Republican voters are starting to really feel the sting of betrayal that all the time accompanies supporting Donald Trump.
“If I had known that this was going to happen,” former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worker Graham Peters instructed Nice Lakes Now, “I wouldn’t have voted for him.” Peters is only one of thousands and thousands of federal employees affected by the in all probability unlawful, and positively harmful cuts being imposed by Elon Musk and his Division of Authorities Effectivity.
Whereas many conservative-voting Individuals are actually questioning what’s going to occur to the federal cash they had been having fun with, many are nonetheless beneath the delusion that range, fairness, and inclusion packages and initiatives solely have an effect on individuals who aren’t white.
The cruel actuality is that many Trump voters are unaware that the receipt-free spectacle of Musk and Trump’s dismantling of the federal government, and the give attention to bigoted anti-DEI propaganda, damage them immediately.
In Clarksburg, West Virginia, the place Trump acquired 70% of the votes, a lead-testing program began beneath the Biden administration by the environmental justice division of the Environmental Safety Company is already on Musk and Trump’s chopping block. This system helped elevate lead testing charges of native households from 8% to 41%. Elevated ranges of lead in youngsters can result in long-term well being issues and developmental delays. Clarksburg is 90% white, with a poverty fee of 23%.
In keeping with Time journal, a proposed enlargement of the profitable lead testing program into Ohio, one other Trump-won state, can be up within the air.
These aren’t the one packages beneath the Biden administration being swept beneath the DEI blanket of DOGE’s harmful austerity assault. Environmental justice packages that use federal funds to help lots of these rural voters whose assist Trump has loved discover themselves scrambling to determine what the long run holds.
As an example, there’s a sequence of initiatives that aren’t “race” targeted, beneath a Biden program known as Justice40. These initiatives advocated for a greater redistribution of federal funds to communities with bigger financial challenges. Grants awarded by way of Justice40 included serving to to repair important infrastructure in underserved areas—lots of which voted for Trump. It’s additionally a casualty of Trump’s government order pen.
“The idea was always that the money should go where it’s needed the most, and a lot of communities that will be hurt are rural, white communities that had also qualified for funding under the Justice40 parameters,” Holly Burke, communications director with Evergreen Motion, instructed The American Prospect. “It’s clear to me that Trump doesn’t understand that these programs also benefit a lot of people he considers his base.”
When requested by Time Journal concerning the quite a few Trump-voting communities negatively affected by Trump and Musk’s new insurance policies, just because their grant has the phrases “environmental” and “justice,” in it, White Home spokesperson Harrison Fields caught to well-worn speaking factors. He defined that “protecting the civil rights and expanding opportunities for all Americans is a key priority of the Trump Administration, which is why he took decisive actions to terminate unlawful DEI preferences.”
One of many elementary disconnects between Trump’s voters and the actions of Musk’s DOGE lies in a deeply misinformed understanding of what the federal government can and will do for its residents.
