Arizona opinion: Trump's strategy is to divide and conquer

Trump just told us how he’s going to take away our social services without too much noise from the masses. By his statement, given by an aide while Trump played golf, as reported in the Star (Thousands here join national “Hands Off!” demonstrations), he will “always protect Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits,” but he believes that Democrats encourage “giving Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”

As always with Trump, it’s divide and conquer: Use people’s hatred and distrust of one another, planted in their brains by policy and fear he has initiated, to drive them apart. But we seniors aren’t as gullible as Trump believes.

Three means of division are evident in his statement. First, he accuses immigrants (calling them “illegal aliens”) of collecting Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare illegally. Immigrants working in America pay into Social Security, but they cannot extract that money as non-citizens. Is Trump planning to give them back the money they have been forced to put into our Social Security system? Would he have their children die of illness or a person be deformed all his life because he can’t use Medicaid and he can’t pay a doctor to fix his leg or arm? And after they can no longer work, will he deport them? To the extent our immigration system does work, it works in our Social Security delivery of benefits, according to our laws.

Secondly, what’s to stop Trump from trying to drive us apart along other racial lines, e.g., by holding checks for anyone of Hispanic descent? Will my Hispanic neighbors, whose families have lived here since before the Gadsden Purchase, not get their monthly checks, but I will? Am I supposed to feel okay with that? And will my demographic data be next in line? (Here’s the rationale for Musk getting into all the raw data at Social Security. “We have to access everyone’s data to find the ‘illegals’ being given checks.”)

His statement asserts that “aliens” are getting away with this because Democrats enable them. He thinks invoking political party distrust will deter Republican complainers from seeing the wrong in the government’s illegal access to and overhaul of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Anyone who believes this ploy and his lies would have been subject to my hillbilly grandmother’s saying, “Poor little innocent fools!”

And finally, Trump asserts the alleged checks to immigrants, “will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.” (Let’s remember that there is yet no proof that these checks are being written.) Please. Overhauling Social Security, delaying checks seniors rely on for monthly support? That will crush American seniors. Not being able to get health care because they can’t access Medicaid? That will crush American seniors. Making Medicare even more expensive? That will crush American seniors.

The only entities that will benefit from Trump and Musk messing around with Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are the corporations, and the capitalists who own them, who will be given the contracts (play-to-pay via Trump) for “privatizing” these social safety nets.

Meanwhile, I just want to know, when do the rich people start suffering?