On Valentine’s Day, I didn’t feel the love and I still don’t, despite political promises about making things better.

On President’s Day, the only “love” seemed to be the bromance between Trump and Musk – I certainly didn’t feel any love. With prices still rising, bird flu increasing, my privacy being invaded at the federal level by “dodgey” DOGE (so-called Dept of Government Efficiency), I’m wondering who besides billionaires are getting any love out of this administration. Actually, how do billionaires even relate to our daily lives of trying to pay for groceries, keep a roof over our heads, and cover our utilities, etc.?

Trump and Musk (the apparent dual presidents) don’t seem to care that their voters seemed to believe promises of bringing prices down, which hasn’t happened. If anything, there are economic reports that inflation is on the rise again. That’s even before Trump’s threatened tariffs have been invoked. I can only imagine the increased costs of goods when tariffs are added. I don’t see any focus from Trump or Musk on easing the cost of living for the American people. Certainly, working to contain bird flu and the resultant cost of eggs doesn’t seem to be on their radar, since they’ve fired many of the health workers trying to bring the contagion under control.

I don’t feel the love when I see the indiscriminate gutting of federal agencies that are designed to help us, the American people, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, FEMA, Centers for Disease Control, and the Nuclear Security Administration, etc. Even the IRS in the midst of tax season has been targeted with firings. The chaos that has been taking place, the unaccountability and lack of transparency shows no concern either for the employees that have been summarily fired or for us in the public who need these services.

Then, there’s Congress that’s supposed to control the government’s purse – to determine the US Budget, allocate funds to congressionally-created agencies, and make sure our taxpayer dollars are spent as authorized. I’m certainly not feeling the love there, at least not from the Republican members. It appears that congressional oversight to protect the federal agencies Congress created by law and funded with budgeted appropriations has collapsed into nothingness. Congress is supposed to be a check on the Executive branch. But the Republican majority isn’t standing up for us, the American people. They need to demand that the Executive branch submit any request for changes to federal agencies to Congress as required by our US Constitution before dismantling and/or gutting them.

I guess I should have figured that the “Project 2025” playbook we’re experiencing now would be the Trump-Musk Valentine of sorts to the American people, with its dark vision for our country. I’m not feeling the love for any of us ordinary, non-billionaire citizens these days.

Donna Smith

Enumclaw