Richard A. Evans, MD on “Trump’s Retribution Shutdown: The Collapse of a Nation at the Hands of One Man’s Vengeance”
How Donald Trump’s Denials, Lies, and Authoritarian Obsession Have Plunged America Into Chaos
It is an act of audacity—and insult—that Donald Trump still pretends to have no knowledge of Project 2025. During the 2024 election cycle, at debates and on the campaign trail, Trump denied any association with the Heritage Foundation’s extremist blueprint for dismantling the federal government. Yet effective October 1, the United States has entered a catastrophic and wholly preventable government shutdown—one that bears his fingerprints on every page and is already proving more destructive than the 35-day shutdown of 2018-2019, the longest in American history, which cost taxpayers an estimated $5 billion dollars over his obsession with building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Back then, Trump himself went on camera and unequivocally stated the truth: that a government shutdown “falls squarely on the shoulders of the President.” Today, he lies, blames Democrats, and hides behind his enablers, as America burns.
This current crisis is no accident. It is Trump’s Retribution Shutdown, conceived in the dark corridors of the Heritage Foundation, orchestrated by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, and enforced by Stephen Miller—Trump’s longtime white nationalist ideologue whose obsession with anti-immigration policies has been the beating heart of this administration’s cruelty. This is not governance; this is vengeance weaponized. This is the act of a man who sees America’s institutions not as guardians of the people but as toys to break in pursuit of his personal vendettas.
And the price? It will be staggering. It will be borne not by the powerful billionaires Trump shields with obscene tax cuts, but by ordinary Americans—the elderly, the poor, veterans, and the middle class—who will be crushed under the weight of this nihilistic agenda…
Read the full post at https://policyandthepeople.substack.com/p/trumps-retribution-shutdown-the-collapse