Introduction by Croakey: With international relations in turmoil following the extraordinary behaviour of the United States President and Vice President during a meeting yesterday with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, how is the Trump Administration being perceived on the ground in the US?
Croakey’s roving correspondent, Dr Lesley Russell, shares some perspectives from her home in Colorado. Amongst other things, her reflections are a reminder of the importance of local media, and especially at times like these.
Lesley Russell writes:
If you are a regular reader of Croakey, then you will know that I am currently at our Colorado home. You will also know that I am (just a little) obsessed with US news and politics.
This is a tough scenario these days with the news dominated by Trump and his Administration. When I opened the online version of The Washington Post this morning, this is what confronted me; the first six stories are all about Trump.
Since this morning we have been shocked and horrified by the reports of the disastrous meeting between Trump, Vance and Zelenskyy and what this means for Ukraine and relations with Russia and Europe.
I thought it might be interesting to write about how this all looks from a Colorado perspective and specifically from Summit County, where our home is located (and which is our voting address in US elections).
In writing this, I am unable to report on a specific Colorado response to the upset in the efforts to reach a peace accord that does not abandon Ukraine – it’s just too early for reports to be out.
What I can report is that hundreds of people rallied outside the Colorado State Capitol in support of Ukraine on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion.
About Colorado and Summit County
Colorado is a “blue” (ie majority Democrat) state and has voted for the Democrat candidate in the last five presidential elections, including for Kamala Harris in 2024 (she won by an 11 percent margin). Summit County has not voted for the Republican presidential candidate since 1988.
At the federal level, Colorado is represented by two members of the US Senate, both Democrats and eight members of the House of Representatives (four are Democrats and four are Republicans). Since 2019, Summit County has been represented by Democrat Joe Neguse, a lawyer who is the son of Eritrean immigrants.
At the state level, the Democratic Party controls the offices of Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, and both chambers of the state legislature. The current Governor is Jared Polis, who is gay and Jewish. He was formerly the Member of Congress for our electoral district.
A recent poll, taken since Trump reassumed the presidency, found that 58 percent of Colorado voters said they’d have a hard time voting for Republicans candidates in the future, so it looks like the state will stay blue for a while.
Colorado has a population of about 5.8 million people with a median age of 37.3 years. About 21 percent of the population is Hispanic (higher than the national average of 18 percent). The permanent population of Summit County is small (31,000) but growing, and about 17 percent are Hispanic. There’s a significant number of people like us who don’t live here full-time but have a very real stake in the community.
Colorado’s income per capita is well above the national average, as is its expenditure on public assistance. However, there is considerable income disparity between the rural counties and urban counties. The provision of health, education, and other services is affected by the disparity, although the state government attempts to equalise services.
This is one of the healthiest states, second only to Hawaii, helped because some 90 percent of the population has health insurance. Thirty percent of Coloradans are currently covered by Medicaid (the health insurance program for the poor, jointly funded by the federal and state governments and expanded under Obamacare).
The obesity rate for adults is 25 percent, considerably below the national average of 42 percent. Both men and women live longer in Summit County than in any other county in the United States: 85.5 years for men and 88.0 years for women is the life expectancy at birth.
Over two-thirds of the state’s landmass is managed by federal agencies. Colorado communities are very reliant on these parks and forests for recreation and tourism. If they are not well-maintained, then there is increased risk of wildfires and avalanches.
People in Colorado are paying attention to these Trump initiatives
Proposed cuts to Medicaid and other health and social services
The House of Representatives has passed a bill that proposes to cut $880 billion from Medicaid to achieve savings to cover Trump’s promised tax cuts for the wealthy. Trump supports this bill, despite saying there would be no cuts to Medicaid.
Colorado health providers are fearful of devastating impacts from these potential cuts and others that would affect the Obamacare health insurance exchanges, community health centres and vital social programs like healthy school meals for kids and food stamps.
The cuts would undermine Colorado’s hard work to expand coverage, essentially ending Medicaid expansion and ripping coverage from 500,000 Coloradans.
Over 34 percent of children in the state are covered through Medicaid and 60 percent of people in aged care rely on Medicaid.
If Republicans do act to cut Medicaid, the two Colorado congressional districts that stand to lose the most are represented by Republicans but to date they have not opposed these cuts.
Mass layoffs for the federal civilian workforce
Colorado has some 57,000 federal employees and many of these are expected to be impacted by the layoffs, which are part of the Trump and DOGE approach to slashing and transforming the federal workforce.
The loss of workers that look after federal lands, forests and parks has been a particular concern in Summitt County (this is discussed in more detail below).
Immigration enforcement actions
This is an issue that is particularly painful and worrying for the Hispanic population.
On February 12, Denver Public schools sued the federal Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to overturn the Trump Administration’s rescission of a decades-old policy that forbids immigration enforcement at “sensitive locations” including schools, childcare centres, churches and hospitals.
The suit argues that student attendance has already decreased noticeably. While no raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have yet occurred in schools, raids at apartment blocks have disrupted school bus schedules.
A motion filed by attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security asks the judge to reject this case because the schools can’t show that the prospect of enforcement has caused sufficient harm.
As I write this, the judge has not yet made a decision.
Elimination of programs that address Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
The Trump Administration has moved to end what it calls “Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing”.
This has caused much confusion with many businesses and non-government programs also moving to make changes to align with Trump’s ideologies.
The majority of Colorado colleges and universities have not yet made the required changes and students are angered that this might be required and what the consequences will be.
There are fears that the loss of DEI employees in government services will affect communications with the Spanish community.
On Friday Trump signed an Executive Order rescinding a mandate from President Clinton that required governments and organisations that receive federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.
Access to abortion and reproductive health services
Colorado is a full abortion access state with no gestational limitations and Governor Polis has said that abortions will be available to anyone who needs one.
Recent research has shown that, after Texas implemented a ban on abortions after six weeks, there was a surge in women from Texas seeking abortions in Colorado.
The percentage of abortions in Colorado provided to women from out-of-state jumped from 13 percent in 2020 to 30 percent by 2023 (the Texas abortion ban went into effect in September 2021).
This dramatic increase in out-of-state patients created scheduling bottlenecks for abortion and other reproductive procedures that delayed care for both out-of-state and local patients.
Local news matters
The Summit Daily is published every day and is essential reading, with great reporting on local, state and federal issues. It’s committed to many of the values Croakey Health Media espouses. There’s a similar newspaper (perhaps a bit more oriented to social events) in nearby Vail which we often visit.
The Summit Daily is currently running an educational campaign around living with traumatic brain injuries and reporting on efforts of Summit County towns to strengthen nicotine and tobacco regulations.
Here’s a collection of recent articles. This is what the locals are focussed on.
Headline from February 14: State officials review impacts of new federal land policies
This article highlights concerns that Republicans want multiple use principles to apply to federal lands, meaning mining, housing, water extraction would be permitted.
There are also concerns that the Camp Hale – Continental Divide National Monument established by President Biden in October 2022 to honour the 10th Mountain Division which trained there and to recognise the site as a sacred place for the First Nations Ute people could lose its protections.
Headline from February 19: State official decry federal job cuts
There are serious concerns that the loss of Forest Service employees will have negative effects on the state’s economy and lessen wildfire protections.
Colorado has some of the busiest and most visited National Forests in the nation. The Forest Service workforce is already nearly 30 percent smaller than it was three decades ago, despite the increase in work that needs to be done.
Headline from February 25: State lawmakers fight ‘reckless’ federal layoffs to US Forest Service
“[These layoffs} are reckless. It is shortsighted and ultimately could prove dangerous for our communities,” said Democrat Joe Neguse, who represents Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District.
Democrats are also worried about workforce cuts at the US Department of Agriculture, including from the National Resources Conservation Service, and at the Department of Interior’s National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management.
All these agencies have staff who live and work in Colorado.
(Note that Colorado has not yet reported any cases of H5N1 avian flu in animals or humans but there are concerns that could happen as migrating birds return in the spring.)
Headline from February 22: Colorado woman reflects on US Forest Service career
A local woman, employed by the US Forest Service, was offered at job with the Bureau of Land Management. But just as she started training for her new job, the Trump Administration rescinded the position. The Forest Service agree to take her back, but then, just a short time later, she and fellow employees were laid off from the Forestry Service.
Headline from the Vail Daily February 23: Rumours of ICE raids stir fear in mountain towns.
Immigration advocacy organisations have had to counter rapidly circulating rumours and mis-information about ICE raids. Many of the people employed in service jobs in ski towns like Vail and Keystone are recent immigrants (although there is no indication that any of them are illegal immigrants).
There has been ICE activity in Denver, but so far this appears to be random.
There is a Colorado Rapid Response Network that provides information and updates and a hotline staffed by volunteers. It has been overwhelmed with calls from worried people.
Fighting back
Many Australians (and Americans too) wonder why there seems to be so little pushback against all the Trump horrors.
This is now starting, but to date the efforts are not well organised or widespread.
Several Colorado Members of Congress have held local town hall meetings, mostly well attended by constituents demanding answers and/or actions.
Our local Member of Congress, Joe Neguse, held a town hall on January 31 in Estes Park. More than 200 people gathered to talk with the congressman about executive orders, immigration reform, the possible closure of a community health centre and other matters.
Democrat Member of Congress Jason Crow spoke to a crowd of 1,400 at Aurora on February 27. People were particularly angry about the work of DOGE and the dismantling of USAID.
About 400 people packed into a church in Grand Junction last weekend for a town hall meeting with local Republican Representative Jeff Hurd. He was a no-show, claiming it was a political set-up. Numerous speakers addressed the audience, speaking out on the importance of standing up despite fear.
To date the prize for the biggest effort goes to Democrat Member of the House Brittany Peterson.
She is on maternity leave, with a one-month old baby, but the Republican Speaker of the House would not grant permission for her to vote remotely. So she took a plane and showed up in Washington, on the House floor, with the baby asleep in her arms, to speak against and vote against the bill to cut Medicaid.
Let’s hope there are lots more Brittany Petersons out there, fighting to keep Americans like baby Sam safe from the looming Trump tyranny.
More from social media
The Prime Ministers of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand have joined many leaders from Europe and elsewhere in expressing public support for Ukraine in the wake of the shocking events in the White House yesterday.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on the Trump Administration and health
