Joseph Sabino Mistick: Cruelty the theme of Trump administration

The signs were there back in November 2015 when candidate Donald Trump mocked a physically disabled reporter from the podium at one his rallies. Cruelty was being acted out on the main stage in American politics.

New York Times journalist Serge Kovaleski, who has limited use of his arms, debunked a Trump claim about 9/11. Trump went on the attack, mimicking Kovaleski’s physical limitations.

Trump later denied he had mocked Kovaleski — telling us that our eyes did not see what we saw, and our ears did not hear what we heard — but he did it. And that lowered the bar for acceptable behavior by a national political candidate.

We should have known then that cruelty would become a theme of his administration. Who knows what a guy like that would be capable of doing? Part of that answer is found in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

Santa Barbara Independent columnist Nick Welsh recently wrote, “Budgets, we are told, reflect our values. If that’s true, we as a nation have grown morally grotesque. With the unerring accuracy of a heat-seeking missile, the bill seeks to afflict the already afflicted in order to comfort the already comfortable.

“It shreds the safety net for the poor in order to give added bounce to the trampolines of the wealthy.”

To help pay for the tax breaks for the wealthy, Trump’s new law substantially cuts funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Yes, in the land of plenty, more families — children and adults — will now go hungry. And, to be especially cruel, the children of undocumented immigrants will not be eligible for food.

Medicaid spending will be reduced by $1 trillion over the next 10 years, massively cutting health care for children, the elderly and the disabled. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 11 million people will lose health care because of these cuts.

ICE is the big winner. ICE will receive $150 billion over the next four years, with an annual budget for the apprehension and detention of immigrant adults and families greater than the annual military budgets of Italy, Israel, the Netherlands and Brazil combined.

This comes at a time when many Americans are beginning to suffer from “cruelty fatigue,” having second thoughts about immigrants and what Ronald Reagan called “the shining city upon a hill … teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace.”

A Gallup poll released in July showed a record high 79% of U.S. adults believe immigration is a good thing for the country. And 62% of Americans disapprove of ICE’s indiscriminate roundups.

Podcaster Joe Rogan, who endorsed Trump, called Trump’s targeting of immigrant workers “nuts.” Rogan said, “Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Showing up in construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners. Like, really?”

Alligator Alcatraz, Trump’s new immigrant detention facility in the Florida swamps, has become another showcase for Trump’s cruel humor. Trump joked that if the detainees zigzag while being chased by alligators, their “chances will go up about 1%.”

Trump thought that was funny. Florida state Rep. Michele Rayner, a Democrat, says there is nothing funny about it.

Rayner toured the facility. Rogan’s construction workers and gardeners are there — not just the most violent. The Miami Herald found hundreds of detainees have no criminal record.

Hot and humid overcrowded cages. Rotten food. Mosquitos. Flooding. Sketchy sanitation. Limited access to legal counsel. Those are the conditions.

As for those Alligator Alcatraz T-shirts being sold, Rayner said, “This isn’t a theme park. It’s a modern concentration camp, plain and simple.”