Americans living in Trump country are furious about his luxurious lifestyle as they sell their own blood, hunt for free toilet paper, and try not to break down in tears, according to a New York Times report.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof spoke with multiple red-state Americans who say they have pennies in the bank and struggle to buy basic necessities.
"You do not know what you're doing to people who are struggling to live," Oklahoman Trinity Goodman said in comments directed at Trump. "You got money in the bank. You don't know how it feels to struggle. Live in my shoes for one day. You wouldn't be able to handle it."
Goodman told Kristof that she had less than $4 in her checking account and a cent in her savings account to keep it open, calling it her full assets. She said that her food stamps can't go toward buying toilet paper or feminine hygiene products.
She survives by selling her blood plasma twice a week, she said.
"I've never been to a barber or any of those places," Goodman said. "Never. I don't have that luxury."
Kristof noted Trump's cuts to benefits, including to Medicaid, food stamps, and early childhood education, adding the push to cut benefits for struggling Americans is "hard to square with the expense of the Iran war, as well as subsidies for private planes and tax cuts for the wealthiest."
The columnist said he was stunned by trip through America and the pressure caused by inflation and social benefit cuts.
"I talked to so many people who are losing food stamps and other benefits and increasingly desperate — and resentful, understandably, of elites who seem indifferent to their struggles," Kristoff said.
Latoya Foster, 31, a single mother raising six children in Arkansas, told Kristoff she was among those to lose food stamps before she broke down and wept.
“I hit rock bottom daily,” she told Kristoff. “The more I work, the harder stuff gets.”
Retired Army veteran Glayton Johnson went after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in his comments to Kristof, saying that the ousting of Black senior officers has ruined the military's reputation as a path of opportunity for people of color.
"The military is out," he said, saying it's no longer an option for Black Americans. "No, we're not going there."