I was raised to believe in the extraordinary promise of America, a nation forged by dreamers, fighters and visionaries who didn’t wait for permission to change the world. But Trump’s impact on American values has tested that promise, challenging the soul of a country where liberty isn’t just an ideal but a legacy built into every fiber of our history.
We are the country that lifted its eyes to the stars and walked on the moon. We are the country that fed millions beyond our borders, battled disease with innovation and welcomed “the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” We invented modern democracy. We led global coalitions to stop tyranny. We built highways, hospitals and hope.
Ours is a legacy carved by bold decisions and bolder beliefs. Beliefs in freedom, equality and justice for all. And although we have shied away from admitting our faults, we came to terms with our demons and strove to be better. That’s what makes this country special: its refusal to settle.
I am proud of what we’ve achieved in foreign policy, in science, in medicine, in industry, in voting rights, in social justice. I am proud of the people who fought to move us forward. I am proud of a nation that once led with conscience and compassion.
But that pride comes with responsibility. A love of country demands vigilance and the courage to speak when we drift from our ideals. Because the America I love is not built on empty slogans or fleeting nostalgia. It’s built on substance. On truth. On sacrifice. On rising when others fall.
And so, with that pride burning strong, I turn my eyes to the present and the policies, decisions and leadership that threaten everything that once made America great.
Today We’re Losing Our Way
We were great. In mind, spirit, empathy, economy and innovation. Not because of slogans or vanity, but because we earned it. We earned it with grit, sacrifice and vision.
We built the systems that healed the sick, fed the hungry, defended the vulnerable and opened doors of opportunity wide enough for the world to walk through.
Now we’re watching all of it unravel. And it’s deliberate. It’s calculated. It’s the outcome of sabotage.
Institutions that took generations to build are being gutted overnight. Experts replaced with loyalists. Laws twisted to serve the powerful. Trump’s effect on patriotism and integrity is unmistakable: empathy is mocked, science silenced and integrity punished. This is an assault on the very idea of America.
We’re not drifting. We’re being driven off a cliff by those who know exactly what they’re doing and are counting on us to look away, stay quiet, or give up.
Power and the Price We’re Paying
HIV, malaria, tuberculosis – all surged again because Trump turned away. In Afghanistan, maternal health care vanished. In Myanmar, dialysis patients died as emergency hospitals lost funding. He called it fiscal responsibility. I call it cruelty. I call it cowardice. I call it betrayal.
Then Trump turned inward, gutting America’s soul with the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” He didn’t just “reform”, he dismantled. Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance. All gutted. Millions of disabled Americans are losing coverage. Rural hospitals are closing their doors. Children are skipping meals, seniors rationing medication so they can pay rent. Trump waged a war on the vulnerable and smiled doing it.
Trump hasn’t protected democracy. He has suffocated it. Through executive orders and the SAVE Act, he targeted women, minorities, the poor; purging voter rolls, restricting registration, eliminating mail-in ballots, weaponizing federal agencies against election officials. Trump’s not preserving integrity. He’s engineering dominance. Silencing dissent. Rigging the rules so only one side wins. His.
And while the foundations of democracy have been crumbling, Trump turned his back on the planet itself. He dismantled the EPA, fired climate scientists, rolled back every protection we had. He defunded clean energy. Reopened drilling in sacred lands. Tried to eliminate FEMA. Halted the National Climate Assessment midstream. Erased climate data from government websites. He didn’t just ignore the crisis. He accelerated it. The very air we breathe is compromised. The oceans warm. And Trump’s response is silence.
“Make America Great Again”? We Were Already Great.
America didn’t need saving. It needed truth, decency and a real patriot to watch over the country and its people. Trump didn’t make America great again. He made it meaner. Smaller. Colder. Compassion was replaced with cruelty, leadership with isolation, truth with propaganda.
His policies are illusions. Rhetoric wrapped in patriotism and sold as salvation. What he offers isn’t greatness. It’s a grudge. A brand built on division, fueled by ego and aimed at power, not people.
And we pay the price in broken institutions, fractured alliances and a loss of the moral clarity that once defined us.
Let’s Be Proud Again
I’m proud to be an American, but I refuse to be proud of what we’re becoming. Redefining American values in the Trump era means confronting what we’ve lost. We must reclaim our legacy, restore our compassion, reignite our leadership, rebuild trust in our institutions, defend truth against distortion, confront injustice wherever it hides. And remember: patriotism is not blind loyalty, but loyalty to values, not individuals. We don’t need an autocrat or a dictator to be great…
Because America is at its best when it lifts people up – not tears them down.
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