Representative Bennie Thompson’s Town Hall meeting had a common message: Elon Musk has no business in the federal government, the budget cuts are aimed at the poor, and Donald Trump is mean.
At New Hope M.B. Church on Nelson Street last Thursday night, Thompson said that since January 20, we have watched the Donald Trump and Elon Musk show, and it isn’t a good show because that’s not who we are as a people.
“Elon Musk is running this country,” Thompson said. “We didn’t vote for him, he just happens to be one of those rich and famous folks that President Trump likes to hang out with.”
Thompson said Social Security isn’t broken, but Trump wants to give the funds to his rich friends to invest in the stock market.
On the cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), he said the research being done in Stoneville is funded by it, and if the United States doesn’t feed the hungry people around the world, then Russia and China will.
Thompson said people in the federal Government want to cut programs like Head Start, which he said was in all 82 counties in Mississippi.
“Millionaires and billionaires don’t need programs like that,” Thompson said. “But every day hardworking Americans do.”
Laughter erupted from the hundreds gathered when Thompson said President Trump said eggs are cheaper now than they ever have been, and in two states, gasoline is $1.98 a gallon.
“This is coming from a man who eats free, travels free, and sleeps free,” Thompson said. “So he could be on public housing and food stamps, because the taxpayers are carrying his weight.”
Thompson said that when he was a child, his father would call him over to watch the president on television, and his father would say: One day you could be like him.
“Could you imagine telling your son daughter or granddaughter to come watch the president, and tell them one day you could be just like him?” Thompson asked.
Thompson touched on the tariffs, saying the cost of everything is going to get higher, and the taxpaying consumers will shoulder that cost.
He also reiterated the statement Trump made before he was elected that voting for him would mean you’d never have to vote again, and that Trump promised retribution to his enemies.
“That’s what he’s doing, going after the people he doesn’t like,” Thompson said. “And he doesn’t like your children, he doesn’t like immigrants, he doesn’t like senior citizens, he doesn’t like people who are sick, and he doesn’t like folks who serve in the military.”
Thompson concluded the speech, saying that after the town hall meetings were finished, a strategy would be needed to push back on everything Trump has been doing.
The floor was opened to the crowd for questions, but most of the people just told stories about being fired from their federal job, or how the funds were cut from programs that help feed the elderly.
One woman said she worked for the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and on April 1st, after all of the federal workers were fired, she was the only one left in her office.
