Imagine having five minutes at Mount Rushmore to tell Trump how he’s affecting South Dakota

Thank you, Mr. President, for taking the time to see me. The first thing I want to bring up is the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Currently you’re sitting on that bipartisan piece of legislation, refusing to sign it until Congress presents you with the SAVE America Act. You have described the housing act as “minor,” but that’s not the case for South Dakota.

As someone who made his fortune in real estate, you know how important it is for people to have a decent, affordable place to live. Right now, people in South Dakota and across the country are being priced out of their ability to own their own homes.

The housing act that you refuse to sign includes many provisions that would work well in South Dakota. It removes regulatory barriers affecting the cost of housing, expands federal housing grants, increases the availability of small mortgages and removes burdensome rules on manufactured housing.

Trump spikes housing bill at last minute, refusing to sign until SAVE America Act passes

Our colleagues over at South Dakota News Watch have gone on a quest to report on this state’s housing crisis. Many of the stories deal with small, rural communities that have developed innovative ways of making affordable housing more available. For every one of them that embraces innovation, there are other communities that suffer from a shortage of funding and ideas. It has always been tough for rural communities in South Dakota to attract new business and industry. It’s impossible to make that happen if there is no place for the workers to live.

Before you ever blocked the housing act, those communities that are lucky enough or skilled enough to provide a plan for more housing were running up against your tariff policy. Your tariff policy has caused supply chain problems throughout the housing industry.

You’re holding up the housing act as a way to get Congress to produce the SAVE America Act. Here in South Dakota, we don’t see the need. Most of the provisions in that act are already in place here. We require photo IDs at polling places and, as you’ll find in most states, noncitizen voting in South Dakota is rare.

In some rural areas there are long distances between where people live and where they can vote. While the act seeks to make voting safer, in the case of your proposed ban on mail-in ballots, in many cases it will make voting less likely to happen.

If you want to see how elections should be run, take a look at the race for mayor of Sioux Falls. More than 36,000 votes were cast with the two candidates separated by two votes. Two votes. Yet no one is yelling about a “rigged” or “fixed” election. The county auditor has been transparent about the recount process and both sides are well informed. This process doesn’t need saving.

Preparations for Trump and Mount Rushmore fireworks include First Amendment area for protesters

In addition to the SAVE America Act, you’re seeking add-ons for a ban on transgender women in sports and a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. South Dakota already has those. Right or wrong, our leaders here have had more success as culture warriors than you have. After following through on your vision, they’re seeing actions taken by you that make housing markets suffer and threaten voting measures.

As time is running short, let me say that as you flew over South Dakota on your way to the Black Hills, I hope you had a chance to look out the window. Every parcel of open land that you saw is a battlefield in the war with Iran.

All citizens, in one way or another, are feeling the effects of the war. Farmers, however, are suffering more than most. They suffer more at the gas pump as few small businesses have as much equipment to run as a family farmer. High petroleum prices have also jacked up the price of fertilizer. This has caused some farmers to change to crops that don’t require as much fertilizer, putting their future earnings at the whims of markets that they may not fully understand.

The $12 billion in bridge payments for farmers that you approved in December of last year, as an appeasement for roiling the markets with tariffs, won’t begin to offer relief to farmers whose expenses and markets are caught up in the war with Iran. If there are billions of dollars available to appease a terror regime in Iran, certainly there must be billions of dollars to ease the financial burdens caused by the war for those American citizens who are trying to feed the world.

Thanks for your time. Enjoy the fireworks. By the way, despite what you may have heard, there’s no more room left on Mount Rushmore. It reached capacity at four presidents. You’ll have to find another way of honoring yourself.