Thanks to the behavior of Donald Trump a quote from Maya Angelou has become a frequently repeated bit of conventional wisdom – “When people show you who they are, believe them.” Case in point, Trump’s latest budget.

Note that Angelou advised paying attention to what people show you by their actions, not what they say. Campaigning in 2016, Trump said he was going to cut taxes for the middle and working class. When he won the presidency and got down to work, he cut them for the one percent.

Mario Cuomo famously said politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Trump’s hardball $4.8 trillion FY 2021 budget is no campaign poetry, but a prosaic battle plan that ignores his previous anodyne promises.

For instance, he denounced Democrats for deficit spending and said he’d eliminate the deficit by the time he left office in 2025. Instead he has added $3 trillion to the national debt so far, and the new budget, far from reversing the trend, will add another $3 trillion in debt by 2024. A balanced budget is not predicted to arrive by 2035, but even that promise is based on impossibly rosy forecasts for GDP growth.

Republicans regularly deride Democrats as the tax and spend party, but at least that is fiscally sustainable if the tax revenues brought in are in line with the spending that goes out. Republicans are now the cut taxes and overspend party, thus the deficits as far as the eye can see.

The proposed budget is characterized by Trump’s world view that all of life pits winners against losers, and it is designed to reward his idea of winners and penalize losers. So, the budget adds more spending for the military, including his Space Force, and for advanced weapons and more nukes.

It also funds R&D spending on tech projects where China is presently ahead — AI, quantum computing and 5G. This may not be a bad idea, but the motive for Trump is surely less national security than personal insecurity. He wants bragging rights.

He also proposes $5 billion for his idee fixe, The Wall, to keep out losers, as well as $700 million more for another 5,000 border patrol agents, ICE agents and immigration prosecutors, tough guys intent on making life more miserable for the already miserable. He also wants to spend $3 billion for sufficient detention facilities to cage 60,000 immigrants.

Almost every other part of the government faces cuts, because these programs are of, for, and by losers. The Environmental Protection Agency budget would be cut by 27% which is perfectly reasonable if you believe climate change and pollution are anti-business hoaxes.

HUD, which largely deals with housing for the poor and minorities, is slated for a 15% cut, Health and Human Services for a 9% cut, presumably because winners like the Mar-A-Lago crowd can afford all the healthcare they need without government help.

The 11% cut for the Labor Department and 8% cut for the Agriculture Department speak for themselves. Only losers work with their hands. And the 8% cut for the Education Department is no surprise from a man who didn’t need any schooling to inherit his father’s business. Study is for losers. Trump trusts his gut.

Finally, we come to the social safety net programs that many of Trump’s voters depend on. In 2016, he was savvy enough to promise he’d never, ever cut Social Security and Medicare. Out on his endless schedule of rallies, he still is repeating the same reassuring words. But it is just another of the cons he has practiced for a living. Neil Diamond described the revival meeting atmosphere of Trump on the hustings well.

Pack up the babies And grab the old ladies

And everyone goes ‘Cause everyone knows Brother Trump’s show.

Starting soft and slow Like a small earthquake

And when he lets go Half the valley shakes

It’s Trump, Brother Trump’s Travelling Salvation Show.

But the prose reality of the budget doesn’t match the stump speech poesy. Altogether the budget calls for $2 trillion in Social Safety net cuts. Admittedly, some are to programs for losers, but in Trump’s American many of those in his crowds are just a job loss, a serious illness, or a recession away from needing help.

If Trump gets his way with the budget, help won’t be there when they need it. He seeks work requirements to keep deadbeats from having access to Medicaid. Prescription drug price assistance would be cut. He would “save” $300 billion by cutting food and housing assistance for the poor, $170 billion by cutting student loans, and $70 billion from federal disability insurance.

The budget also calls for chopping billions more from programs only liberal losers like – foreign aid, food aid for famines, public broadcasting, research for cancer and chronic diseases. And at a time of possible pandemic, why not cut support for the World Health Organization by 50%, CDC by 16%, and NIH by 8%?

You might think that’s sick, but Trump apparently thinks pandemics only afflict loser countries and that they go away in April, anyway. Besides, in his mind, warm places like Florida where he moved as a tax refugee are immune. Besides, he’s got the Secret Service to protect him. Only losers have to fend off pathogens themselves or rely on government handouts of vaccines.