Why At Their Core, Mahan And Trump Are The Same
- Andrew Bigelow
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
Editor's note: Writer Andrew Bigelow reflects on Donald Trump recently signing an executive order criminalizing houselessness shortly after local San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan passed a similar policy. Andrew reflects on the similarities and core beliefs of these two politicians.
About a month and a half separated Donald Trump from issuing an executive order that mimicked the “responsibility to shelter” policy of San Jose’s Mayor, Matt Mahan.
The parallels between the policies have been written about locally and can be seen with an objective eye. What is missing from the dialogue is the core value that Matt Mahan and Donald Trump share: scapegoating the most vulnerable.
As San Jose and the country at large grow tired of real issues like cost of living, inflation, housing market prices, lack of employment opportunities, foreign relations (like funding a genocide with our taxes), student debt -- people are looking for answers. Some think the answer is taxing billionaires or taking money out of politics. Others, like the Mayor and President, think it's arresting the poorest people they can find.
Mahan and Trump both possess the core belief that in order to rally support for their interests and political careers, they must find the most marginalized and vulnerable group within their reach and make them reason for the rest of society’s problems. Trump has numerous examples of this as he infamously targets immigrants, international students, transgender community and, his most recent, the houseless community among others. I am willing to bet that most Democrat-voting San Jose residents are appalled at Trump’s targeting of immigrants and others. They might even use the F-word (fascism) to describe it. But at home, San Jose’s liberal residents may be quick to agree with Mahan: houseless people are the problem with San Jose.
If Mahan or Trump actually wanted to end the suffering of houseless people, they would be investing in housing and social services -- but they aren’t interested in ending suffering. They are interested in making a spectacle of suffering.
To be houseless is to be living in extreme poverty, something that would invoke empathy out of most humans. In order to make them the scapegoat, we have to add layers to their suffering to convince ourselves that they deserve their suffering. For example, it's not the hard working person who is suffering from all the same financial desperation as the rest of us; instead, it’s the criminal who wants to be on the streets to harm people. It’s not the houseless veterans that our societal safety nets have failed, it’s the homeless who are all on drugs and have mental health issues. This perception of our impoverished brothers and sisters has to be crafted to strip their humanity and make them the sole reason for their own suffering -- and something others can rally behind.
Look, if Mahan or Trump actually wanted to end the suffering of houseless people, they would be investing in housing and social services -- but they aren’t interested in ending suffering. They are interested in making a spectacle of suffering. Matt Mahan has made houseless people his target in a political career that obviously has higher political aspirations than San Jose’s mayoral office. He has made numerous policies, held press conferences, posted videos of him going into the creek to pull the human waste out of our waterways. But does he really want to solve the cost-of-living crisis in San Jose? No. Mahan has literally taken money out of building affordable housing through the 2020 Real Estate Transfer Tax Measure E (approved by San Jose voters) and diverted it to pay for temporary shelters, creatively creating this false choice that we have to decide between temporary housing or permanent housing with scraps of the City’s budget. Meanwhile, Mahan continues to add to the over half billion police budget (over 50% of the general funds for the City) to do things like arrest houseless people through his "Responsibility to Shelter” policy that allows police to arrest and incarcerate houseless people if they refuse to go to a shelter.
Besides the other parallels between Mahan and Trump like both being private business execs, use of oversimplified catch phrases, and being decent at espousing their political beliefs on social media, what they truly share at their heart is a willingness to target marginalized communities for political power. So what does this mean? Why is this important?
California is showing this shift. And Mahan is the poster child for the new California era of politics -- a new tech conservatism dressed in blue.
As California slips back into the tough-on-crime era that irreversibly destroyed the lives of so many communities, primarily Black and brown, we are at yet another crossroads. With the passing of Prop 36 (increases charges for petty theft among others) and things like state wide rent control being voted down, California is showing this shift. And Mahan is the poster child for the new California era of politics -- a new tech conservatism dressed in blue. A disguise that our communities must not fall for and must reject both in the voting booth and in local policy.
This is my home. I love my city. More than Mahan does. And I often worry most about the heart of our city. Will the dystopian period we are living through make us callous to our neighbors most in need? It is easiest to say that we were always against something so awful after the fact. But in the moment, we continue to align our city with people and policies that history will not remember fondly.
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