We the People: What about the little guy?

Conservative pundits promised that a victory by Mr. Trump would be a victory for the little guy and that a billionaire real estate speculator could correct the system that had beaten down regular working class citizens.

Coal miners, construction workers, steel workers and painters who traditionally vote Democrat were swayed by comments and commentators not even to consider Hillary Clinton.  Right wing talking heads stated that a President Trump would give a voice to working class citizens who were convinced that only a political outsider could give them one.

Unfortunately, the voice in the White House belongs to a billionaire speculator and reality show star and hopefully a familiar Trump statement to a “little guy” contractor like, “So what … sue me … I have great lawyers,” will not be followed with, “You’re fired” to the American worker.

A Trump subsidiary that refused to pay a bill from a painting contractor for work performed at Mr. Trump’s National Doral in Miami had to sue when that company refused to pay a $32,000 bill, but that decision could end up costing Mr. Trump more than 10 times as much in litigation costs.

The contractor had to go to court and apply a lien in order not to be shortchanged by Trump Endeavor 12 LLC. This could end up adding $390,000 in legal costs to the bill to be paid by Trump Endeavor to the contractor after a Florida appellate court upheld an award for the contractor.

The contractor should have been paid the $32,000 but had to spend more than $150,000 in legal fees to get the Trump subsidiary to pay what was owed.

During the presidential campaign, it was frequently claimed that Mr. Trump had a history of squeezing small contractors in order to pay them less and force them to accept less than what they were owed.

That is not standing up for the “little guy.” Mr. Trump repeatedly stated the claims were untrue and this was propaganda and any reports that he cheated contractors were merely “fake news.”

President Trump is fulfilling other campaign promises made. He is shifting federal tax dollars from traditional public schools to so-called “choice” programming to promote charter and religious schools.

The Trump education budget slashes $9 billion or 13 percent of the Department of Education’s funding and redirects $1.4 billion to the “choice” programs that include private-school vouchers touted by billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

The Trump budget slashes funding for programs for disadvantaged students, and grants to public schools and for after-school enhancement programs. The $1.2 billion cut will cost New York City public schools roughly $140 million a year according to estimates from the city’s Department of Education.

Mr. Trump is also helping the “little guy” in other ways. He wants to eviscerate the Environmental Protection Agency because he feels that our air is clean enough now.

Perhaps it is clean enough to let pollution control go unenforced because he is confident that reliance on local enforcement will be enough to protect the people’s air, land and drinking water. Ask the people of Flint, Michigan how that has worked out. Even Fox News has pointed out the inconsistencies and dangers in the proposed Trump spending cuts.

Perhaps other conservative “news” outlets will follow suit. Conservative and controversial broadcaster Alex Jones, who has yet to find a conspiracy theory that he did not believe was true, is locked in a fierce legal battle with his wife over custody of their three children.

Jones, who regularly rants and raves on his InfoWars on-line show about political issues, became an early supporter of President Trump but his wife says that his on-line behavior is evidence of instability and that he is unsuitable to be granted custody of their children.

President Trump appeared on the show in December of 2015 and adherents to Mr. Jones are credited with providing the support needed to legitimize the Trump campaign initially.

However, Mr. Jones’ attorney countered claims of instability with an admission that InfoWars is merely an act and that Jones is no journalist or commentator. His attorney stated Jones is “playing a character. He is a performance artist.”

This may surprise his followers who like to parrot statements from the InfoWars site as authority when making comments like “Killary Clinton should be jailed” or “President Obama founded ISIS” on social media. The little guys need to think for themselves and stand up for themselves, as usual.