On March 9, the Maine Sunday Telegram published a piece about the price Maine will pay for Trump 2.0. And for what? There are no swarms of immigrants coming across the Canadian border, nearly unmeasurable amounts of drugs. Surely it’s not about the budget with $2 trillion of tax cuts on offer for the wealthiest. Instead of prices, interest, cost of living and inflation going down on day one we get fewer jobs, cuts to services, the weather service, scientific research and environmental protection, closing of medical clinics and threats to starve our schools of funds.

It takes no talent to break things; a chimpanzee can do it without care or regard for what it is doing. It’s another matter when we are dealing with leaders who operate under a zero-sum policy that reads “If anyone else is doing well, it means I am doing less well.”

Trump, Musk and the Project 2025 crowd care nothing about the citizens of Maine — the lobsterman losing markets and paying more for fuel nor the veterans losing their providers at the VA in Togus. The president seems more concerned with welfare of Vladimir Putin than with the struggling family losing SNAP, Medicaid and winter fuel assistance; the young farmer with PFAS contaminated soils needing mitigation; or the volunteer fire department losing its grant for a fire engine or ambulance.

Yes, there likely will be a few more yachts and upscale mansions built for a few but as the article notes, Maine will end up on the wrong side of the balance sheet of the new economy.

So much “winning.”

Greg Rossel
Troy