Local person receiving mental health care Alice Glick knows her treatment is a disintegrated mess. With 22-year-old phone-addicted case managers coordinating her care, and within a social services organization constantly on the edge of financial default, she has long monitored her expectations about the mental health care system. But, “Mannnn,” Glick says, “that Trump guy is whackin’ me out.”
Trump, a messianic businessman who orchestrates chaos in order to peddle an embittered, corrupted hope to the masses, first became president in 2016, then again in 2024. Glick says she is indifferent to how Trump became president but wishes he would “chill out” and “stop making noise about everything all of the time.”
“Look man, I’ve been in this long enough to know that it’s not all about one guy. But this nonsense is endless,” she says. “For years I’ve felt like the floor is going to fall out from under me. He’s the first guy who’s talked like he would have a fun time making that happen. You can hear him say it.” (She now pouts her lips, squints her eyes and cocks her head.) “’Oh, look at me. I run casinos. I pay prostitutes. I want to be president so I can mess with Alice.’” She returns to a typical facial baseline. “Dumbass.”
Glick reports that since Trump returned to office, her dread is heavier and more persistent, her delusions of persecution scarier and “more legitimate, if you listen to what these guys are saying.” And now more than ever she finds it difficult to envision long-term security due to his constant attacks on Medicaid and other supports she relies on. Things weren’t entirely different in the Biden years, nor even in the Bush or Obama years, but, “Man, the same old shit hits different with this guy.”