Since August last year I’ve been working at a food pantry: William Temple House. 72 days into the new administration and already we are straining to meet the increasing needs of our community. Recently, USDA announced that it is cutting shipments starting in May and June.
Due to these cuts, millions of pounds of food won't even make it to our state's food banks. When these shipments don't arrive, our food pantry will go empty at the exact same moment when millions of Americans are going to slip into poverty due to cuts elsewhere in the federal government.
We simply CANNOT absorb the amount of economic hardship this administration is about to place on American families. Couple this with plans to cut nutritional assistance programs like SNAP, and we are about to see tens of millions of vulnerable Americans (mainly children and seniors), go hungry.
Let me be clear about what I am saying: Americans are going to die because of this administration. The victims will be our children, elderly grandparents, the friend or cousin who lives with a disability, and the unlucky neighbors who happen to fall on hard times through no fault of their own.
During Trump's first administration, the crisis came to a head in 2020—during his final year in office. COVID-19 destabilized a fragile and fragmented social fabric and precarious economic condition. The negligence became too consequential for everyday Americans to ignore. The politically disengaged were blindsided by closed businesses and social distancing requirements. Our hospitals were flooded with the sick and dying.
Do you remember it? I feel like the people in my life have blocked it out—this collective trauma that we never really processed and remain in denial about. In the final months of Trump's first term, the daily death toll was in the thousands from COVID-19. We had 9/11 levels of death in this country every day for months. Over 10 million people were out of work. We were spiraling.
We're not there yet, but I cannot help but feel that we are rushing ass-first into disaster. As of this writing, we are just 72 days into the crisis of this administration, and already the alarms are flashing red and I can see the cracks forming beneath my feet.
My most charitable position is that Trump is a careless and dangerous buffoon—a reality-TV guy who is flailing about at the ancient controls of an impossibly sophisticated machine, turning dials up and down blindly—unaware of the consequences of his actions. Maybe his actions are nothing more than a deeply flawed vibe, the product of an underdeveloped mind and stunted personality which cannot properly address the complexity of his own situation.
And I really want to believe that's the case... but then I remember January 6th, and his efforts to retain power after losing the election. I remember everything he did after Election Day and the events leading up to that, and I get a pit in my stomach.
My frosted side says he's a born fool and dangerous for that reason alone. My shredded wheat side says that this is intentional, that he is aiming for conditions that will all but guarantee civil unrest. It appears that he wants to stoke chaos as a pretext for declaration of emergency powers. And even as I type that, I feel crazy. I feel like I deserve to be called a crank. [adjusts the tinfoil hat for a snugger fit]
Suggesting that an autocratic coup is already in motion, that plans have been laid out and are being followed, sounds crazy because it is crazy. But I'm not being an alarmist, I'm just actually fucking alarmed. I'm alarmed because of the Executive Order Trump signed on the first day of his second term: DECLARING A NATIONAL EMERGENCY AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES.
(b) Within 90 days of the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit a joint report to the President about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.
I read that last line and something cold washes over me, through me. I feel it in my bones right now. We have just 18 days to go.
These tariffs are going to impact a lot of people who simply are not paying attention. They will come to our food pantry, and will find a line of other people who also were not paying attention. Every day that line gets a little bit longer, and we're doing the best we can. But by the end of the month, we'll have a President who is ready to make a power grab, and a public that is living in fear and increasing scarcity.
And as we head into May and June, food pantries like ours will be cut-off from our largest supplier just as that line starts to go around the block a few times. Once we're out of food, we have to close our doors. What will all of those people do then? Where will they go? What will they do?
Insurrection Act, 1807
[I]n all cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws, either of the United States, or of any individual state or territory, where it is lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection, or of causing the laws to be duly executed, it shall be lawful for him to employ, for the same purposes, such part of the land or naval force of the United States, as shall be judged necessary, having first observed all the pre-requisites of the law in that respect.
Insurrection Act of 1807, ch. 39, 2 Stat. 443, 443
Will the President of the United States turn our own military against us? Will he massacre civilians when his own policies lead to civil unrest?
I don't know. What I do know is that the next Presidential election is 1,314 days away.