Coin and Country
The price is high and we, the people, are going to pay it

ELIZABETH GEORGE
Mar 22, 2026

When Donald Trump famously said that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and nothing would happen to him, he knew what he was talking about. At that point in his life, he’d not been held accountable for anything and he had no reason to think that accountablility was in his future. Our national tragedy is that it appears he was quite correct.

Trump’s first presidency and now his second presidency have been dominated by his insatiable greed and his lust for revenge. He, has raked in money, gifts, and awards fabricated to woo his favor. He has sold everything from shoes to cell phones to watches. He has benefited enormously from $TRUMP—the meme coin promoted by him and launched by companies tied to his business network—while more than 80% of ordinary investors lost between $2 and $4 billion.

He has evidenced no interest in the country beyond what it can do to benefit or glorify him. He has placed his name on buildings and hung portraits of himself instead of dealing with the myriad problems a president faces every day, and he has been lightning quick to seek revenge against perceived enemies and offenders.

This ravenous need for revenge began early on in his presidency with the paper-towel-throwing incident in Puerto Rico. In the event you don’t remember it or never saw the video of it, let me elucidate the cause and the effect. A number of years ago, my husband and I took a walking tour of San Juan. Our guide showed us the spot where at one time Donald Trump had wanted to build a resort. The Puerto Rican government denied him permission, and he was forced to move on to other projects. But he did not forget the “insult” to his prowess as a businessman. Then Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, and instead of doing what every other President in my lifetime has done when a natural disaster has struck, Donald Trump did not tour the devastation nor did he offer comfort or reassurance to people who had lost everything. Instead he threw rolls of paper towels into the assembled crowd, engaging in a disgraceful display of indifference. The suffering of the Puerto Ricans did not matter, nor did they themselves matter. Both ranked far, far below the satisfaction of Donald Trump’s need for revenge.

In time he will seek revenge on the NATO nations who have told him they will not come to aid him in the illegal war he started. It may take a few years, but vengeance will happen. For this is who Donald Trump is. This is why the sycophants, minions, yesmen, and power-hungry women with whom he surrounds himself will not confront him. They know exactly who he is. They know exactly how he operates. They’re willing to wait him out, hoping that the stench of their association with him will fade once he finally dies.

In the meantime, we, the people, are paying the price. We’re paying it not only through actual prices that are steadily rising but more significantly we are paying the price through the loss of military lives and the lives of innocent men, women, and children whose only “sin” against an Israeli war criminal and a demented fascist can be found in the fact that they live or work or go to school where missiles and bombs happen to fall.

We’re paying a price through the loss of our allies. We’re paying a price in the loss of prestige and esteem with which the United States once was held. When I think of what we used to do for lesser countries with fewer resources—sending them food and medicine and the sort of expertise that builds people up instead of allowing them to languish, suffer, starve, and die—and I compare it to what we do now, I’m sickened. We have fallen so far in the cause of benefiting a contemptible degenerate and his cronies that I can only pray that we the people will develop the ability to claw our way out of the pit into which he has flung us. We the people at this moment are not altogether lost. But if we do nothing to stop the suffering and the anguish being inflicted on innocent people, we will be.

© 2026 Elizabeth George
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104