Tag: trump voters
West Virginia Worships Trump -- And He's Screwing Its Voters Hard

West Virginia Worships Trump -- And He's Screwing Its Voters Hard

West Virginia is one of the Trumpiest states in the country, with President Donald Trump winning the state by a whopping 42 percentage points in the 2024 election. So you’d think—having delivered for Trump so big—that they’d be winning all sorts of victories.

And yet …

According to the Des Moines Register, Trump’s plan to revive shipbuilding in the United States by charging massive fees for China-linked ship visits to U.S. ports is causing coal inventory to swell, stoking uncertainty in the already embattled agriculture industry as exporters struggle to find ships to send goods abroad.

As a result, West Virginia coal mines are preparing to lay off miners as unsold coal piles up.

But, but, but … Trump loves coal miners!

“After years of being held captive by Environmental Extremists, Lunatics, Radicals, and Thugs, allowing other Countries, in particular China, to gain tremendous Economic advantage over us by opening up hundreds of all Coal Fire Power Plants, I am authorizing my Administration to immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL,” he posted on Truth Social just earlier this week.

Despite what Trump says, coal is a dead industry, and he’s doing his part to drive the final nail in its coffin.

“Enacting and implementing those fees could halt exports of U.S. coal within 60 days, putting $130 billion worth of shipments at risk,” Ernie Thrasher, CEO and founder of Xcoal Energy & Resources, wrote in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “The fee structure could add up to 35% to the delivered cost of U.S. coal, making it uncompetitive on the global market. The loss of direct and indirect jobs would be catastrophic.”

Lutnick never responded.

There are fewer than 12,000 coal miners left in West Virginia, so … that sucks for them! But all of those newly unemployed miners can console themselves knowing that trans athletes are being punished.

So what about the state’s other industries—and its children?

As NBC reports:

Jennifer Gilkerson never imagined that her West Virginia farm’s freeze-dried fruits would get caught up in political fights in Washington, D.C. But last Friday, she learned that funding for a U.S. Agriculture Department program that helps schools and food banks buy products from local farmers like her had been cut. Without those federal dollars, Gilkerson no longer expects local schools to be able to buy her freeze-dried fruits, which she has already spent thousands of dollars preparing to produce.

“We’re just in such a state of shock. We just don’t really even know how to respond to all this. We thought that this was sacred and really untouchable,” Gilkerson said. “Everyone thinks all farmers voted for this, but we did not vote for this.”

The school and food bank program isn’t being cut because of “political fights” in Washington D.C. It’s literally central to the GOP agenda. A fight implies that the program got cut because of partisan warfare. This is a policy decision.

And yes, Jennifer, your state voted exactly for this—y’all just thought other people would suffer the brunt of it. But Project 2025 was very clear in its goal to slash all government spending—including the federal dollars that subsidize West Virginia.

“The overall goal should be to eliminate subsidy dependence,” Project 2025 says.

So yes, Jennifer. I don’t know who you voted for, but your fellow West Virginians overwhelmingly voted for this.

Common sense should dictate that if your state is the third most dependent on federal dollars you should maybe vote for the party that supports federal funding. I know, I know, trans this and trans that. But is destroying your entire economy worth the sacrifice for that bigotry?

“This is the economy of rural America. West Virginia is a wholly rural state, and so developing this agriculture economy in the state is extremely important. These farmers pay their property taxes, they’re business owners, a lot of times they’re commissioners or school board members. These are the drivers that keep rural communities alive. So it feels like a divestment in rural communities across the board,” Spencer Moss, executive director of the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition, told NBC.

It’s called the “Department of Government Efficiency,” and it turns out that subsidizing small, rural states is not efficient. Those farmers aren’t paying enough in property taxes to cover expenses, which is why urban and blue-state folks are subsidizing it. But we liberal voters were fine with paying those subsidies because we’re all American, and we’re all in this together!

But if West Virginians thought the federal safety net would have their backs, boy they’re in for some disappointment.

According toPolitico, the Agriculture Department has halted millions of dollars worth of deliveries to food bank leaders in six states, including West Virginia.

Chad Morrison, president of West Virginia’s Mountaineer Food Bank, said it’s “really challenging” to meet West Virginia’s needs.

“We can try to figure out how to make up the gaps, which is a hard lift, or ultimately there’s less food on the table,” he said.

States like West Virginia will be particularly hit by cuts to school lunches, food stamps, and other programs that deliver food to the hungry.

As for health care, West Virginia has 1.77 million residents, and more than 516,000 of them are on Medicaid, which also keeps the state’s rural hospitals afloat.

But hey, almost three-quarters of the state decided that wasn’t important enough to protect with their vote. And Trump certainly doesn’t care about leaving his supporters without health care.

Still, you’d think that the state’s overwhelming support for Trump would somehow translate into some tangible victories, but the news is grim. Trump is more interested in hawking expensive cars for his billionaire buddy Elon Musk, hyping crypto for his bros, fantasizing about ethnically cleaning Gaza, obsessing over Greenland, and golfing. Lots and lots of golfing.

As for his voters, they really shouldn’t be surprised. After all, he didsay, “I don’t care about you, I just want your vote. I don’t care.”

And he proves that every single day.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman Warns Trump Voters Are About To Get 'Brutally Scammed'

Although Paul Krugman retired from his New York Times column after almost 25 years, the liberal economist is still keeping busy and making media appearances — including an interview with The New Republic's Greg Sargent posted on January 14.

Trump aggressively campaigned on the economy last year. But Krugman, during an appearance on The New Republic's podcast, laid out a variety of reasons why he believes Trump voters will suffer economically after he returns to the White House.

Krugman told host Sargent, "A lot of people are going to get brutally scammed. Those are his most fervent supporters…. Probably the local business elites are the most fervent MAGA types out there — more so even than the working class, but that doesn't mean that Trump cares about their interests. Small businesspeople are the people that he's, all through his life, hired as contractors and then not (paid), right? Scamming people like that is what his whole life has been (about)."

Small businesses and consumers, the economist warned, will suffer the consequences if Trump follows through on the aggressive tariffs and mass deportations he is proposing.

"Trump has really radical policy ideas," Krugman told Sargent. "I obviously think they're terrible, but they are radical. He wants Smoot-Hawley-level tariffs. He wants mass deportations. He wants to take away the independence of the Federal Reserve. How do you justify all of that when we're pretty much a Goldilocks economy?"

Trump hammered President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris relentlessly over inflation during his 2024 campaign, but Krugman warned that the tariffs Trump is proposing will be quiet inflationary.

The economist told Sargent, "If we take the totality of stuff that Trump seems to want to do — he wants to raise tariffs but cut taxes on high incomes — it's basically working-class voters (who) are going to face higher prices and upper-income voters (who) are going to benefit from tax cuts. This really is very much contrary to their interests, then you add in all the other stuff. Even more than usual for a Republican, he appears to have an extremely regressive economic program in mind — one that really will effectively redistribute income away from working-class voters to the top."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

'Please Take Care Of Us': Low-Income Trump Voters Fear Budget Cuts

'Please Take Care Of Us': Low-Income Trump Voters Fear Budget Cuts

At his 2024 campaign rallies, Donald Trump repeatedly blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for inflation — which he promised to fix if he won the election. And that messaging proved effective: Trump, according to the Cook Political Report, won 312 electoral votes and defeated Democratic presidential nominee Harris by roughly 1.5 percent in the popular vote.

One of the swing states that Trump won was Pennsylvania, where he promised low-income voters that he would bring down inflation if he won.

According to Washington Post reporter Tim Craig, those voters will have a rude awakening if they experience benefit cuts during Trump's second administration.

In an article published the day after Christmas, Craig cites New Castle, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh, as a place where Trump performed well among low-income voters.

"Trump carried the Pennsylvania city of New Castle by about 400 votes, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win here in nearly 70 years," Craig explains. "More than 1 in 4 residents live in poverty, and the median income in this former steel and railroad hub ranks as one of the lowest in Pennsylvania. New Castle's poorest residents weren't alone in putting their faith in Trump. Network exit polls suggest he erased the advantage Democrats had with low-income voters across the country."

Craig adds, "Fifty percent of voters from families with an income of less than $50,000 a year cast their ballots for Trump, according to the data, compared with 48 percent for Vice President Kamala Harris."

But now, according to Craig, "low-income Americans who voted for Trump" are hoping he will "keep their benefits intact" even though other Republicans are urging the president-elect "to reduce federal spending."

In New Castle, Craig notes, "federal benefits"—including food stamps and Medicaid — "have helped keep residents afloat."

Lori Mosura, a struggling New Castle resident, 2024 Trump voter and single mother who receives food stamps, told the Post, "We helped get you in office; please take care of us. Please don't cut the things that help the most vulnerable."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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