A woman who voted for President Donald Trump in 2016 tells the New York Times that she has no regrets about voting for him even though she is fighting his administration's efforts to roll back regulations on a chemical that likely gave her stepson leukemia.
As the Times reports, residents in Johnson County, Indiana have been battling the Trump Environmental Protection Agency's recent decision to deregulate the use of TCE, a chemical that for years was used at a local industrial site that is being blamed for a major outbreak of cancer in the county's children.
"On Wednesday, a group representing dozens of concerned parents called for a federal investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General... into why Franklin’s toxic plume of trichloroethylene, or TCE, persists," the Times reports. "The group accuses the EPA of 'serious mismanagement' and 'significant delays' at the site, even after the dangers became apparent this summer."
One of the women who is leading the charge against the Trump EPA is Stacie Davidson, whose stepson contracted a rare form of leukemia in 2014 when he was just 10 years old. Even though her stepson has so far survived the disease and is now in remission, she says she's appalled that Trump officials are still going through with deregulating the chemical.
"His loosening of EPA regulations, it’s infuriating," she said.
Nonetheless, she tells the Times that this issue won't be a deal breaker when it comes to supporting Trump.
"Trump’s a businessman," she said. "There are great things he can do for our country. But he’s used to building high rises for money. He’s not as environmentally savvy. Our hope is that he surrounds himself with people who are more knowledgeable."
