While prices rise, jobs fade, and a shutdown hurts, Trump bills us $20+ billion for his lavish expenses

I’ve said it before, even written about it, and I’ll say it again, it’s OK to be angry with anyone who voted for Donald Trump, especially if they were naïve enough to think he’d lower grocery prices, bring back good-paying jobs, or put “America First.”

Because what we’re witnessing now, less than a year into Trump’s second attempt to grift us, isn’t just hypocrisy, it’s highway robbery, as my grandmother would say. The 2024 Trump campaign might go down as the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the American people.

It sold economic revitalization and fervent nationalism but instead has grossly delivered personal enrichment. Trump laughingly promised to drain the swamp but refilled it with gold-plated walls and his lifelong lust for riches.

Related: This is why it's okay to be angry at anyone who voted for Trump

Trump doesn’t give a rat’s ass about your grocery bill. He doesn’t care that families are choosing between milk and medication, or that prices on food, fuel, and everyday necessities are rising with no end in sight.

He doesn’t care about American farmers or American workers. He’s betraying them. For Trump, the U.S. government is and always has been a tool to serve his needs. He strives to silence watchdogs, enrich his businesses, and turn the U.S. Treasury into his personal piggy bank.

And right now that piggy bank is getting lighter by the minute — yours, not his.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has been running up a taxpayer tab that would make a dictator thirst for more, more, and more. By conservative estimates, he’s already saddled Americans with more than $20 billion in waste, fraud, and self-dealing.

And he’s only just getting started. He’s handing out billions, including a $20 billion bailout to Argentina. It’s a flummoxing and bizarre “gift” that undercuts American farmers by giving China a new soybean source while U.S. growers sit on unsold crops.

At its root, this bailout is all about self-enrichment. Trump and several of his billionaire friends stand to benefit materially from investments tied to Argentina’s debt and resource contracts. “America First” has once again turned into “Trump and His Billionaire Buddies First.”

Then, as if that weren’t obscene enough, he has the audacity to demand $230 million from the Department of Justice as “compensation” for his criminal prosecutions. But it’s not the DOJ that is paying him.

It is you! Your tax dollars will pay that so-called compensation. Oh, the aggrieved billionaire Trump needs your money because he’s been wronged. If you are a Trump supporter and you think this is OK, then here’s what you should do. You should start a GoFundMe campaign and get your fellow brainwashed MAGA brethren to foot the bill instead of those of us who are pissed off about this. Spare us your rationalizations.

And ka-ching, ka-ching, Trump’s demolishing and “renovating” the White House to suit his gilded tastes, adding a $300 million ballroom that he claims will be paid for by private donations.

I’m sorry, anyone who knows the habitually lying and enormously self-centered Trump knows that he does absolutely nothing out of the goodness of his heart, and he does everything, every action, to make a buck. And he lies about everything.

He said that he wouldn’t touch the East Wing. He’s demolishing the whole thing!

Related: In a sure sign of a looming dictatorship, Trump is making the White House into his forever home

Therefore, I predict that we the taxpayers will eat the costs of this wasteful ballroom. It’s going to happen. How so? As a contractor, he knows the only way to make money is to go waaay over budget. So $250 million is laughable. It will be double that, supposedly, and he’ll pocket the excess.

He’s already blown $2 million replacing the White House Rose Garden with stones, because apparently, grass wasn’t regal enough for King Donald.

Then there’s the “free” luxury aircraft gifted by Qatar, which he’s retrofitting at a cost of up to $1 billion. Again, who is paying for that? You and I! And Trump supporters. I’m sure that they’ll be happy to fork over their life savings so that their “king” can ride around in a palace in the sky.

Related: While we save to buy 3 dolls and 5 pencils, Trump is gifted a $400 million flying throne from Qatar

See why it’s OK to be angry at Trump voters? And when that stupid “Big Beautiful Bill” starts to kick in, watch your taxes go up. Why? Because your king needs more of your money to live his lavish lifestyle.

Oh, and don’t forget the approximately $40 million military parade he threw himself for his birthday, because what’s a wannabe monarch without a military parade, even though Trump’s was pathetic

This is what “America First” looks like under Trump — in other words, America footing the bill for Trump.

Meanwhile, ordinary Americans are tightening their belts. Prices are climbing. Jobs are vanishing, and a government shutdown is freezing paychecks, small business contracts, and critical services.

It’s a perfect storm of economic sabotage, and Trump is standing at the center, smiling, waving, limping on his cankles, and sending you the invoice.

For those who once believed Trump cared about the working class, despite all the evidence against it, you were duped. How do your higher grocery bills feel now? How do you feel about paying for a gold-plated ballroom while you struggle to pay rent or feed your kids? How do you feel about giving $230 million of your tax dollars to a man who was “wronged” by the Justice Department? How do you feel about paying for a luxury aircraft for ONE person?

You were all warned. Many times, over three elections, and remained obtuse. Instead, now you’ve been sacrificed on the altar of Trump’s ego. He’s slicing away at your money.

To every Trump voter scraping by on part-time work or credit card debt, how do you feel about subsidizing a dictator’s palace while your kitchen table becomes your financial war room? You’ve been conned, and the rest of us are being forced to pay for it too.

In his first term, America got lucky. We skidded by on the seat of our pants, shielded somewhat by institutional guardrails and tried-and-true bureaucrats who still believed in checks and balances.

This time, those guardrails are gone. Trump learned a few lessons during his first stint in power, and none of them are good for the American taxpayer. He learned which laws he can ignore, which watchdogs he can trash, and how easily his base can be distracted by rag and phony words like ‘transgenderism” while he drains our pockets.

Every day, Trump pushes the envelope, testing how much he can get away with, how many billions he can extract, and how far he can bend the system before it snaps. And every day too, Trump supporters keep rationalizing his behavior, convincing themselves he’s “working for them” as he picks their pockets.

Across the country, “No Kings” rallies have begun to pop up, filled with millions of Americans who see what’s happening. They are witnessing their taxes, their livelihoods, and their democracy being sacrificed for one man’s vanity.

Related: Massive ‘No Kings’ rally in D.C. features LGBTQ+ rights advocates: 'This is my country too'

And make no mistake, this will definitely get worse. When the bills come due, when grocery prices climb even higher, when the tariffs squeeze small businesses, when bankruptcies rise and jobs vanish, Trump won’t be tightening his belt. No, he’ll be cashing in, laughing on your very last dollars.

Stay tuned, because this is only Part One of the great Trump Taxpayer Heist.

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