The never-ending reach of the U.S. shutdown has quite literally pushed everyone to their tipping point, all thanks to the stringent measures brought down by Donald Trump. With the fellow citizens grappling to make the best out of the new rules in place and still dealing with the uncertainty of what happens next, it is best to say that the U.S. President has already been at the receiving end of a lot of criticism. A recent show hosted by CNN discussed these persistent drawbacks that are affecting the people of America, as the period of shutdown has entered its third week already.
The town hall event titled ‘Shutdown America’ saw a fiery take on all of Trump’s morals by the U.S. representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Despite being on air in real time, she did not mince words for even a minute, after she sharply criticized Donald Trump’s questionable morals while directing her remarks toward the ongoing government shutdown, amid other crises. In fact, the 90-minute format also recorded her challenging both the current Republican as well as previous Democratic leadership, which had some major flaws in their tactics, visions, and priorities. Speaking of Trump, AOC clearly echoed the fact that he does not feel the need to represent those who did not vote for him in the first place.
Explaining her view of Donald Trump, AOC said, “He believes that if you don’t vote for him, he doesn’t have to be your leader. That if you didn’t vote for him, you don’t deserve good things to happen to you. I don’t care if someone voted for me or not. I don’t care if someone is a Republican, an Independent, or a Democrat. I don’t care if someone likes me or not. That will never change the fact that I’m going to fight for them to have healthcare.”
Moving on, Alexandria continued her criticism of another one of Trump’s beliefs, wherein he only wants benefits and services to be given out to the Democrats, who continue to remain the citizens of America. She highlighted that such thoughts only make it easier for people to analyse the U.S. President as to whether he is just a strong man, or an authoritarian, or an all-square leader of democracy.
In her words, “I want MAGA to have healthcare. I want MAGA to be paid a living wage. But he doesn’t want people who are democrats to benefit. And that is the difference between a strong man and an authoritarian, and a leader of a democracy.” What’s more, Alexandria skipped from attaching any credit to Donald Trump, especially when it came to his recently publicized efforts at peacemaking between Israel and Hamas. She instead said that the President had become an “obstacle to peace” in Gaza, referring to his previous policy decisions, which backfired enough to wage a war between the two countries.
Meanwhile, as AOC continued to fire away left, right, and centre with her criticisms against Donald Trump and his established government, the White House and its allies too, were continuous responders to her as well as the show itself, which was on-air right at the point in time. Issuing a broader statement later, the White House tagged the CNN-hosted show as that of a ‘clown’. Addressing the criticisms on the shutdown, they counterargued that it was actually the Democrats who had slowed down the process and prolonged the shutdown.
Interestingly, Donald Trump, too, seems to have taken a keen view of Alexandria’s statements against him and his policies. Later on, bringing to his social media platforms, he labelled her as being ‘uninformed’ and accused her of merely grandstanding rather than putting up a constructive policy debate. He also directed attention towards claims of bias between the citizens. He counterclaimed that he’s always fought for the rights of every American while dismissing the idea that he only focuses on people who voted for him.
