Trump's
vindictiveness spares no American, including MAGA faithful
American voters, including Donald Trump’s most ardent
supporters, are collateral damage in his war of attrition against his enemies
and what he sees as injustices.
By S.
E. Cupp
Sept
4, 2025, 6:00am CDT
Hundreds march in the West Loop during “Workers Over
Billionaires: A Labor Day of Action,” where activists, workers and politicians
spoke against President Donald Trump and advocated for workers’ rights on Labor
Day. Trump, columnist S.E. Cupp says, actively punishes Americans, including
his own voters.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
It had
a slightly more noble sound to it in 2023, when then-former President Donald
Trump made the lofty but creepy promise to a
friendly MAGA crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“In
2016 I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your
justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your
retribution.”
The
idea that voters might send Trump to right significant injustices like
inflation, inner-city crime and an out-of-control migrant crisis — the three
issues that mattered most to them — was appealing to plenty of voters, more
than enough to put him back in the White House.
But if
that was the main course, there were other side “injustices” he sought to fix,
too — diversity, equity and inclusion policies, wokeism on college campuses,
trans men in girls’ sports — keyword issues meant to be an amuse-bouche for his
base.
Then, there was dessert: avenging his personal injustices.
He made it very clear while he was running that he was going to punish his
political enemies for going after him. He’s carried out that promise doggedly
since being reelected.
But
what he didn’t tell American voters was that they’d often be collateral damage
in his war of attrition against all these injustices and enemies, that they’d
end up being targets, too.
But
he’s not hiding it now.
This
week, Trump announced he was moving the U.S. Space Force command from Colorado
Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama. Why? Not for any strategic
advantage. Not because it’s more cost effective. Not to help the state of
Alabama. But to punish the state of
Colorado.
“The
problem I have with Colorado — one of the big problems — they do mail-in
voting. They went to all mail-in voting. So they have automatically crooked
elections, and we can’t have that. So that played a big factor also.”
Importantly,
Trump lost Colorado in all three elections but made sure to point out he won
Alabama.
The
move will cost Colorado Springs and its five military installations jobs and
prestige, and even Colorado Republicans like Rep. Lauren Boebert have opposed it. But to
carry on the ruse of Trump’s election fraud lies, Colorado voters — including
in El Paso County, where Trump won in 2024 — must be the losers.
A
little more than a week ago, it was
Maryland in the crosshairs, when Trump threatened to cancel funding for the
reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was struck by a ship last
year. Why? Because Gov. Wes Moore is refusing to deploy the National Guard to
fight crime in cities like Baltimore.
Tens
of thousands of vehicles crossed that bridge a day, and it’s a vital corridor
for moving goods up the Eastern Seaboard. But no matter for Trump — they can
all wait on their lousy bridge. He’s got a grudge to hold.
Earlier this year, he
unimaginably threatened to withhold disaster relief to California after it
suffered devastating wildfires unless the state enacted voter ID laws. So, once
again, Californians struggling to rebuild their homes, schools and businesses
were merely political pawns to him. Sickening.
It was
more of the same after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. After delaying
more than $20 billion in congressionally approved aid, he faced allegations
that he was deliberately punishing the territory over politics. Most of the aid
didn’t reach Puerto Rico until the Biden administration released it in April
2021.
Whether
it’s his tariffs, which are a tax on all American consumers, his threats to
withhold disaster funding in cities that don’t comply with his crime edicts or
his regular aggressions against LGBTQ Americans and minority groups, Trump is
proactively punishing or threatening to punish wide swaths of American voters
so he can score political points, soothe his overweening ego, or just make
people uncomfortable.
It’s
gross, and a huge abuse of power. It also makes him a small and sad figure who
will be remembered most lastingly for his petty politics of personal
grievances.
You
have to wonder when his voters will wake up and realize they’ve been
bamboozled, used and abused. He’s taken their hard-earned money to line his
pockets, under the guise of “stopping the steal” and fighting nonexistent
election fraud. He’s lied to them repeatedly, sending many of them into harm’s
way on Jan. 6. He fed them bogus conspiracy theories that helped him get
elected and now insists they’re a hoax. His One Big Beautiful Bill will cut up
to $1 trillion in Medicaid, decrease funding for rural hospitals and take
health insurance away from millions of his own voters.
His
loyalty has always been one-way and conditional. But now he’s actively
punishing Americans, including his own voters. Will they ever tire of being
targets and pawns?
