PSA to Trump supporters: When Trump steps back into office as the 47th president of the United States on January 20, 2025, be ready to own every decision he makes—no excuses, no hiding. You voted for it.

You don’t need to be a political expert or a historical genius to recognize that Donald Trump plans on setting this country backward. Just look around. The signs are clear. It’s in the teachers who will be forced to stay silent about history, in the parents who can’t protect their kids from senseless violence, and in the women whose healthcare decisions are no longer theirs to control.

Trump plans on sending this country backward, and there is nothing American about that.

Your body, Trump’s choice

Your sister is glowing, newly married to the love of her life, and carrying her first child—a moment she’s dreamed of for years. You’ve seen her excitement grow with every milestone. Then, at 22 weeks, during a routine ultrasound, the doctors deliver devastating news: the baby has a fatal anomaly and will not survive outside the womb. Worse, your sister has developed severe preeclampsia, a life-threatening condition causing dangerously high blood pressure.

The doctors recommend immediate intervention to save her life. But in your state, the law prohibits terminating pregnancies after 20 weeks unless the mother’s life is in imminent danger—a standard that leaves doctors fearful of prosecution. Her options? None. Not because she wouldn’t want one, but because of the choices made by you—yes, you—through your vote, your silence, your complicity. The option to save her life was taken from her.

And now it’s too late. Her kidneys failed, leaving her lifeless in the hospital. Her husband has to bury his wife and their unborn child. Her blood is on your hands.

At the funeral, don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry. Instead, tell your brother-in-law that while you’re sad, her death was a fair trade for cheaper eggs and gas. That’ll bring him comfort, won’t it?

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade (1973), the landmark decision that had protected the constitutional right to an abortion under the right to privacy established by the Fourteenth Amendment. This leaves millions of women to face a patchwork of state laws—some outright banning abortion, even in cases of rape or incest.

Donald Trump wasted no time claiming credit for the ruling, “I did a great service in doing it.” His appointment of three conservative justices—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—cemented the ruling.

The foundation of Roe V. Wade was built on the constitutional principle of privacy. With that principle now undermined, many Americans ask: what’s next? If we limit a right because it doesn’t suit the religious values of some, where does it end? Shall we tear apart the First Amendment because its protections become inconvenient? Shall we overturn the Second Amendment because there are those who don’t find it necessary?

Dead kids can’t read

Imagine it’s your son. You send him off to school in the morning with his favorite Spiderman backpack and the lunch you packed with love. You hug him goodbye, not knowing it may be the last time. Then, in the middle of the day, your phone rings. There’s been a shooting.

As you race to the school, your heart pounding, you wonder if he’s safe, if he’s scared, if you’ll ever hold him again. Later, when you learn the truth, you have no choice but to live with a nightmare turned reality: your son was shot to death. Why? Because policies you supported, or didn’t question, made it so easy for guns to end up in the wrong hands. You can’t bring them back. This is the world you helped create. Don’t look away, own it.

When the community rises in outrage over the violence, make sure your voice cuts through the noise. Write an editorial for the local paper, boldly declaring that these lives—yes, even your son’s—are a necessary sacrifice for the sacred “protection” of your Second Amendment rights. Let the weight of your conviction drown out their grief.

Feeling disturbed? I hope not. You understood the reality when you cast your vote. Take responsibility and let your voice be heard.

The U.S. is currently home to more guns than people. Guns have killed more than 48,000 people in the U.S. in 2022, being the overall leading cause of death in children aged 1 to 17. When Donald Trump comes to office, he will support laxer policies that will permit gun violence to worsen.

While gun violence in schools continues to devastate communities, Donald Trump and parts of the Republican Party are shifting their focus elsewhere—toward banning books. Books such as The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 1984 by George Orwell, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and many more books that tackle themes of race, identity, and social justice, are being labeled as “threats” to children’s innocence. Yet the real danger comes not from books but from bullets.

Arming teachers and removing “troublemakers” does little to stop a shooter with an assault weapon, yet that remains the centerpiece of Trump’s platform.

The question we face isn’t about what stories our children read but whether they will live to read at all. It’s time we ask ourselves: what matters more—banning books or saving lives?

The “invasion of monsters”

When your Latino friend from work, the one whose laugh has brightened your days for the past ten years, comes to you a year from now, tears streaming down his face, telling you his parents and uncle were sent back to Columbia because of Trump’s immigration policy, don’t look away. Picture their faces, their pain, the long hours spent together, the memories shared. Look your friend in the eyes, and feel the weight of it. This is the reality you helped create with your vote. Tell him, “Yeah. That’s rough. But that’s what I wanted. That’s what America needs.”

Now picture another scene. It’s your son’s best friend—the one who has shared countless sleepovers and soccer practices. His family has spent years building a life in your neighborhood, becoming part of your community. Then, one day, he’s missing from the team lineup. His desk at school is empty. The whispers confirm what you feared: his family was deported. His dreams of college? Gone. His hope for safety? Shattered.

You’ll try to explain it to your child, but how do you justify that it was your choice—your vote—that contributed to his best friend being torn from his home?

When your son asks why this happened, don’t shy away from your cooperation. Tell him, “Yeah. That sucks. But that’s what I wanted. That’s what America needs.” Take responsibility for your vote.

The United States of America was built on the backs of immigrants. As of 2024, immigrants make up 19% of the civilian labor force, with an even higher participation rate in important positions like healthcare, agriculture, and construction. Yet policies that demonize these workers erase their humanity and deny their contributions.

Undocumented immigrants alone contribute over $11.6 billion annually in state and local taxes while being denied the protections and opportunities their labor supports.

Donald Trump has vowed to reinstate policies like mass deportations and severe restrictions on asylum, which would rip families apart. He claims these measures are “necessary” to combat the crime wave caused by immigrants. But if you know Trump, you know he tends to exaggerate. In reality, research shows a different story. A study from Texas found that undocumented immigrants are actually 47% less likely to be convicted of crimes than native-born Americans.

Who are these policies necessary for? Deporting millions of workers and families from the industries they sustain will not strengthen America—it will hollow it out.

And when the dust settles, it won’t just be Latino families feeling the pain. It’ll be your neighborhood, your workforce, your children, and your conscience bearing the weight of choices made in the ballot box.

What do we sacrifice when we choose fear over compassion? What does it say about us when the “land of the free” becomes the land of broken families and lost dreams?

Dear middle-class families who voted for Trump,

Donald Trump’s economic policies may have sounded appealing, but they’re not designed to benefit you. His proposed tariffs on imported goods are, in reality, a tax on the very items many families rely on to make ends meet.

While his tariffs are intended to protect domestic industries and increase U.S. employment, the actual outcomes are much more complicated. In many cases, tariffs lead to higher prices for consumers while failing to significantly create jobs in the targeted industries, much like the historical impact of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which raised consumer costs without providing the promised employment gains​.

With a blanket 10% tariff on all imports and a 60% tariff specifically targeting Chinese products, you’ll feel it at the checkout counter and in your monthly budget in the next year or two.

Think about your everyday purchases—clothes for the kids, home goods, even groceries. These tariffs could mean an extra $4,000 dollars out of your pocket each year. That’s $4,000 less for vacations, college savings, or just to catch up on the bills.

It’s crucial to be informed on how policies impact us personally, and right now, Trump’s economic plans are asking you, the middle class, to bear the weight of policies that largely favor the wealthy.

So, if you and your family start to feel the squeeze, take a moment to reflect—this was the choice you made at the ballot box.

The “enemies from within”

When asked about countries that pose a threat to the United States, the former president could have pointed to Russia, led by a war criminal, or North Korea, under the rule of a destructive dictator. Instead, my fellow Americans, the man you voted for said, “The enemies from within.”

“I think the bigger problem are the people from within….radical left lunatics…and it should be very easily handled…by [the] National Guard or…by the military,” Trump said.

Now imagine your aunt, a high school biology teacher, losing her job one year before she’s set to retire. She’s worked over twenty years, counting on her pension, but that’s all gone when Donald Trump cuts federal funding for her school, forcing it to close.

Determined to stand up for herself and other teachers going through the same situation, she joins a peaceful protest, hoping to make a difference. But because Trump sees people like her as a threat, he sends the National Guard to “handle” the protest.

In the chaos that follows, your aunt—who only wanted her voice to be heard—gets beaten to death by the same men sent there on Trump’s orders. As the news breaks, you’re left to deal with the guilt that youe vote helped suppress the rights of others.

Being considered the “enemy from within” is simply because someone disagrees with Trump’s views, they’re branded as a threat, an “enemy from within.” Their voice, their beliefs, their right to stand up for what matters—all of it is seen as dangerous. And now, in his eyes, we’re someone to be silenced, someone to be “handled.”

The burden of your vote

So, to those who voted for Trump, know this: you are not bystanders in what comes next—you are accomplices. Every family torn apart, every child buried too soon, every woman denied autonomy over her body, and every voice silenced by authoritarian force is the result of your choice. You opened the door for cruelty, chaos, and regression to take center stage. Own it.

The blood of innocent lives, shattered dreams, and dismantled rights is the America you voted for. Let the weight of that reality sink in. Let it haunt you because it should.