planning other US-based travel. And now I'm not.
The attitude post-election was to avoid going to states that were passing hateful legislation -- but now it's just the whole country for a lot of people. Plus this stuff messes with out dollar value (yours, too!) If Trump backs off, it's more likely people will come back. A lot of people aren't looking to take a stand. they're just not going to go to Disney while the sitting President is threatening us.
I flew into JFK airport in NYC on Friday night on an international flight from Mexico. My usually full Jet Blue flight was half empty. We each had our own row of three empty seats. I joked that a lot of peeps must have refused to return to the US. I wished I was one of them. But the best I could do was plan to leave again in a few months. Normally there are lines to go through Immigration at JFK. Not this time. There was literally nobody else going through Immigration but us. The huge room was empty. And by no line, I don’t mean a short line. I mean not one single other person ahead of us. It was kind of spooky how empty that airport was. I’m guessing that people all over the world are traveling to “anywhere but the US”.
That's very interesting. I do know people who have cancelled travel and I know people who didn't but won't plan any more.
I didn’t experience any hostility in Mexico toward me because I’m American. But I’m a Mexico-loving American and those who hate Mexico and Mexicans don’t tend to go to Mexico. We did talk some politics down there but people there understand that many Americans did not vote for Trump just like I know that many Mexicans are not cartel criminals.
I certainly don't plan to blame individual Americans -- just avoid the ones who have drunk the kool-aid. but most Americans I know personally are reasonable people.
I’m still shocked by how quickly Trump went after our two closest neighbors in Canada and Mexico even though I know that nothing he does should shock me.
I mean, the legitimately weird thing is that he hasn't ASKED for anything. He's says it's the border, but he's not negotiating. He's just threatening. Canada has made a huge reduction in how many drugs have gotten through and we are proposing adding $1B in border protection spending. He is still threatening tariffs on February 1st. For literally no reason. Far more drugs, guns and people come across from the US into Canada than go the other way.
I’m with you in my anger at the millions of Americans who did vote for Trump.
I can't even say I'm angry because they mostly got played. They aren't in my life, exactly, so there's not a lot of rage. Sadness. Worry. I think they're going to find out some hard truths pretty quickly. As much as some people say "well, we did it once before" -- No, you didn't. Not like this.
I do have huge respect for the MAGA Granny who refused the pardon. May she start a trend of people "coming to".
