Only billionaires . . .

Counting the ways big money makes Trump & Friends mad with power -- and eager to turn our democracy into a plutocracy.

Only a billionaire could cut off foreign aid to starving children and be oblivious to how that looks.

Only billionaires and millionaires — the ones who’ve trash-canned their consciences — could cut billions of dollars from Medicaid, diminishing health coverage for millions of low-income Americans.

Only a billionaire could publicly denigrate Social Security, a vital and popular public system into which millions of American workers and their employers have paid billions of dollars for retirement or disability.

Only a billionaire could call Social Security the “biggest ponzi scheme of all time” and suggest without evidence that the system is full of fraud and abuse.

Only a billionaire could shamelessly and obnoxiously claim that the person who complains about missing a Social Security payment must be a “fraudster.”

Only a billionaire could be arrogant enough to think he can turn back the clock on globalism — essentially the entire world economy — by imposing tariffs on imports.

Only such a billionaire could impose a 25% tariff on automobiles from Asia and say he “couldn’t care less” if the price of those vehicles goes up by thousands of dollars, making them unaffordable for many American families.

Only a billionaire could take such an action and be indifferent to how it affects the price of new domestic cars, used cars, auto repairs and auto insurance.

Only a billionaire could buy a daily newspaper and, instead of financially nurturing its vital role as a provider of news and informed opinion, treat it as his own political newsletter.

“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy” — Elon Musk

Only a billionaire could buy his way into a position of great power in a presidential administration and, with that power, arbitrarily eliminate the jobs of thousands of government employees, indifferent to the hardship he inflicts.

Only billionaires — but plenty of millionaires as well — can dismiss climate change as a threat to the planet because they are arrogant enough to believe that money and title will protect them and their heirs from its ravages.

Only a billionaire president makes everything a transaction, everything a deal. Such a one-dimensional man hears pleas for help from an allied nation fighting an invasion and asks, “What’s in it for us?”

Only a billionaire could make offensive comments in public — or publicly endorse a felon for president — then complain when advertisers refuse to support his business.

Only a billionaire could walk away from the responsibility to provide fact checking and screening for racist comments on the social media platform that made him so wealthy.

Only a billionaire can pay so little in taxes then complain about the size of government and the benefits it provides for the “parasite class.”

Only an extravagantly arrogant billionaire could make massive, random cuts to the federal workforce while his companies make billions from taxpayers, and not care for a minute how that looks.

Only a billionaire could promise to fight for “forgotten men and women,” then, once elected president, do everything in his power to make life easier for fellow billionaires and their businesses — cutting taxes, cutting regulations, reducing the staff at the Internal Revenue Service.

Only a billionaire with virtually no experience in education — she sat on a state board of education for one year — would feel that a background in professional wrestling would qualify her to be the nation’s secretary of education.

You only have to be a millionaire to ignore due process for alleged Venezuelan gang members, have them illegally deported to a hellish prison in Central America, then show up there, shamelessly wearing an expensive watch, to exploit them for a photo opportunity.

Of course, you need not be a billionaire or millionaire to support the billionaires and millionaires described above. They have set out to damage or even end our democracy while creating a plutocracy to govern the country. That’s become abundantly clear, and you need neither money nor privilege to see that.