Consider This from NPR - Trump's spending cuts are hitting communities of his supporters

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

President Trump's rapid-fire spending cuts have affected communities all over the country–including strongholds of his supporters. One of them is Rising Sun, Maryland. The town had won two FEMA grants designed to mitigate the effects of catastrophic flooding. And though the area voted overwhelmingly to support Trump's re-election, his administration has now cancelled the program that funded those grants. Across the state in the Trump-voting town of Emmitsburg, Maryland, a similar scenario is playing out. The town is home to the National Fire Academy–a sort of national war college for training firefighters in America. In March, the Trump administration abruptly cancelled classes at the academy. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports that locals are concerned about how that will affect the town's economy–and emergency preparedness across the country. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A quick note before we start today's show. You may have heard that President Trump has issued an executive order seeking to block all federal funding to NPR. This is the latest in a series of threats to media organizations across the country. Whatever changes this action brings, NPR's commitment to reporting the news without fear or favor will never change. Even as paywalls rise elsewhere, we offer this vital resource to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. This is a pivotal moment. It's

more important than ever that each supporter who can contribute comes together to pitch in. Please give as much as you are able. Support the news and programming you and millions of other people rely on by visiting donate.npr.org. And if you already support us by subscribing to NPR+, or by giving directly, thank you. Your support means so much to us now more than ever. You help make NPR shows freely available to everyone. We are proud to do this work for you and with you. Now, on to the episode. Calvin Bonenberger is the town administrator of Rising Sun, Maryland. He recently gave

NPR a tour of the Sun Valley Mobile Home Park. This is all low-income housing, and the flood level is up to the roofline of all of these properties. He was there with Rebecca Herscher, a correspondent with NPR's climate desk, and he was showing her the impact of floods that have hit this area again and again. In 2021, the flooding was so dangerous that people had to be rescued from their homes. We're talking about water that was about this high, like three feet. To help its flooding problems, Rising Sun applied for federal funding and won two grants

from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. One to help relocate the mobile home residents and turn the area into a park, and another to fix the town's wastewater treatment system, which overflows in heavy rain, sending contaminated water into nearby streams. Our sewer plant is going to continue to overflow, and there has to be money to resolve it. We don't have the money to resolve it.

That's what this money is for. This is a no-brainer. But now the money is gone. The Trump administration canceled the program that funded the grants. That's what this money is for. This is a no-brainer. But now the money is gone. The Trump administration canceled the program that funded the grants. That's frustrating for Bonenberger. This area voted overwhelmingly for President Trump. And Bonenberger said he supported efforts to cut waste in government spending.

He still does. But FEMA now calls these grants, quote, wasteful and ineffective. Bonnenberger disagrees with that characterization. Guys, this is dangerous. This is the whole reason why you put this funding out there. Consider this. Trump's rapid-fire spending cuts have affected communities all over the country, including strongholds of his supporters. We'll ask how they're balancing local disruptions against an agenda that they otherwise support.

From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Consider This from NPR. People who voted for President Trump are generally pretty happy with him. A recent NPR-PBS News Marist poll found that 91% of Trump voters approved of the job he's doing so far. That's true for retiree Susan Virginia. I'm glad that he's moving quickly to do things because his first administration, he didn't know who he could trust and who he couldn't trust.

She's registered unaffiliated, lives in Morrison, Colorado, in the foothills west of Denver. And she supports the approach Trump and Elon Musk have taken with the Department of Government Efficiency Initiative. If you were going to be bankrupt, you would do everything you could to cut the budget. We got to cut the budget. We got to stop paying for things that shouldn't be paid for. There's another interesting nugget from that poll. Nearly one in five Trump voters said

the president is rushing to make changes without considering their impact. And that brings us to a place that is feeling the impacts of Trump's changes acutely. A small town in Maryland called Emmitsburg, where the vote went for President Trump last year. It's home to the National Fire Academy, the facility for training firefighters in America. In March, the Trump administration abruptly canceled classes at the academy.

NPR's Frank Langford went there to find out how that's affected the town's economy and how people view the administration so far. I'm standing next to the lone traffic lights here downtown. The main street, it's lined with a lot of old red brick buildings. There are about 3,000 people here in Emmitsburg. And the first one that I went to see is the mayor. His name is Frank Davis, and he's also a captain at the local firehouse. And Davis, he spent many years in the federal government, and he says he saw a lot of waste,

and voted for Trump in hopes that he would root it out. Actually, I know I'm probably going to get shot for this, but he is doing what he said he was going to do. And I know that's not popular with a lot of people, but being in the government for all those years and seeing the waste, and he said he wanted to clean that up, that was very, very attractive to me.

But Davis was shaken when the administration targeted the fire academy. He used to work there and says, it's well- run and efficient. It's also a big part of Emmitsburg's identity. They need to get back up and get the students back here. There are plenty of rocks to look under, but the National Fire Academy is not one of them.

Davis says the government is reviewing the academy's operation, and he's hopeful classes will reopen soon, especially given the growth in Western wildfires and even nearby. Thirty miles to the west of us, we had a 1200-acre mountain fire, wildland fire, last week. That we've never had anything like that around here before of that magnitude. If these cuts are permanent, how will you feel about the administration going forward?

Yeah, it will change my outlook to say that they're not being fair. They're not taking a good hard look. They're just going in to cut and not caring what they cut. Dennis O'Neill served as superintendent of the Academy for two decades. He says the Academy trained 8,000 to 10,000 firefighters on campus each year. O'Neill calls it the National War College for Firefighters. The National Fire Academy takes men and women out of their comfort zones, and they expose them to real serious tragedies, and forces them to work through what kind of decisions

they're going to make, what kind of assistance they need, where do they get the assistance. If the courses aren't restored, O'Neill says the country will pay. We're on a very long, slow path to self-destruction. Every day that this training is unavailable to the locals is one day closer to a disaster they can't handle or won't know how to handle. The Federal Emergency Management Agency oversees the Academy, which pays for firefighters to come to Emmitsburg. In a statement, FEMA suggested it had canceled training because of the travel cost.

Quote, the bottom line is we are no longer paying for non-employed travel. We're only authorizing travel for mission-critical programs. This isn't one. Some of these classes are still available online. My name's John Beck. I'm the Fire Chief of the Waynesboro Volunteer Fire Department. Waynesboro is just north of Emmitsburg in Pennsylvania. Beck works there as a fire chief for free.

He'd applied for a weekend leadership and development course at the Academy this summer. Now he's disappointed. So it was pretty exciting to find these classes that you just can't find anywhere else. Like Mayor Davis, Beck voted for Trump. I think smaller government, to me, was maybe less wasteful spending. But I don't see wasteful spending as training first responders. We're only 100 plus days in and I wish things were going differently. But it doesn't sound like you regret your vote.

You know, I'm not 100% there yet, but I am. It may not take much more. Back in Emmitsburg, the dinner crowd is arriving at Ott House. The family-run pub is the watering hole for firefighters in town to train at the Academy. Thousands of their fire department patches blanket the walls. One of the managers, Lori Har Harley, reads a few of them. Taiwan City Government Fire Bureau. Seminole County. This is Bath Ironworks from Maine.

Firefighters make up more than 30 percent of the pub's business. Co-owner Susan Glass is worried about the long-term impact. We expect a big drop. I've already told a lot of our employees that, you know, it's a possibility they won't have a job for the summer, but we're hoping things open back up. Glass also voted for Trump, but thinks he's moving too fast. I agree a lot of things that they're doing,

but sometimes I disagree on how they're doing them. Give me an example. Maybe not all at once, spread it out a little bit. I don't know, it just seems like it's just one hammer after another. Some members of Maryland's congressional delegation have pressed the Trump administration for answers and say they've heard nothing back.

Here's US Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat. There's no good explanation for this because this is a cost effective program that protects the public across America. Van Hollen calls the cancellation of classes, quote, extremely short sighted and dangerous. NPR's Frank Langford in Emmitsburg, Maryland. You also heard reporting on Trump voters from Ben to Berkland with Colorado Public Radio in Denver.

This episode was produced by Connor Donovan and Brianna Scott with audio engineering by Zoe Vangenhoven. It was edited by Catherine Laidlaw and Christopher Intagliata. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.