”

Penzeys has many stories in this article that will give you a clear picture of what Trump is doing. I have chosen a few of his statements and stories:

“Here’s our chance to let Republicans and the rest of the world know Americans don’t want America to end. That the needless chaos, and cruelty, and relentless incompetence we’ve witnessed since the inauguration is nothing like what the vast majority of us voted for.

And it’s only getting started. 11.5.24 in so many ways was like the 1.6.21 attack on America. There’s the story of the man tasked with planning that attack. On receiving praise for his overwhelming success, his response was that he feared all they had achieved was waking a sleeping giant. THIS!

America’s come too far to every go back to openly hurting all those who anyone can find a way to categorize as a minority. We aren’t going back to the 1950s, and the 1950s were never actually great for most Americans.

November 5th’s election was hard. All that Trump/Musk/Project 2025 have unleashed since the inauguration is even harder. So much cruelty. Much of the point to the cruelty is to leave those who actually care about all Americans broken. They want us to be too broken to resist, they want us to give up hope.

This week I received an exceptionally well-written email from a second generation Penzeys customer working for the state of Wisconsin, trying their best to keep Milwaukee’s homeless veterans alive. They’re struggling with how they can continue to do this without the federal VA workers Trump/Musk fired to make way for billionaires to live free from paying taxes.

If we get everyone voting the message will be clear that everyone really still wants America to remain America. We want the checks and balances of three branches of government keeping each other in check. We want our veterans taken care of. We really can afford it.”

The Democratic Redistricting Committee spends all their time fighting gerrymandering, and taking stands where Republicans are doing everything, they can to get their extremist candidates to win and continue returning America to the 1950s. The win in Wisconsin was portrayed by the head of this committee, A.G. Eric Holder, in his Thursday, April 17, 2025, 7:01 PM newsletter. The win for Democrats in this election will  “reverberate beyond the borders of that state and was, as Elon Musk said, a referendum on the Trump-Musk alliance. What it is that they have been doing to our country as they try to reorder our society” is something we all must face and now thank goodness the people of Wisconsin made it clear, you are not going to buy a seat on our Supreme Court.

Holder said, “The threat goers far beyond the borders of the Badger State. Trump and MAGA Republicans have made it clear they have no inclination to protect the American people. They would rather weaponize the law for their own selfish gains, to further weaponize the law for their own selfish gains, to further their extremist agenda, all at the expense of working class people.”

In The Week, March 28, 2025, David Brooks, The New York Times, in his article, “The U.S.’s reputation is ruined” says “Our spurned (spurnd) allies no longer blame Trump alone, since Americans re-elected him and thus chose to abandon our ideals. Europeans are now reorganizing their defense programs knowing that U.S. support of NATO is effectively over. China will eventually exploit our isolationism: ‘America betrays its friends; China will seek to make them.’ ‘Trumpian incompetence’ will provoke a ‘counter-reaction’—and Americans may again recognize that our alliances with other free nations’ are actually the source of America’s long-term might.”

Austin Weatherford with Bright America provide this information in his newsletter on
Saturday, April 12, 2025, 6:28 AM in “Congress Just Passed the Most Extreme Voter Suppression Bill in Modern History:” “What the SAVE Act would do: 1. Ban Online and Mail-In Registration, 2. Require You to Show Original Citizenship Documents—In Person –U.S. Passport ($165, and most Americans don’t have one), Birth Certificate (Has your name changed since birth? You’re out of luck!) or Certificate of Naturalization (only immigrants who have applied for an been granted U.S. Citizenship would have this.). If you don’t have one of these on hand, you wouldn’t be able to register to vote. No exceptions. No flexibility. No workaround.” The SAVE Act is a mandate for aggressive voter purges.” Bottom line call your Senators and tell them to VOTE NO on the SAVE Act. One of the easiest ways to make your voice hear on acts like this is to get on the newsletter for the League of Women Voters. They keep you up to date on what is going on in Washington and in your state. It takes a few minutes to respond to the various actions that you can take through their system.

The New York Times newsletter on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 7:04 AM, “Opinion Today: Trump’s economic thinking is a delusion” by John Guida talks with Kyla Scanlon author of “In This Economy: How Money and Markets Really Work,” says “As the administration bounces between alienating allies and promising a manufacturing renaissance, Trumponomics looks less like an effort to forge a different future and more like a confused, self-defeating program and longing for a bygone era.”

On Saturday, April 5, 2025, 7:01 AM in The New York Times newsletter by Ezekiel Kweku in “Opinion Today: Why are we doing this?” gave a firm message from Jason Furman, who advised the Obama White House, ‘it all comes down to the fact that Trump has two consistent beliefs when it comes to tariffs—and both are wrong. For more on Trump’s tariffs, consider ‘They’re Not Tariffs, They’re Sanctions’ by David Dayen for the American Prospect, ‘Will Malignant Stupidity Kill the World Economy?’ by Paul Krugman and ‘Trump’s Aggressive Push to Roll Back Globalization’ by Sam Fleming and Delphine Strauss for the Financial Times.

For Understanding what people around Trump may be thinking, consider some pieces by American Compass, a conservative, pro-tariff think tank: ‘The One Word that Explains Globalization’s Failure, and Trump’s Response’ by Oren Cass, ‘How to Think About Liberation Day’ by Nicholas Phillips and ‘Trump’s Tariffs Aim to Reset Global Trade—and Boost America’s Workers by Mark Diplacido for the New York Post.”

Here are Furman comments that make sense: “ One of the major factors behind Trump’s election was inflation, which made Americans unhappy, even though the economy under Joe Biden was strong. As my colleague David Wallace-Wells writes, many tech and business leaders shifted toward Trump in part because he promised an economic boom. Because of this, it was hard to believe that Trump would follow through on his peculiar campaign promise to institute broad tariffs.

Conclusion:

As citizens of this country, we must ask ourselves—where do we draw the line? When we voted, did we sign off on corruption, cruelty, and the collapse of truth? The erosion of our economy, our global standing, and our moral compass is not accidental—it is the result of choices made, and silence kept. This is not about party loyalty; it is about the soul of our nation. We must confront what is happening, speak out, and stand up—for justice, for democracy, and for the future of our children. Because if we don’t, we will have to answer not just Did you vote for this?—but Why didn’t you stop it?

Podcast 129 References:

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