The Nevadan: Trump’s first 100 days in office have left these Nevadans ‘frightened’
- Apr 29
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 30
By Naoka Foreman
April 29, 2025
At a roundtable last week, public service workers pleaded for help from Nevada Democrats, stating that Trump’s economic agenda threatens social programs for disabled children, seniors, and military veterans.
During and after his victorious campaign for president last year, Donald Trump vowed to make America great again, boost the economy, and lower prices.
One hundred days into his second term, Nevadans are instead grappling with large price swings for groceries, dealing with the economic chaos of the president’s unpredictable tariff plan, coping with cuts to key federal programs and staff, navigating a worsening housing crisis, and preparing for the loss of major federal healthcare and childcare funding.
Trump’s top donor-turned-advisor Elon Musk might call the president’s first 100 days a revolution, but some everyday Nevadans use simpler words to describe the Trump administration’s agenda: frightening.
“I’ve never been so frightened by the people … running this country,” said local retiree Jack Levine at a roundtable in Las Vegas last week. “They’re running it into the ground.”
Levine is a retired public service worker and one of several speakers at the roundtable hosted by the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union.
Attendees pleaded for help in a conversation with Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, stating that Trump’s federal budget cuts threaten social programs for disabled children, seniors, and military veterans. The group, which included a parole and probation supervisor, a child developmental specialist, and a Marine Corps veteran who works as a caseworker for the Department of Welfare, cautioned that cuts would ripple through the Nevada workforce on top of devastating community safety nets.
“If they even think about cutting any type of funding in Nevada…it’s going to kill communities,” said Marine Corps veteran Olimpia Romero, a caseworker at the Department of Welfare and Supportive Services.
In late January, Trump reportedly pledged not to cut Medicaid, the health insurance program that roughly 800,000 Nevadans rely on, stating his policies will “love and cherish” the public health system.
“We’re not going to do anything with that, unless we can find some abuse or waste,” Trump said, according to Politico. “The people won’t be affected. It will only be more effective and better.”
But as Lee said at the panel, it’s all but impossible for Republicans to pay for their top legislative priority of the year, an extension of Trump’s 2017 corporate tax cuts, without cutting Medicaid, and top House Republicans are actively discussing ways to make cuts to the program.
Public service workers also remain unconvinced that Trump will protect Medicaid after thousands of layoffs at federal departments in recent months have led to stalled state processes.
“It’s going to be a trickle-down effect,” said Rosina Barrientos, developmental specialist at the Nevada Department of Aging and Disability. “If there’s no Medicaid, what will happen to our jobs?”
Lee warned that cuts to Medicaid would cause spiraling damage to people’s lives, particularly disabled children, the state’s health care workforce, and hospitals’ long-term stability, stating that reforms will exacerbate Nevada’s “severe doctor shortage.”
According to the Nevada Health Force Research Center at the University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada ranks 45th among US states for active physicians per 100,000 people, 48th for primary care physicians per 100,000 people, and 49th for general surgeons per 100,000 people.
“Make no mistake,” Lee said. “This [warning] isn’t just for the segment of our community that relies on Medicaid.”
Federal funding supports more than a quarter of Nevada’s state budget, making up almost 28%, or nearly $15 billion, of the $53 billion state budget.
A large portion of the state’s population depends on federal support. As proposed cuts loom, public service workers fear these changes could strain state resources and diminish Nevadans’ quality of life.
Barrientos said she is already seeing the effects of Trump’s economic agenda, and that for the first time, after eight years on the job, her department is accumulating a waitlist of hundreds of “medically fragile” applicants seeking services. She said the department usually has an idea about the budget and receives it by May 1, but new clients are in limbo this year due to uncertainty at the federal level.
In the past, once she filed applications on behalf of prospective clients, the US Department of Health and Human Services usually called those service seekers immediately. However, according to Barrientos, the federal government halted processing new requests late last year.
“Right now, we just put children on the waiting list,” she said in a follow-up interview. “We don’t know when it’s going to be actually released.”
Tariffs and deportations
Beyond decimating key programs that he vowed to protect, Trump has a mixed record on other campaign promises.
He said “reciprocal tariffs” would bring back US manufacturing, but local business owners have suffered the consequences of the trade war, with some shuttering their company doors.
Trump also said he would carry out the largest deportation operation in American history, a promise that he’s sought to live up to, but that’s led to a massive crackdown on free speech and due process just months after Musk financed a $1 million sweepstakes to sign a petition promoting First Amendment rights.
Under the administration, a college student, Mahmoud Khalil, was arrested without a warrant for protesting against the Israeli war on Palestinians. Trump’s administration has also terminated or sought to terminate the student visas of thousands of others, and even arrested one solely for writing an op-ed. The administration also recently deported three children who were US citizens, including one reportedly suffering from stage 4 cancer.
White House officials have also not corrected the mistake of deporting legal US resident Kilmar Ábrego García from Maryland to the infamous Center for Terrorism Confinement, a mega-prison, in El Salvador. This case and others like it stoked fear in local immigrant communities as they prepared for an influx of 100 ICE agents in Nevada during Easter weekend.
The increased presence of ICE officials led to more than a dozen arrests in the Las Vegas valley at homes, along roads, at a park, and even at businesses, including the Indoor Swapmeet at Eastern and Owens Avenues, according to the Nevada Immigration Coalition.
Trump appoints and pardons loyalists while cracking down on DEI
Trump’s promises didn’t end on the economy or immigration.
He also pledged to uphold the rule of law, end racial discrimination in the federal government, and defund schools that support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. He kept the last promise by targeting universities like UNLV, but has subverted the others to appease his MAGA base.
One example: he pardoned Trump loyalist and former Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore of wire fraud after she raised money under the pretense of honoring a slain police officer, only to spend it on cosmetic surgery and rent. Among those she defrauded is the Trump-backed Republican Governor Joe Lombardo, the former Clark County Sheriff. Lombardo donated $5,000 to the fallen police officer’s memorial.
In a chilling act of right-wing extremism, Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi also appointed Sigal Chattah as interim U.S. Attorney General for Nevada. Chattah, a Trump loyalist and a failed Republican candidate for state attorney general, drew outrage during her 2020 campaign when she wrote in a text message that Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford should be “hanging from a [expletive] crane,” or lynched. The statement was widely denounced as violent and racist.
Despite her comments, Chattah will now oversee all federal criminal prosecutions and civil litigation involving federal interests in Nevada and lead over 100 prosecutors and support professionals in Las Vegas and Reno. The decision to nominate Chattah also comes as Trump’s Department of Justice effectively abandons any efforts to enforce civil rights law or investigate anti-Black racial discrimination, and is instead seeking to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Trump’s so-called anti-woke agenda, which has led to the erasure of Black artifacts from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and has led to the Pentagon removing and then restoring highlights of sports legend and military veteran Jackie Robinson, also threatens to strip funding from colleges if DEI programs do not cease. As a result, UNLV is one of 50 universities under investigation by the US Department of Justice. A judge has thus far blocked Trump’s efforts to bully the university into compliance.
Collectively, Trump’s actions and policies over his first 100 days have proven unpopular as people witness the administration’s attacks on the economy, immigrants, the rule of law, and civil rights.
A recent poll shows Trump’s approval rating at the 100-day mark slipping to 40%, down from 47% in February. According to data from the Pew Research Center, Trump is losing Americans’ confidence in handling key issues such as immigration policy, trade agreements, tax policy, and the economy.
“We’re not seeing anything that is great,” Lee said about Trump’s economic policy. “It’s a very scary time.”
Naoka Foreman is a thoughtful and colorful storyteller who’s blazed a trail that few can claim in Nevada. Her non-traditional journalistic journey started when she founded News, From The Margin in 2019, which specializes in community journalism to address critical news gaps in Las Vegas. Naoka has an M.A. in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While employed at the Indy, she spearheaded a timely community news event which sparked collaboration with Vegas PBS. She also earned several awards her first year full time reporting.
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