Diversity

After Six Months of Trump 2.0, Residents Open Up About Impacts Where They Live

by Ari Pinkus and Dante Chinni July 28, 2025

Johnson County where I now reside is not an Aging Farmland county, but an Exurb populated to some degree by the sons and daughters of those Aging Farmlands. In this county on Saturday, I encountered groups of sign-wielding, smiling “protestors” at the county’s largest farmers market, upset about Trump’s immigration, tariff, and tax changes. Today I chatted with a neighbor proudly wearing her Trump T-shirt as she weeded the garden that sits next to the gates to her mansion (I kid you not!). She seemed most concerned with the families she sees who use government help to buy groceries. She’s worked for everything her whole life and thinks that freeloaders are ruining our country. She said she gets so upset by what she sees on the news about these people that she has to turn off the program.

Both counties are divided. I do not get the sense that many people have personally been affected by what has happened these last six months, but there is a feeling that we will soon be negatively affected: that prices will rise, that floods will occur and help won’t be available, or that the people we count on to provide crucial services won’t be available. The storm is there in the sky, building higher and darker.

Texas, including Dallas and Tarrant counties (Big Cities)

W. Stephen Love, President and CEO of Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, writes: Texas leads the nation in medically uninsured, and some estimates are that an additional 430,000 individuals will lose Medicaid coverage by 2034. In 2023, Dallas County’s Medicaid coverage was 14.8% and Tarrant County, containing Fort Worth, was 13.3% versus the 17% statewide average, according to Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. Modeling the new law’s impact will take a little more time as the state-directed payment determination plus the approximate two-year delayed implementation time frame for some of the bill’s components need to be determined by Health and Human Services.

A major concern not addressed in the new law: The enhanced premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act health plans expire at year’s end unless Congress renews them. Since Texas did not expand Medicaid, many Texans use these tax credits to assist in securing health coverage in the federal health marketplace. If these credits are not renewed and the enrollment process shortened, some estimate that approximately 1.5 million Texans could lose healthcare coverage, which would be quite serious for all providers. Congress must renew these enhanced premium tax credits to help individuals secure healthcare coverage.

The Texas Medicaid program generally covers low-income beneficiaries, including pregnant women, postpartum coverage, disabled individuals, children, and some seniors in long-term care. Therefore, work requirements might affect some, but most would have an exemption from that part of the law.

The new law does not postpone the reduction in Medicaid disproportionate reimbursement and most estimates reflect $778 million funding will be lost by Texas in 2026. The new law sets aside $50 billion for rural health transformation to be spread in increments of $10 billion over five years for the entire United States. The initial calculation will have 50% of the annual payments divided equally between the participating states. This disadvantages Texas, but hopefully the rural intensity will help Texas increase its share in the remaining portion.

Hennepin County, MN (Big City)

Edgar Oliveira writes: I finished school in May and have been working as a full-time therapist in a Minneapolis suburb. I work almost exclusively with Medicaid patients as a psychotherapist. Most of my patients live in poverty, face chronic hardship, and carry the weight of tragic lived experiences. For these individuals, Medicaid is not just insurance — it’s a lifeline. I’ve witnessed clients gradually heal, find employment, regain stability, grow, and change — often after many arduous hours of therapy made possible only through Medicaid support.

Lately, however, not a day goes by without someone asking how long they’ll still be covered. The anxiety is palpable. Patients wonder whether their services will be cut, or whether their diagnoses — autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder — might suddenly be excluded from coverage. There’s a wide range of opinions: Some colleagues reassure me that only “administrative costs” are being reduced, while others fear that essential services are next. I’m scrambling to understand the real implications of these changes, but I don’t yet feel confident that I do.

Personally, I’ve experienced a very nuanced shift in my sense of safety. Internally, I’ve moved toward a more careful, defensive posture. Painfully, I’ve begun to wonder whether some of the people closest to me are truly in agreement with my right to be here — I am a naturalized citizen.

What I hear in anti-immigrant sentiment is a simple, devastating message: Get out. The result of hearing this is shame. And shame often gives rise to defensive fantasies: fantasies of violence, of isolation, of cutting ourselves off before we can be cast out, or of finding an omnipotent protector. This, to me, is a deeply familiar psychological pattern. It’s what I see every day in my office — people who, from an early age, experienced being excluded, hated, or demonized by others. When fundamental needs for attachment go unmet, shame flourishes in silence, and we retreat or fight back in ways that feel self-protective — but ultimately deepen the wound. We are inseparable from our need for inclusion and connection.

Langlade County, WI (Rural Middle America)

Donna Kallner, a folk artist and writer, reports: In this part of rural northern Wisconsin, many of my neighbors have spent nearly a decade echoing and amplifying talking points on immigration, election security, abortion, transgender athletes, the price of gas, and keeping America out of foreign wars. I can’t say I think those positions have changed, but the volume seems somewhat lower.

And I am hearing concerns, particularly about how families who rely on Badgercare (Wisconsin’s name for Medicaid) will manage if they lose coverage. Framing those as cuts of “waste, fraud, and abuse” is deeply offensive to people who work hard to get by despite the challenges of physical or cognitive disabilities, chronic illness, or caregiving responsibilities.

Cuts to Medicaid assistance for long-term care will further challenge my community. There’s already a high volume of emergency medical service calls to older residents, including “lift assists” for which the service cannot bill insurance. More than a quarter of Langlade County is 65 or older. Without Medicaid assistance, many will have little choice but to age in place the best they can — using our limited ambulances and emergency medical personnel where skilled nursing care would be more appropriate and probably more cost effective.

I will just add one thought about tariffs: It seems like many people (including us) bought vehicles and major appliances ahead of tariffs, skewing perceptions of consumer confidence. I can’t say I see a lot of confidence. But there wasn’t a lot of confidence before, either. People who were struggling are still struggling, and it sure doesn’t feel like there’s an end in sight. But there’s always someone to blame and a lot of people making money in the outrage economy. I don’t know what it will take to get people to look away from the distraction peddlers.

In the meantime, our problems metastasize, becoming even harder to address. It feels like we have learned nothing from history.

Ingham County, MI (College Town)

Dante Chinni writes: Ingham County has several identities. It is home to Michigan’s state capital. It’s a mid-sized manufacturing hub. But its strongest identity is being home to Michigan State University and its 52,000 students in East Lansing. And as a “college town,” it is facing uncertain times.

The American Communities Project visited East Lansing in April to ask students how they felt about their futures and the future of the country. The comments we heard were disheartening. Many students told us they had received emails about cuts to grants that meant they would no longer have summer research work — in everything from cancer research to art history. And the cuts hit in unexpected ways. Fulbright scholars were left uncertain month-to-month about whether they would receive the stipends that they needed to live their lives. (Thankfully those payments ultimately came through.)

But since then, the challenges have continued and deepened. The university has seen more than $80 million in cuts in federal grants. Those grants helped fund research in a broad range of areas that will now not be done or will be scaled back dramatically. Those cuts are just part of a bigger challenge the school is facing as inflation has run up the costs of daily operations, and Republicans in the statehouse have proposed cutting state higher education funding even more. As a result, the school is now looking at 6% budget cuts this fiscal year and another 3% the following year.

And, of course, as a College Town and home to the state government, Ingham is the kind of community where there is a deeper dismay about the current administration. Democrat Kamala Harris carried Ingham by about 30 percentage points in the 2024 presidential race. And in July someone painted “The Rock,” a massive, free-speech boulder in the middle of campus, with a simple two-word message: Dump Trump.

Anson County, NC (African American South)

Alban Burney writes: There is an interesting shift that is occurring in the Wadesboro community. Since our last conversation, the town has hired an African American town manager, elected an African American mayor, and brought back a retired African American police chief who replaced a Caucasian police chief who resigned from the job. It is also worthy to mention that the Mayor Pro Tem is also African American. Therefore, the town leadership has become more diverse.

However, with that diversity comes its own set of challenges. It is my sense in reading some social media posts of Caucasian residents of Wadesboro that they are not happy with this shift in the diversity of town leadership.

With all this being said, we are seeing people siloing overall than coming together. Therefore, there is more silence than anything. We have not seen immigration raids in the community. The closest we have seen raids is in Kings Mountain, N.C. Tariffs have had an impact as giving at the church continues to be down as people are saving their money to buy grocery and pay for medicine.

Finally, I think there is a sense of both hope and fear that is prevalent.

Virginia Beach City, VA (Military Post)

Brittany Horn, Director of Joint-Use Library at Tidewater Community College, writes: The community, which is deeply tied to the military, has missed out on the some of the biggest challenges, but many concerns remain. The impacts of the Trump administration are not as heavily felt as in other communities, but the things my family, friends, colleagues, and I are most concerned about include the following:

• Loss of federal funding for healthcare, education, art, science, and social programs (SNAP, Medicaid/Medicare, Veterans Affairs, FEMA, Federal Student Aid, and so much more)
• Increased discrimination against minorities, LGBTQIA+, non-Christians, women, and people with disabilities
• Changes to standards and accreditation for education from K12 through higher ed and healthcare (including vaccines)
• Impacts on federal workers, including military and contracted personnel working on any of the bases in Hampton Roads
• Militarization of police, including ICE sweeps and lack of due process
• Decreased action to prevent climate change resulting in catastrophic weather events (Hampton Roads is subject to hurricanes every year)
• Erosion of separation of powers and oversight capabilities of the three branches of government
• Increased sense of danger of living in an area with so much military activity, potentially being targeted by an enemy

Although I am not personally connected to anyone in the military, the Hampton Roads economy heavily relies on the bases, the military members and families who make up a significant amount of the population, and the businesses that provide support for the bases and people. The “Big, Beautiful Bill” has plenty of funding for the military-industrial complex, so this region may see some benefits, but as someone who cares more about people than bombs and submarines, I ask, “At what cost?”

For all the damage that has been done by this administration, what compounds the feelings of fear, anxiety, and anger for those of us on the left is the chaos and uncertainty of what is around the corner. There’s always a new group of people to be targeted, societal norm to be flipped, foreign leader to offend, and misinformation campaign to fight against.