No political administration is totally perfect, and there are going to be repercussions to the actions and plans of every political party.
Though we know that, there are some administrations that are much more devastating to navigate, especially when there are serious issues with the economy as a result of that administration’s choices, pointed out the “Am I the A**hole?” (AITAH) subReddit.
Redditor Solar_Electrician grew a successful electrical contracting business that he was proud of, but because of the Trump Administration’s new policies, he was struggling not to have to close his business.
Feeling betrayed, the Original Poster (OP) did not want to stay connected with people who voted for President Trump, which unfortunately included his parents.
He asked the sub:
“AITAH for refusing to speak to my parents because they support Trump, whose policies cost me my business?”
The OP’s business was impacted by the Trump Administration.
“I (40 Male) have owned and managed an electrical contracting company specializing in solar for the last seven years.”
“I worked my a** off to build a profitable company with integrity. Things were going great, and I could see a reasonably short runway to retirement or semi-retirement.”
“Then Trump took away all incentives for renewables and replaced them with tax breaks for fossil fuels.”
“I am now in the process of selling my business, and taking a position working for a large company, and making less.”
“I bootstrapped to get here. They don’t deserve any of my success. I’ll be fine, but if they want to be a part of my demise, then why should I participate?”
“I’ve run a successful business for the last seven years. Part of that was predicated on a business environment that was predictable. Under Trump, nothing has been predictable. The subsidies that I spoke of had a natural expiration date. Trump threw that out the window and moved the expiration date up five years or more.”
“Same thing with the tariffs, nobody can predict anything anymore. It’s obvious you are not a business owner, or you would understand the perils of trying to operate in this environment.”
It especially hurt the OP that his parents had voted for President Donald Trump.
“My parents don’t seem to understand that their decision to vote for Trump and his ilk has directly impacted my life in an extremely negative way.”
My view is that they literally voted for a tax break for themselves over the interests of their children. And they will die with money, so I don’t understand their voracious obsession with avoiding taxes. All the children would be fine without inheritance, too, so there’s no argument for avoiding taxes for the children’s benefit.”
“It’s blind loyalty. The inability to reflect upon this blind loyalty is what has caused me to want to disconnect.”
“Am I wrong for telling them I don’t want to speak with them until they can at least acknowledge the harm they have caused me?”
“They’re still my parents. I still love them. It’s just rough when your mother cries because she has to lie in the bed she’s made.”
“AITAH?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NTA: Not the A**hole
- YTA: You’re the A**hole
- ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
- NAH: No A**holes Here
Some were similarly impacted in the way the OP and his business were.
“The project I’m working on, we were about to buy some specialist tools from a company in the United States. I was there in April organising the purchase and ensuring compliance.”
“The company informs me of a price increase due to tariffs that they must pass on to us. The end result was that the increase in costs made the opposition’s machine from Germany a cheaper option.”
“The client cancelled the order with the company in the States, and on Monday, I’m going to Germany.” – kamakarmakamkam
“MAGAs want people they don’t like to get screwed. If someone they like gets screwed, or if they get screwed, they figure that’s a fair trade for the people they don’t like getting screwed.”
“Some strawberry farmers in Florida are cutting back on how much they are going to plant this fall. The reason is that due to deportations, they won’t have enough labor to harvest a full crop.”
“They want a deportation exception for the workers they need, but to h**l with what anyone else needs. But get it or not, they still support Trump.” – Organic-Baker-4156
“So there was a conversation recently I was a part of on Facebook about how people we consider stupid might not be stupid, they just might not have access to resources. Specifically, when we are talking about the reading comprehension in the United States, which is abysmally low; the argument was this is not a good indicator of intelligence or lack of.”
“I disagreed. In 2025, you have access to resources, but you have to WANT them. No one is going to spoon-feed the resources to you; you have to have the hunger for knowledge, which is a part of intelligence, and frankly, a significant portion of people in this country do not. They are perfectly fine believing whatever they are told and doing absolutely zero research or critical thinking.”
“Way back in 2017, when ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ first came on, as a woman, I told a friend I was terrified while watching it. It just filled me with a sense of dread. She absolutely couldn’t relate and just saw it as a fantasy.”
“So to answer your question… no, people do not make the connections. They are seeing what they want to see, or rather NOT seeing what they DON’T want to see. A significant number of people in the US can’t even tell you what year WW2 started or why.” – deennevee
“It’s wild how consistent that is, no matter what happens, they’ll never pin it on Trump. Seen the same with people I know in solar getting crushed and their families still acting like it’s unrelated.”
“It’s literally just people trying to save face or put off the realisation that they are exactly the thoughtless, ignorant fools they’ve been accusing everyone around them of being for about a decade.”
“It’s honestly why I think there’s no fixing this beyond America having to seriously confront this problem, like probably militarily, followed by a full-on post-WW2 deprogramming effort and actually implementing a functional education system again… Legit, I don’t see how else you actually solve this problem, like solve solve, not just allowing it to recede into the background again.”
“None of the types of people that support Trump are the types to be able to recognise they are being and have been misled, let alone be able to own it and learn from it… It’s the same logic as an old person trying to hide the fact that they’ve been scammed out of shame. No one likes to admit they’ve fallen for a scam.”
“Obviously, there are exceptions to this, but I really believe this is the case for the majority.” – kristamine14
“One of my old former friends voted for Trump… The problem is, he works in the wind turbine industry. Oddly enough, he’s not getting any work projects anymore. I’m not gonna rub it in his face, but I can’t imagine how you could vote for someone who literally said he’d take your job away and then be surprised it went away.”
“My dad’s neighbor has a special needs child. They voted for Trump, and because of cuts in the Department of Education, the local school had to let some people go… one of which was the special education teacher. Now they don’t know how they’ll be able to pay for their son to get any sort of education because they’ll have to pay out of pocket.”
“My neighbor took in foster kids who couldn’t stay with their parents full-time. They voted for Trump. Guess who isn’t getting a tax break for doing that anymore? My neighbors’ biological kids are devastated because they considered the foster kids to be like their brother and sister, and now they’re gone and likely in a worse spot.”
“I seriously could go on and on about stories like these that I know, but what’s the point? If you’re too dumb to vote against your own interests, then I’m not sure how to help you.” – bardeg
Others empathized with the OP and understood why he didn’t want to speak to his parents.
“Here lies the problem. Lots of people on that side are claiming they want to come together because they are losing friends and people they allegedly care about. But they have this sentiment still where they don’t see or acknowledge the harm that their vote and their president cause.”
“They refuse to blame him for anything after years of blaming Obama or Biden or Clinton or Harris for everything. They want to return to how things were without having to say, ‘Hey, my bad. I was wrong and I f**ked up.’”
“Honestly, this must be the first time that their feet are being held to the fire this way.” – TheListlessPancake
“Let them know their long-term care options have been significantly downgraded.” – matunos
“I mean, they voted for Trump. They’ll probably just tell OP to pull himself up by his bootstraps and make sacrifices for family. Think about all the things they’ve done for him, he owes them, etc.”
“I’d keep them out of my life if it were me.” – Svihelen
“NTA. It isn’t like this is a surprise result from this administration. They knew what they voted for.” – The_Bad_Agent
“NTA. Had. Similar conversation with my Trumpy parents: My husband, working in healthcare tech affected by the ACA, lost his job, my company (along with a crap ton of other SaaS companies) is struggling with market uncertainty. They are concerned but don’t seem to understand the effect this regime is having on business.” – MissMallory25
The subReddit understood what the OP was going through and the pains he was experiencing of watching his business fall apart in front of him. At the same time, people who were supposed to love him directly did something that contributed to that downfall.
Though there’s still time for people to learn from their political actions, that does not necessarily mean that all of the consequences, like businesses closing, can be resolved, or that these relationships will be able to bounce back.
