Local opinion: Trump has made you less safe. Here's how to change that.

My parents escaped Cuba when I was 1, coming to this country as political refugees. Like other asylum seekers, they just wanted to feel safe. And they never took that safety for granted.

You may be tempted to downplay the serious threat posed by Donald Trump, especially his mishandling of sensitive government documents in the Mar-a-Lago case. What Trump did was an attack on the United States, much like 9/11 or Pearl Harbor. He made us all less safe.

Before explaining why this case poses such a serious threat, here’s a question: Since Trump came to power, do you feel more or less safe? If you are not White, rich, straight, male or Christian, the threats to your safety have probably gotten worse, with rising violence and hate against Black, Jewish, Asian, Latino, and LGBTQ communities.

These groups are not alone. Here are just a few others who should feel less safe post-Trump: women and girls not ready to be mothers; anyone fearing random mass shootings; those worried about climate change; disenfranchised voters; and Americans alarmed by growing censorship and book bans.

For the few who still believe their lives have somehow become safer under Trump, this documents case should be a wake-up call. Here’s why: The documents Trump stole reveal strategic information about our nation’s weapons systems, nuclear programs, and military vulnerabilities. These high-level secrets are critical to national security and global stability. Billions of taxpayer dollars have gone into gathering and protecting them. Trump’s actions have compromised costly programs, undermined our military, and jeopardized human sources who have risked their lives to protect ours.

Clearly, Trump took these documents and kept them in unsecure locations. He has admitted as much. It took the Department of Justice 18 months and a dramatic FBI raid to retrieve them. While Trump kept delaying and obstructing the federal government’s attempts to get the documents back, he put all of us at greater risk. Whether he is convicted of a crime, Trump’s mishandling of more than 300 classified documents represents the greatest security breach in U.S. history.

Did foreign spies steal national security secrets from documents Trump kept unprotected in a resort ballroom and bathroom? The more important question is: Why wouldn’t they? If you had someone you considered a mortal enemy and could expose their greatest weakness so easily, wouldn’t you jump at the chance? Our nation faces the real danger of being thrust into a world war because of Trump’s actions. All it will take is a single attack on a vulnerable target identified in one of those mishandled documents.

Whether Trump intended to sabotage U.S. intelligence, that is exactly what he did, and our lives are far less safe because of it. This was an act of aggression that impacts all Americans equally: Democrats and Republicans; young and old; Black and white. None of us has been spared. We Americans deserve an answer from anyone still defending Trump: Why are you protecting him instead of protecting the rest of us from him? Doing so is not just morally bankrupt; it’s un-American. Trump betrayed us all.

If there is any silver lining, it is that we are all in this together. It is going to take all of us to make America safe again. As a psychologist and educator, I believe we can do it. Our founding fathers came together to “form a more perfect Union,” and now it is our turn. As Americans, we need to keep each other safe — especially those who don’t look, act, or think like us. And we must only elect leaders committed to protecting our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Only as a united people can we undo the damage Trump has done. Let’s hope it’s not too late.