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“The more the middle class thrives, the better the economy is for everyone, even rich people like me.” Nick Hanauer, a wealthy venture capitalist

This article tells stories – some real and some just realistic – that illustrate how the current administration’s actions will hurt people, our communities and the economy.

Tariffs hurt farmers: John has been a Wisconsin farmer for 25 years. He has firsthand experience with the harm Trump’s tariff wars with China can inflict on farmers. 
In 2018, when Trump imposed high tariffs on Chinese-made imports, China responded by imposing a 25% tariff on some U.S. products and canceling all importation of soybeans. China was the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans. 

Farmers were stuck with a surplus of soybeans. John lost 60% of his normal income from soybeans. Luckily this was not his only crop so he did survive. But it hurt.

Wounded Knee Education: Maryanne is a native American who hoped to become a research biologist. But she may not have the money to finish college. The USDA-funded scholarship she, and 20 other students, needed to attend their tribal college was abruptly canceled by Trump’s illegal budget cutting.
In the 1970s, Congress committed to funding a higher education system for Indigenous communities. A 1994 law, the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act, designated the tribal colleges as land-grant institutions and provided funding for the current 37 tribal colleges. Trump’s dictatorial actions are attempting to override these needed programs approved and funded by Congress.

Working til you drop: Susan is a 65-year-old, single woman. She has worked most of her life in the banking and home loan industry. This was decent work but not the best pay for college-educated professionals. 

The big problem was accumulating enough to retire. She only had 401k accounts, which lost value with every stock market crash. Even with company matching, it was hard to save enough. So Social Security is going to be her primary retirement income and she needs to work to age 70 to get the maximum benefit. 

Two years ago she got a new job with the city. For the first time in her life she would have a guaranteed pension. But she would have to work five years to get this benefit. She plans to work til 70 anyway so this will work if she can keep the job with the city. She liked the job and they liked her, so things looked good. 

Until Trump got elected:Trump is attacking Social Security and cutting federal funding for cities. Her job with the city partially depends on federal funding. She may never be able to fully retire.

Thanking veterans for their service: Carlos is a combat veteran with a 50% disability from his multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite having PTSD and one prosthetic leg, he has a good job with the U.S. Forest Service and is able to support his family. He loves working to conserve our national forests. Carlos is one example of the 30% of the federal workforce who are veterans.

Now his job has been cut because of Elon Musk and the fake “Department of Government Efficiency” that has not be authorized by Congress.

There but for fortune go you and I. Jennifer is 44 and worked as a waitress since she got married after high school. Her husband Earle always worked but never at any good-paying jobs. Neither had the interest, money or ability for any higher education or training. But they got by, raised two kids, went to church and paid their taxes.

A year ago they were broadsided by a drunken driver who ran a stop light. Earle had minor injuries but Jennifer’s back was messed up badly. She can’t waitress anymore. She has a lot of pain and has trouble doing anything.

From 2010 to 2021, the Social Security Administration had a 15 percent reduction in staff despite increases in applications for benefits. This caused backlogs for disability claims. An internal report in 2023 found an estimated 30,000 people died while waiting for a disability determination. 

Last year Biden requested a $15.4 billion budget increase but Republicans apposed the increase. Now Trump has ordered “significant reductions” in staff and dozens of  office closings.
Jennifer applied for Social Security disability eight months ago. She is still waiting for a decision.

A sunny dream: Harry had always dreamed of starting his own business. He was a computer nerd in high school and went into the electrician apprenticeship program at the local tech college. There he learned about the emerging solar energy industry. He worked for several solar installation companies before he moved home to northern Minnesota to started his own business.

It was tough going initially, but solar energy was catching on even in the Northland. Solar works, reduces energy bills, makes sense for the environment and is becoming more cost effective. The federal tax credits made solar affordable for many middle class families. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act had a 30% credit good til 2035. Harry’s small residential installation business was booming. Until...

on January 20, 2025, Trump issued an executive order that, among other things, paused all funding for the “Green New Deal” and “clean energy initiatives.” This executive order didn’t repeal the solar tax credits but it did create a lot of confusion. Legally Trump could not alter the statutory solar tax credits, but many people didn’t know that.

The result for Harry’s business has seen a significant drop in new installations. 

Up the creek: Marvin is 53 and has worked at a chicken processing plant in rural Arkansas for more than 20 years. He was foreman and supervised a crew of mostly Hispanic immigrants. After ICE raided the plant and arrested 60% of the workers, the plant had to close.

This part of Arkansas has a small population. Plus the plant was a hard, cold, dangerous place to work. The company couldn’t find legal replacement workers so they closed the plant.
Melvin doesn’t know what he will do when the unemployment runs out. But he isn’t going to vote for Trump again (of course, that realization is far too late).

Trickle-down Trump style: Sharon and her husband Bob own a small resort and a restaurant on a popular lake. It is a good location just outside a small town and a national forest. The town is a county seat, has a high school and a forest service visitor center. The tourist business was good but local customers made their business profitable. At least it used to be profitable before all the layoffs.

The Trump administration has drastically cut federal employment and support for state and county government programs. The forest visitor center closed. Eliminating the Department of Education hit the school district hard. The high school closed after a regional consolidation to cut costs. Many of the laid off teachers and staff moved to find other jobs. The county and town also lost jobs. 

The federal employment and funding cuts “trickled down.” Sharon and Bob’s resort closed and the restaurant is barely making it. They will have to sell and move to the city. But there are no buyers in sight.

A teacher is a terrible thing to waste: Maria is 27 and has been teaching first grade for four years. She loves the children and teaching. She loves the lifestyle in the suburbs and the conveniences of the metro area. Her husband has a decent job, they bought a house and life is good.

For years the school district has had budget problems. The 10% loss in federal funding is the last straw. For political reasons state aid isn’t going to increase and property tax payers voted down the local funding referendum. The school district has no choice but to lay off staff and teachers.

All the other school districts are in the same situation so finding another teaching job will be very difficult. There are lots of retail jobs. She will find something. But she loves the children and teaching. 

Swallowing the bitter medicine: Samantha is a family practice doctor. For seven years she has worked at a federally funded clinic in central Nebraska. The pay is low but she likes the work and the satisfaction of helping people who really need it. Most of the patients are poor people without insurance.

The clinic is primarily funded by fed-eral grants and income from Medicaid and Medicare patients. They have some private insurance patients but without federal dollars the clinic could not operate. The $880 billion in Medicaid cuts enacted by Trump and Congress will close the clinic.

She will find another job but will have to move to Lincoln or Omaha and work for a for-profit big box. She has been there before and hated the corporate rat race. 

Worst of all, she can’t stop thinking of the people left with no local health care. 

It’s not just poor people being hurt: Bill was an engineer with a knack for business. When he sold his specialty metal fabrication shop he realized a nice return on investment. He had always dabbled a little in the markets. Now he could do some serious investing as a second career.

Bill had done pretty well during Trump 1.0 and the Biden years. But Trump 2.0 has been a disaster. Within three months U.S. stocks lost $4 trillion in value. The S&P 500 went down more than 8% from a February all-time high. The Nasdaq lost 10% from a December 2024 peak (these are real numbers from real news reports).

The economic chaos, especially the on-and-off-again tariffs and the federal funding uncertainty, killed investor confidence. 

The trade wars with our four biggest trading partners (China, Canada, Mexico and the EU) killed exports, especially farm products, and created serious “supply chain” shortages. 
Then the snowball effect of federal employee layoffs moved to the private sector creating a major economic slump.

Despite his market savvy, Bill lost money on 50% of his portfolio. Trusting Republican billionaires to “manage” the economy hadn’t been a good investment strategy.

Breach of contract: Trump’ funding cuts to federal agencies and federal contractors are already impacting many private businesses. The federal government buys, or contracts for, a wide variety of goods and services. Federal purchases and contracts can be for hundreds of dollars for very small businesses or hundreds of billions of dollars for giant corporations.

There are an estimated 205,500 private companies with federal contracts. They employ around 7.5 million people. Other companies provide 3.7 million contract workers to do work in federal agencies. 
Since the 1980s these contract workers have been the largest (and most expensive) portion of the federal workforce. Business news reports say these companies are already starting to layoff employees.

The government abruptly canceling contacts, or not paying for goods and services already provided, is not a good way to conduct public business. It is already getting the government sued. Trump’s spending cuts are becoming job security for high-priced lawyers. 

In addition, the cuts may cost the overall economy more than the money “saved.” All government spending buys stuff in the private economy. One person’s spending is another person’s income. So cutting federal jobs and contracts will have ripple effects on the larger economy. 

Because of what economists call the “multiplier effect,” the spending cuts may have a larger overall negative impact than the money saved. The result will likely be a serious economic downturn. 

What Trump and Musk call the “deep state” is the government the rest of us (who weren’t born into great wealth) depend on for necessary goods and services. Government was not created to burden us with taxes, regulations, bureaucracy and nanny-state interference with our lives. 

Government was created to solve everyday problems and improve the lives of people. Ignoring these facts will result in a lot of painful, costly “collateral damage” to people and the economy.