What are your greatest fears or concerns about the second Trump term?

Such tripe.

Have you seen the trainloads of (fill in the blank) heading to the ovens?

This kind of rhetoric is pathetic and dishonest.

Do better.

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Yes, Benny, I’m concerned about that too - Trump talks about unconstitutionally staying in the presidency for a third term, and so far he’s “just” sending planeloads of immigrants (some of whom are legal residents) to El Salvador and refusing court orders to get them back. Now he’s talking about sending American citizens there, too: Donald Trump Says He Loves Idea of Sending Americans to El Salvador Prison - Newsweek. I expect, though, that Congress is concerned enough about keeping their jobs, and enough of them still care enough about democracy, that some of them would listen to us (and to the courts) if they receive hundreds of thousands of calls and emails protesting US citizens being “disappeared”, when or if it happens.

My biggest concern right now (besides the people starving who were previously fed by or through USAID) is the ongoing decimation of our governmental structures and services (including the CDC - when’s the next pandemic? And halting a lot of life-saving medical research) and the destruction of our relationships with our long time allies. It will take years to rebuild and reestablish those. I’m also concerned about what Trump is doing to the economy, and the likelihood of a deep recession, stagflation or possibly even a depression.

But we can rest on the Biblical truth of who God is: sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, and our loving Father. He has the big picture even if we often can’t see it.

Regarding inflation, we can watch this site: As Trump announces new tariffs, here's a price tracker for cars, groceries and more supplies - CBS News

Please keep responses to the topic. Attempts to correct the participation of others is off topic

Thanx Fritz. I think understand now a little better what kind of comment is welcomed and what kind is unwelcome. Thanx for clearing that up.

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As an ex missionary who lived with Arab Christians, worked with them as colleagues and worshipped with them, I’m also very concerned with what’s happening to Palestinian Christians under the current US administration (and unfortunately also happened under numerous prior administrations, including Biden’s).

Biden at least sanctioned some of the most violent illegal settlers, but Trump lifted those sanctions.

Here is a current article about Palestinian Christians’ struggles: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/opinion/palestinian-christian-us-evangelicals-gaza.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20250410&instance_id=152286&nl=the-morning&regi_id=80905772&segment_id=195714&user_id=5a46a36abfc70dff2deac54dc716f440
(Hopefully everyone can read it without hitting a paywall.)

For a first person account of what happened to a Palestinian Christian and his family in 1948 and after, I recommend https://a.co/d/cUWfh6h

For anyone interested, here is an article about Christian emigration from Palestine. It’s from back in 2008, but the situation for Christians in the West Bank has only gotten worse since then.

In Beit Sahour, one of the few towns in the Holy Land remaining primarily Christian, a recent survey found that 51.2 percent of respondents are considering emigration due to the difficult political conditions

These are descendants of Jesus’ first followers, whose ancestors paid extra taxes to the Muslim rulers from the 7th century AD onward rather than renouncing their faith and converting to Islam - and they’re being driven out of their ancestral homeland.

Another concern: the government categorizing anyone they want to arrest as a “terrorist” and therefore not having the right to due process, or snatching people who are legal residents and sending them without due process to places where the government claims they don’t have jurisdiction:

Pastor Martin Niemöller:

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

See also Martin Niemöller - Wikipedia

Coincidentally/ providentially, today I received a card telling me that I might be required to report for jury duty. The preliminary questionnaire says, in part,

Jury Duty: Right and Responsibility
The right of a trial by jury is the privilege of every person in the United States. This right is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution which provides that “the right of the trial by jury shall be secured to all and remain inviolate.”

Note that it says “every person” and “all”, not “all citizens”.

The President, on his own authority, recently deported people → supposedly ← affiliated with a Venezuelan gang to a foreign country => without due process <= Previously, he mentioned establishing concentration camps to imprison undesirables.

Your statement about seeing trainloads heading to the ovens is absurd. When will you remove your head from the sand and observe what is going on in this country? There is a convicted felon (34 counts!) in the Oval Office who is deporting people without trial to a foreign country.

Who is being pathetic and dishonest?

Get it back on topic please.

Neil
Actually, my “Greatest” fear with this, and any new administration is the effect it has of polarization on the citizens of the country. In my lifetime, it seems each “changing of the guard” tries to undo the work of the previous, which in turn hardens the opposition, and intensifies the division. This raises the stress level of the entire country and feeds the “lie mongers” of the media. I understand that ideological differences are normal, and to be expected, but partisanship has become so intense that conflicting parties are focusing on damaging the opposition, and have lost sight of their very reason for being there. More time, energy, and money is spent on creating compelling disinformation than is focused on simply telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I think there is wide agreement that the country could be better served if rational leaders worked as hard at cooperation in finding progressive ideas that actually benefit the country as they do at disparaging the other side of the isle. The bloody battle field leaves much work for the medic, and so the gory political arena calls for the peacemaking work of the Christian.

Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9

KP

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I pray against the powers of darkness that want to destroy our country either by Trumps’s edicts or by opposing forces that care not for God’s will.

We have to tighten our belts even if not popular and live within our means and get out of debt. That means less federal government jobs because more people are working for private companies that have come back to America than for a broken beaurocracy known as the Federal government, and they are paying taxes on the money they earn from those companies. They should be paying taxes, rather than being sustained by our taxes. The USA needs to set an example for the rest of the world, not be a rotten example financially for the world to see.

Benny

You’ve packed a lot of heat into one paragraph, and I respect your passion. But may I suggest that righteous anger still benefits from righteous facts?

First, let’s take a step back from the rhetorical ledge. Terms like “concentration camps” and “trainloads to the ovens” aren’t just exaggerated—they’re historically sacred ground. Using Holocaust imagery for current political frustration cheapens the horror that millions endured. Let’s not weaponize Auschwitz for a headline.

Second, due process is a cornerstone of our system, yes. But deportation proceedings—even expedited ones—still fall under a legal framework. If you’ve got evidence that literal kidnappings are occurring outside the law, I’d expect lawsuits, not just social media outrage. So far, I’ve seen more memes than affidavits.

And third, while it’s perfectly fine (and very American) to question any president—Trump, Biden, or whoever’s next—we’re called to do so with discernment, not despair. Romans 13 reminds us that governing authorities exist by God’s design. That doesn’t mean blind trust, but it does mean we don’t get to panic every time we disagree.

If your concern is truly for justice, I’m with you. Let’s be vigilant. But if your concern is just a fever dream dressed up like prophecy, maybe take a breath, open your Bible, and remember who really sits on the throne.

Don’t forget the people on Social Security who are over 200 years old and receiving checks still. One was over 300.

Love the Yoda meme. Yoda knows
TDS is unbeconing a Christian.

God sets those whom he chooses to lead us.

Illegal alien gang members are domestic terrorists.

Don’t let us to forget the gang that held an entire apartment complex hostage.

What right did they have to do that?
Escaping justice before police arrived because someone tipped them off.

Don’t the American people have a right not to be held hostage by gang members?

Or to be invaded by illegals? We work to sustain them through our tax dollars with SNAP benefits WIC, Medicaid.

While our people do not obtain those benefits when rightfully our own.

There was a Left Wing campaign that ran for awhile that attempted to say, Jesus was a refugee.

Propaganda will kill this nation.

And division among Christians who hold to Left Wing values will kill our people.

There weren’t any. See https://crr.bc.edu/150-year-olds-arent-getting-social-security-heres-a-better-task-for-doge/ and What’s behind Trump’s false claim dead people are receiving social security payments? | Trump administration | The Guardian

The crime rate among immigrants is actually lower than among American citizens: https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/117125/documents/HHRG-118-GO06-20240416-SD005.pdf (You can find a lot of other sites that document this too, if you do a search for them.)

And Jesus, Mary and Joseph actually were displaced persons when they fled to Egypt (Mt. 2:13-18).

It’s really not an invasion; there are no foreign armies coming over the border, just a lot of needy and desperate people.

… And almost all of them want nothing more than to be safe, get a job and support their family, and pay taxes and Social Security just like you and I do.

The Bible, Old Testament and New, repeatedly says we should be kind to strangers/foreigners. https://www.worldvision.org/refugees-news-stories/what-does-bible-say-about-refugees#:~:text=“Strangers”%20and%20“foreigners”,might%20represent%20in%20today’s%20terms.
(Again, you can find a lot more on this if you search for something like “in matthew 25 does stranger mean foreigner or immigrant”)

I agree. We claim to serve a God of truth, and not “the father of lies”, so we need to be very careful to evaluate everything by its truthfulness and by Biblical standards.

Unfortunately, the Left conflates lawful immigration with illegal trespass so to claim those opposed to illegal immigration are Xenophobic.

Jesus and his family were not refugees. They merely traveled from one region of the Roman empire to another.

Also, it isn’t necessary to have an army so to invade a first world country. As America, especially under Biden well know.

I found this piece some time ago.

Is it possible to invade a country without using military force?

Simply select a first-world country with the following attributes:

it is prosperous, but also has a large welfare state
it has a declining population, due to sexual immorality and family breakup
the youth are unwilling to do physical labor, because of being raised in such good conditions that they never had to work to survive
the people lack gratitude for their own freedom, and reject their own history and culture

Such a country is easy to invade without military force.
This is how you do it:

Take the jobs that the spoiled rich kids of the host nation won’t do.
Establish balkanized communities within the host nation, but still retain your prior national allegiance.
Grow your own population inside the host nation.
Align yourself politically with other aggrieved groups, to form a large coalition of voters who all want free stuff, until the free stuff coalition reaches 51% of the electorate.
Maximize use of government assistance, in order to bankrupt the host nation and foment revolution.

Once the free stuff voters outnumber the taxpayers, defeat is inevitable.
It is only a matter of time until the host nation collapses.

Source: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-invade-a-country-without-using-military-force

You raise a serious point, and I don’t want to understate the danger. Some of these gangs—particularly those involved in transnational crime, human trafficking, and violent intimidation—have been officially designated by our government as foreign terrorist organizations. That’s not just a rhetorical move; it has legal implications and sharpens how law enforcement can respond.

So yes, calling certain individuals “terrorists” isn’t propaganda if that’s how the law sees them. But I do think we have to be very careful with the brush we use. Just as all Christians don’t represent Christ equally well, not all who cross a border illegally are part of a gang, or worthy of that label. And when we speak broadly, in anger or frustration, we risk turning individuals into symbols of fear rather than seeing them as souls in need of either justice or grace—sometimes both.

And if we’re serious about protecting our communities, then yes—secure borders, law enforcement, and wise immigration policies are all part of good stewardship. But if we want to be biblical in our response, we have to remember this too:

“The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow…” (Psalm 146:9)

That means God can care about both the law-abiding citizen and the vulnerable stranger at the same time. And so must we.

Let’s fight real threats, but not with fear. With truth. And with a gospel that’s bigger than any border.

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You’ve clearly spent time reflecting on what’s happening around us, and I don’t doubt your heart is genuinely troubled by what you see. Many share those concerns. The cultural decay, the breakdown of family, the entitlement mindset—all of that is real and, frankly, deeply spiritual in nature.

But let’s be careful not to mistake every shadow for a monster.

Yes, unlawful entry into a country is different from legal immigration. And yes, conflating the two to label anyone who’s concerned as “xenophobic” is intellectually lazy and spiritually unhelpful. Discernment matters. Justice matters. Borders are not unbiblical—they’re part of God’s ordering of nations (Acts 17:26). But so is compassion, and it’s not a virtue we can afford to outsource or abandon.

On the issue of Jesus and His family: the Holy Family fled Judea under threat of state-sponsored execution. They went to Egypt—not for a vacation, not to look for work—but to escape a tyrant. That wasn’t just a road trip. It was an escape from danger, and it fits every practical definition of a refugee. The Roman Empire’s wide reach doesn’t cancel out the danger or the desperation. Scripture calls us to remember the heart of the sojourner (Deut. 10:19), not to debate their passport status.

Now, that Quora piece you quoted—it’s got flair, but not a lot of factual ballast. It’s built on stereotypes: that all immigrants are scheming welfare-users, that all native-born citizens are lazy and decadent, that revolution is the end goal. That’s not policy analysis. That’s dystopian fan fiction.

What it completely misses is this: sin, not immigration, is what hollows out a nation. A broken moral compass. A hardened heart. A people who forget God.

We will not fix our country by hardening our borders alone, any more than ancient Israel could save itself with walls while its heart was far from God. The only enduring security is repentance, not rhetoric.

Let’s not fight shadows. Let’s fight sin—with truth, with prayer, and with a gospel big enough to love the foreigner, the neighbor, and yes—even the one who votes differently than us.

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