WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Jamie Raskin (MD-08) released the following statement marking one year since President Donald Trump’s inauguration:
“On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised to lower costs and ‘make America affordable again’ on Day One of his presidency. It’s been 365 days since Day One and families in Maryland and across the country are struggling just to stay afloat in Trump’s tariff-ravaged Marie Antoinette economy. With farm labor decimated by ICE raids, grocery prices are sky-high and the illegal Trump Tariffs are crushing small businesses and consumers. Millions of Americans can no longer afford health insurance. Government by the billionaires is systematically crushing the middle class.
“President Trump sacked hundreds of thousands of federal workers across America— researchers finding cures at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meteorologists working with farmers or studying climate change at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, front-line health care workers at the VA. These firings drain our government of irreplaceable knowledge and experience and send a wrecking ball through the public services Americans rely upon, including the public infrastructure we need to get us through the next pandemic or disaster.
“Trump is making our communities less safe, dispatching masked federal agents onto our streets where they intimidate, arrest, detain and shoot American citizens. This campaign of fear and intimidation has even shut down schools for days in communities where parents reasonably fear sending their children out of the house. Democrats, Republicans and independents alike have condemned ICE’s authoritarian reign of masked terror. Agents hired ostensibly to enforce our laws are instead breaking them and stomping on our Constitution.
“The president persecutes his political enemies and pardons his disciples. Instead of backing the blue, Trump backed the coup when he signed a mass pardon for the rampaging rioters who assaulted the Capitol on January 6, 2021. These insurrectionists beat police officers and violently assaulted our Capitol with no regard for the public safety consequences—all with Trump’s blessing. Since the attack on the Capitol, 33 of these rioters have since gone on to commit other felony crimes, including possession of child pornography, rape, conspiracy to commit murder of FBI agents, kidnaping, sexual assault, aggravated robbery, reckless homicide and so many more.
“This year, Donald Trump also reprised his role as the failing, wannabe casino tycoon, transforming America in his image. He laid out plans for a Marie Antoinette ballroom at the White House, bankrolled by billionaires and big corporations seeking policy favors. He illegally slapped graffiti (his tiresome name) on the Congressionally created and defined Kennedy Center. Rather than even thinking of any policies to get Americans health care or housing or lower prices, he’s busying himself with gaudy home improvement projects, renovating White House bathrooms and outfitting the Oval Office and the Rose Garden with repulsive gold décor.
“Americans want an end to this chaos and terror in American communities now. We want affordable health care for our people, not terrifying ICE raids that sweep up U.S. citizens and make everyone less safe. We need government to be focused on bringing prices down, not a president building an illegal 400-million-dollar ballroom while he and his family pocket billions of dollars from corrupt business deals. The Constitution is being trashed on a daily basis and Trump has turned the government into an instrument of relentless private self-enrichment and unlimited public corruption.
“While some big law firms and other institutions have shamefully caved to this lawless president, I am filled with hope every day when I see millions of Americans bravely resist this tyranny through peaceful mass movements. Acting in defiant solidarity, we will insist on accountability and rebuild our institutions and strong democracy for all the American people.”