Despair, fear, and hopelessness are sweeping America. Democrats are watching on in horror as all the most dire predictions about what a second Donald Trump presidency would mean are exceeded. That unhappiness is only beaten by Republicans, who voted for a “no new wars” president who’d help out regular folk by lowering prices, and have gotten the exact opposite. All of which means nobody should be surprised that Trump’s approval ratings are in the toilet. Recent polls put Trump at just 35% approval, worse than Joe Biden, and about on par with his presidency during the COVID pandemic. Anyone who’s filled up at a gas station recently will know why. Prices are inexorably rising, and there’s nobody to blame but Trump himself. Indeed, many of you will have already seen stickers on pumps with Trump’s grinning face captioned with “I did that” next to the price display. And, of course, seniors on fixed incomes are being hit especially hard. Even those who enthusiastically supported Trump are having some serious misgivings as they can’t deny their day-to-day lives are getting worse the longer he’s in office. “We can’t afford this!” As a snapshot of the mood among the elderly, see this Facebook post by 77-year-old Thomas Zampella, reposted on Reddit: Senior MAGA finds out that Trump is killing him byu/Effective_Space2277 inLeopardsAteMyFace Zampella explains that he’s a three-time Trump voter who has “always believed” in him, and doesn’t understand why it seems like Trump is intentionally inflicting pain upon him: “I’m 77 years old. Worked hard all my life. Now I live on one check a mointh due to sickness in my family. Anyway i live in south Jersey. I just stopped for gas, $4.59 a gallon. Your killing us old folks, we can’t afford this. You said be patient, only a couple weeks, its now 2 months. Please start to live up to your promises.” In a depressing twist, like a dog pleading for affection from an owner who beats it, even Zampella’s own miserable reality hasn’t shaken his overall support: “I still think your the best ever, but dont forget the prople that put u in office. Thank you Sorry, but lots of us are hurting.” Thomas, buddy, have some self-respect. You absolutely do not need to apologize for your pain to the man who is currently hurting you. Maybe the following goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. Trump simply does not care in the slightest about the woes of regular folk. He doesn’t understand regular folks’ lives, he doesn’t care to understand regular folks’ lives – they are totally irrelevant to him. After all, having returned to the presidency, he no longer needs your vote. As far as he and his cronies are concerned, you have handed them a license to transfer money from your bank account into theirs at will, and there’s not a thing you can do about it. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that this is going to come back to bite Trump and the GOP hard in the November midterms. Even if every other horrible thing that Trump does wasn’t happening, skyrocketing gas prices and grocery bills do not translate into electoral success (y’know, “it’s the economy, stupid”). Of course, miserable Trump voters aren’t necessarily going to rush out to vote Democrat, but they’re certainly going to be unmotivated to support whatever MAGA candidates are shoved in their faces!