Trump Posted a Side-by-Side of His Family vs. a Michigan Doctor’s Family, and Ladies, He Did Us No Favors

Trump Posted a Side-by-Side of His Family vs. a Michigan Doctor’s Family, and Ladies, He Did Us No Favors

Let me tell you something. I have four kids, a grocery budget that looks like a ransom note, and exactly zero patience for a 79-year-old man who posts side-by-side family photos like he’s running for eighth-grade class president.

Over the weekend, Donald Trump put up a picture on social media. On one side, him and Melania. On the other, Abdul El-Sayed and his wife, Dr. Sarah Jukaku, who is a psychiatrist. The caption: “Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s.” Yes, with the apostrophe in the wrong place. This is the man running the country.

El-Sayed is a doctor. He ran Detroit’s health department. He taught at Columbia. He just won the Michigan Democratic Senate primary and his platform is getting corporate money out of politics, passing Medicare for All, and putting cash back in your pocket. And the president of the United States looked at that and thought, you know what this moment calls for? A meme. A mean little meme with his wife on one half looking like she’d rather be literally anywhere else.

Shealeah Craighead (Public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

Because here’s what got me. El-Sayed went on CNN and said yeah, Trump’s right, there are two different Americas. “One in which your overlords are two people who don’t like each other, but join in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you, or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family.” Pancakes. The man talked about pancakes and raising a family and I about fell out of my chair because when was the last time you heard a politician talk like an actual human being?

So what did Trump do with that? He went to Las Vegas, stood up at the Red Rock Casino, and called El-Sayed a “communist” who would bring “squalor” and “death” to America. He said “when I watch Abdul, he’s full of s***.” He said El-Sayed hates Jewish people, “hates them with a passion that burns in his heart.” This is the president of the United States, on a stage, cursing and making things up about a doctor who just won a primary fair and square.

And then Nancy Mace got on CNN and said, and I am not making this up, “when our granddaughters are wearing burkas to school, we’re going to look back and say how did this happen?” Nancy. Sweetheart. My granddaughters can’t even afford school supplies. You’re worried about burkas? I’m worried about the grocery bill and whether my kids’ school has a nurse this week.

El-Sayed went back on CNN and said what every mom I know has been thinking: “The man can’t stay on focus.” Trump has this “no tax on tips” thing, which lets workers deduct up to $25,000 in tip income. That’s the one economic relief thing he’s got. And instead of talking about that, instead of doing his job, he’s picking fights with a Senate candidate in Michigan. El-Sayed said it plain: “I want to get money out of politics, put money in your pocket and pass Medicare for All.” That’s it. That’s the whole sentence. No insults, no side-by-side photos, no cursing at a casino.

Conlan Houston (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

I’ve done my research. I’ve read what both of these men actually said and did. One of them is a doctor who wants to fix healthcare and get dark money out of Washington. The other is a billionaire posting mean memes from the White House and calling people names at a resort in Nevada. I’m a mom. I know a bully when I see one. And I know which America I’d rather raise my kids in. It’s the one with the pancakes.