White House Budget Bombs on Front Pages of Red State Newspapers

The White House budget proposal released on Thursday produced harsh, highly critical headlines in local newspapers based in states that President Trump carried in his election in November.

Papers highlighted the cuts to spending on infrastructure, the environment, the impoverished, and arts and culture.

The Columbus Dispatch — based in Ohio where Trump won 51.3 percent of the vote — ran a front page story on Friday titled “Unkind Cuts to Ohio?” The story noted that the budget eliminated funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, “a $300 million undertaking to clean up and keep invasive species from the world’s largest single source of fresh surface water,” which “directly benefits the same upper industrial Midwestern states — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin — that elevated Trump to the presidency in November.”

“Trump’s budget slams West Virginia,” was splashed across the front page of the Charleston Gazette-Mail on Friday. The paper noted the cuts to education spending and the Appalachian Regional Commission, which supports infrastructure in the state. The state gave Trump 68.7 percent of the vote.

In Florida, where Trump won with 48.6 percent of the vote, the Orlando Sentinel warned that the White House budget would “slash research, EPA, DOT, job training, libraries.”

The Press Register, based in Mobile, Alabama — a coastal city where Trump held one of his first mega rallies, and a state that he won with 62.9 percent of the vote — used its front page Friday to warn that “Trump cuts bite into coast.” It noted that the White House budget “seeks deep cuts to agencies and organizations with a long-standing presence in Coastal Alabama,” such as the Mobile Bay Estuary Program, which monitors water quality and protects wildlife along the coast.

Allentown, Pennsylvania-based paper The Morning Call — in a state Trump won with 48.2 percent of the vote — ran a front page article with the headline “Cuts are a ‘huge blow’ to Valley social services, arts.” The paper directly contrasted the president’s request for a large increase in military spending with proposed cuts to domestic programs. “To cover a $54 billion boost in defense spending next year, President Donald Trump has proposed cuts that would hit Lehigh Valley cities and social services, including programs that aid children after school, homeless people in shelters and neighborhoods dealing with crime,” it noted.

In Iowa (site of a 51.2 percent victory for Trump), Cedar Rapids-based The Gazette also highlighted the transfer from domestic programs to the military:

In Michigan, where Trump scored a slim 47.3 percent victory, the Detroit Free Press highlighted the same tradeoff — noting both the increase in military spending and the cuts to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which funds pollution cleanup in the state.

Top photo: A portion of President Donald Trump’s first proposed budget, focusing on the Department of State, USAID, and Treasury International Programs, and released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, on Wednesday, March 15, 2017.