A Thanksgiving message to our country.
I stopped paying much attention to Trump’s delusional social media rants long ago, but the headlines about his Thanksgiving tirade against immigrants made me pay attention to this one. It is telling, more about what the people around him are thinking than anything else. The Mamdani meeting and press conference showed how fully a smart and strategic person with access to Trump can quickly shape his words and actions. Trump’s combination of personality disorders, cognitive decline, and lack of meaningful interpersonal experiences make him vulnerable to manipulation by whatever racist aide is whispering in his ear. And a vile racist had his ear on this one, from his social media post:
...The official United States Foreign population stands at 53 million people (Census), most of which are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels. They and their children are supported through massive payments from Patriotic American Citizens...
Those 53 million people include millions of US citizens that were born elsewhere and achieved citizenship through that long and difficult legal process. They include millions of refugees that came here over decades in the legal process of refugee resettlement supported by Democratic and Republican administrations since WW2. Most importantly, the vast vast majority are good hardworking people that often do the work native born Americans can’t or won’t do. I have been fortunate in my life to work directly with and have friendships with immigrants from all over the world and my experience has been 99% positive. Without them providing the care to us in our clinics, hospitals, and nursing homes, our healthcare system would literally collapse. And without them our food system would literally collapse. There was a great article in The Guardian over the summer showing how dependent we all are on immigrant labor to get the food we eat. Here are the numbers, in the United States of America immigrants make up:
27% of agricultural workers
33% of meatpackers
46% of chefs
31% of cooks
On Thanksgiving, a holiday centered around coming together around food and giving thanks, all Americans should be thanking immigrants for their fundamental contributions to our society and food systems. With food prices already unaffordable for so many and food insecurity rates soaring, here is the plan team Trump has for the backbone of our food system:
...I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country, end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country, denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization...
In other words, team Trump says f#%k your food. And they say f#%k your healthcare, f#%k your community, and f#%k this country.
