'Completely out of touch': Ex-Trump aide rails at Trump ignoring 'America First' pledge
"The View" railed against President Donald Trump and the new reports of a "cash grab" of American taxpayer dollars.
During Wednesday's show, the co-hosts addressed recent New York Times reporting saying Trump wants $230 million in restitution from the Justice Department over the investigations he faced during his first term and after it.
Whoopi Goldberg began my questioning whether there is a link between Trump's $230 million request from the DOJ and the price tag of the massive ballroom that Trump promised he would personally buy for the White House. Since that pledge, however, Trump has hosted an event with his own personal major donors and corporations he asked to help fund the project.
"I think this all comes down, again, as we talk about, him demanding money from the government, again, the optics of this," said Sara Haines, recalling their Tuesday debate.
"He is, according to Forbes, a billionaire, $7.3 billion. The national debt of this country is $37.9 trillion. The government is shut down. Federal workers aren't getting paid. They're lining up at food banks. There are videos of this all over," she said. "And he's grabbing money from the very government he says he's going to put first, while funding money to give to Argentina. The optics are just messing up and I don't how long the working class that, Alyssa, you speak to a bunch, is what really shifted to the Republican right, and how long can he keep them when this is how it's playing out?"
Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served in Trump's first White House as the communications director before she left at the end of 2020, said that it's certainly not "America First," the slogan that Trump cheered for a decade.
"I see why people hate Washington," she said, after lamenting she's exhausted over it.
"The economy is not doing well. There are more people out of work than there are jobs available right now," Griffin continued. "Unemployment is too high. Americans are falling behind on auto loan payments. Sellers in the U.S. housing market outnumber buyers right now. Don't get me started on the farmer right now who have their crops that they invested money in growing that have nowhere to sell them because of Trump's tariffs."
She said that those in her family and friends voted for Trump because they "wanted America First" so that there would be a greater focus on the American people, specifically.
"This is the exact opposite of that," she closed. "You're using taxpayer dollars to, okay, enrich yourself, or maybe you're giving it to charity or the White House. Focus on the people. It's never been harder to get ahead than it is right now, and it feels completely out of touch."