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Let me just say that, when this 81-year-old protester marched through the streets of New York City in the recent No Kings rally, I noted demonstrators of all ages, including children and babies in strollers. Still, I thought the crowd as a whole and I not only walked from 47th Street to 14th Street, but then stood and watched thousands of other protesters march by me leaned old. There were striking numbers of people like yes, me! And I was struck by that reality again when TomDispatch regular Beverly Gologorsky, author of the new novel The Angle of Falling Light, sent me today's piece.
She reminded me of something that seems all too true. Its simply no pleasure aging in the world of Donald Trump. All those years, including 24 of them at TomDispatch trying to do what little I could to making this a distinctly better world, and what do I get for it? Yes, Donald Trumps America, including the $300 million Mar-a-Lago-style ballroom hes now destroying the East Wing of the White House to build for himself; and worse yet, a world that's growing ever more devastating by the month, a world in which the leader of the most powerful country on the planet, Donald Trump, has functionally denied that climate change is even happening hes called it a con job and so is preparing a planet for my children and grandchildren that's almost beyond imagining.
After all, just in the first six months of this year in the United States, weather disasters set records when it came to both their numbers and their destructiveness. As the New York Times recently reported, The average number of billion-dollar disasters has surged from three per year during the 1980s to 19 annually. Imagine that! And now, imagine this as well: in the first six months of 2025, disasters across the United States caused more than $100 billion in damage, the most expensive start to any year on record.
And with that in mind, let Gologorsky take you into an aging world that, in the United States and globally, grows more unsettling by the month. Tom
Aging in a Trumpian World
A (Shouted) Word to and from the Wise
Aging, like time, ticks on, day by hour by day. Then, suddenly, its there, mocking our inability to sweep aside, should we even want to, this iron curtain. For seniors, the concept of time itself differs from that of younger people, because the future is in the everyday.
But aging in a Trumpian world brings fear and destruction as strand by strand of the safety net is plucked away until its shredded. And Donald Trump doesn't care.
Seniors make up an ever larger American demographic that's being made ever more unsafe in the richest country in the world. Social Security, healthcare, even access to food, not to speak of general well-being are all under threat. Trump doesn't care.
The Presidents Heavy Hand
Social Security is a return on what workers have paid into the federal government over many years. The recent fright about Social Security offices closing or seniors having to prove they're eligible (or that they even exist) in order to continue receiving what workers 62 and over are owed is not only demeaning and insulting but also saps confidence, threatens wellbeing, and challenges life in America as we've known it. And count on one thing: Trump doesn't care.
The Social Security Department is run extremely efficiently and had no need for Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and crew remaking it. Less than one penny of every dollar it gets is spent on its administration, while the other 99 cents come back in benefits.
Social Security has been called a crucial guardrail against government change, a rail that, unfortunately, seems to be weakening, month by month, in the second era of Donald Trump amid changes so thoughtless that they take ones breath away. For example, some Social Security offices are now being closed, ensuring that many elderly or infirm people who are housebound will no longer be able to reach them by phone to register to receive their checks. Yes, cruelty before our very eyes. Congressional representative Rashida Tlaib has insisted that we must defend this lifesaving program, which lifts 27 million Americans out of poverty each year.
In recent weeks, President Trump has announced an end to the issuing of the paper Social Security checks that now arrive by mail, rather than being deposited directly into a bank account. Doesn't he know that its the oldest, sickest, and poorest among us who may not have a bank account, or be able to get to a bank, or make the change via computer, or who yes! may not even have a computer? Of course, Trump doesn't care.
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