Red states are facing setbacks from President Donald Trump’s agenda — but likely aren't going to speak out about it, according to Washington Post columnist Perry Bacon Jr.
He took a look at Kentucky, where Trump won 64% of the vote. Bacon noted Trump's actions have done the following: “Reduced funding to provide transportation and food for homeless students in Louisville, Temporary revocation of visas of international students at several Kentucky colleges, Dismissals (then rehires) of employees at Kentucky national parks, and much more.”
While a lot of Trump’s actions are targeted at blue states, the fallout for red states is real. But Bacon Jr. says the likelihood of speaking out about these actions is low because “in Kentucky, an individual or organization perceived as anti-Trump might not get much support from local politicians, business owners, or even their own customers, many of whom might have voted for the president.”
He later added, “Leaders and organizations here are less able to publicly defend themselves and criticize the administration when its actions are hurting them.”
A case in point was when Paul Hitchcock, the general manager of Morehead State Public Radio, penned a plea for public funding in the Lexington Herald Leader. His op-ed did not name the GOP or Trump.
More recently, the University of Kentucky’s president, Dr. Eli Capilouto, used the words “challenge,” “stress,” “scrutiny,” “headwinds,” and “turbulence” in a report to describe the past few months. He did not say who was causing the “turbulence.”
“The story of Trump and Kentucky is very distinct from, say, California or Massachusetts,” Bacon Jr. said. “The administration isn’t actively announcing its hostility to this state. There aren’t aggressive and continual Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids here, even in left-leaning cities such as Louisville and Lexington. Trump officials aren’t fixated on any Kentucky universities.”
Bacon Jr. believes “Budget cuts, funding pauses and other incremental Trump policy shifts are slowly accumulating into a powerful force eroding effective programs and causing deep anxiety in Kentucky and across the country.”
The columnist added, “Reporting this story was hard because many of the organizations I contacted aggressively downplayed the impact of potential funding cuts.”