DONALD TRUMP FINALLY MADE AMERICATHE JAMAICA BUNNY WAILER SANG ABOUT

A Reading of “Boderation” by Bunny Wailer

Back in the 1980s, Bunny Wailer looked at Jamaica and saw trouble. Boderation-type trouble. Botheration on steroids. The kind where you wake up, and the landlord is at the door, the lights are cut, the dollar is funny, and someone is trying to sell you a “conman, gun man, hang man” special.

Verse 1: Workhouse, Arms House, Madhouse

“Workhouse, arms house, madhouse / Away we do you”

Translation: We will put you in the workhouse, the poorhouse, or the nuthouse. That is what is waiting.

Now look at Trump’s America. We would have a workhouse if his tariffs had not stunted job growth. Instead, we have a gig economy where your “job” can vanish because an algorithm sneezed. We have an arms house in every classroom. And madhouse? We have a president who spent his first hundred days pardoning January 6th rioters, threatening to annex Greenland and Canada, and turning the White House lawn into a used-car lot. Madhouse is an understatement.

“Mismanagement, unemployment, imprisonment / Away we do you”

Under Trump: mismanagement of the economy, foreign relations with allies, the Constitution, and even basic presidential decorum. Unemployment? Never mind the numbers — tell me how you feel about the job you have, or, for the many being laid off every day, the job you used to have. Many are stuck working three gigs with no benefits.

And imprisonment? He is jailing children in immigration detention camps. Not “detention centers.” Not “facilities.” Camps. With chain-link cages, foil blankets, and no soap. Children sleeping on concrete. Children dying from neglect. And when journalists try to report it, they get arrested or banned. Bunny said imprisonment. He did not say it would be children. But here we are.

“Tenant yard, rent card, landlord / Away we do you”

In Trump’s America, rents have gone berserk. A one-bedroom in Ohio costs what a mortgage cost five years ago. Eviction courts are running night shifts. Landlords are raising rents by 20 percent just because they can. Bunny was singing about Kingston tenements. Trump turned it into Austin, Nashville, and Boise.

“What a boderation / Down inna Jamdown, yo / It’s all over creation / Not only inna Jamdown”

Bunny was trying to be hopeful. “Hey,” he said, “it is not just Jamaica. It is everywhere.” Under Trump, America has become Jamaica circa 1982 — but with worse internet. Inflation is still chewing through paychecks. Grocery prices have people stealing canned beans. And “only inflation” would now sound like a lottery win.

But Trump did not stop at making America a suffering island. He took Bunny’s “all over creation” as a challenge. He has helped destroy the world economy — first with reckless trade wars: tariffs on China, Europe, Canada, and everybody. Supply chains snapped like rubber bands. Farmers lost their markets. Factories shut down. And for what? A trade war that won nothing but higher prices at every register.

Then came the war. Trump’s reckless brinkmanship in the Middle East led to a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow passage through which twenty percent of the world’s oil flows. Oil prices went through the roof. Shipping insurance tripled. Grain ships from the Black Sea could not get through. Fertilizer prices spiked. Then food prices spiked. Then riots spiked. From Lagos to London, people took to the streets. And Trump sat in Mar-a-Lago, posting about gold sneakers.

Verse 2: Homicide, Suicide, Genocide

“Homicide, suicide, genocide / Away we do you”

Trump’s America has mass shootings becoming weekly weather reports. Suicide rates among young people are climbing as hope flatlines. And genocide? He is separating families and locking toddlers in detention camps while talking about “flooding” Gaza and “clearing out” immigrant neighborhoods. The word is not too strong. Bunny did not flinch. Neither should we.

He is also enabling the genocide in Gaza — even floating the idea of removing Palestinians entirely to build a resort.

Verse 3: Promises, Apologies, Diseases

“Promises, apologies, diseases / Away we do you”

Trump promised to lower grocery prices on day one. Prices went up. He promised to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours. Instead, he started a new conflict. Apologies? He has never apologized for anything — not even the time he suggested shooting migrants in the legs. Diseases? Bird flu is spreading, public health funding is being gutted, and the new slogan seems to be “let it rip.”

Bunny said “power cut, water short, hungry gut.” Trump gave us rolling blackouts in California, lead pipes in Michigan, and school-lunch debt for millions of kids.

“Conman, gun man, hang man / Away we do you”

A real-estate conman turned president. A gun man at every mall, church, and school bus stop. And a hang man: the January 6th rioters are now being celebrated as “hostages” and “patriots.” The gallows never came down. They just got invited to the White House for photos.

Verse 4: Wrong Policy, Ideology, Criminology

“Wrong policy, ideology, criminology / Away we do you”

Tax cuts for billionaires? Wrong policy. “America First” isolationism? Ideology. Thirty-four felony convictions? That is the criminology part, baby. Bunny said it first.

Now here is what Bunny missed. He had workhouse, arms house, madhouse. He had courthouse, jailhouse, detention. But he never saw the bro house coming. And that is where Trump has delivered in droves. Elon Musk is effectively co-president, sleeping in the White House and firing entire agencies on a whim. Tech lords in hoodies are deciding your healthcare. Crypto kings are buying cabinet positions. Bunny’s workhouse has become a bro house. And somehow that is worse.

But here is the real difference. At least in 1980s Jamaica, folks did not have to choose between putting gas in the car to get to work and feeding their children. They were poor, yes. Desperate, yes. But the world economy had not been deliberately shattered by a tantrum-throwing president who choked off the Strait of Hormuz for sport. In Trump’s America, you stand at the pump with $10 in your pocket and a hungry kid in the back seat. Gas or groceries. Work or dinner. That is not poverty. That is a trap. And Trump set it.

The Verse Bunny Forgot

“Bro house, spray tan, crypto plan / Away we do you”

“Meme stock, Fox talk, empty sock / Away we do you”

“Yacht dock, think tank, whole damn bank / Away we do you”

“Child cage, hunger rage, empty page / Away we do you”

“Oil choke, trade yoke, world broke / Away we do you”

“Gas or bread, kid unfed, work or dead / Away we do you”

“What a boderation / Down inna Trump’s America, yo / It’s all over creation…”

Bunny meant that suffering was not just Jamaica’s problem. It was everywhere. But he never imagined that over forty years later, the richest country on earth would volunteer for the same misery — electing a conman who gave us empty wallets, broke pockets, wrong policy, a hungry gut, a bro house full of oligarchs, death camps for children, a global economic collapse, and the impossible choice between gasoline and groceries.

Donald Trump did not make America great again. He made America worse than 1980s Jamaica. Because in Jamaica, at least you only had to survive. In Trump’s America, you have to survive while billionaires laugh at you from space.

That is not a vacation. That is boderation with a side of oil blockade, a tariff on your washing machine, a cage for somebody’s baby, a recession on every continent, and a pump that dares you to feed your kids.

So next time you are standing at the gas station doing math on your phone, trying to figure out if you can afford both a half tank and a loaf of bread, just put on the song. Bunny tried to warn you. You thought he was singing about Kingston. You thought he was singing about the 1980s. You thought he was singing about somewhere else.

But Bunny was talking about you. And your America.