Chapter 1: What are Americans' overall feelings about Trump's presidency after one year?
It's been exactly one year since President Donald Trump took the oath of office and laid out his vision for America.
During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first.
Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Tuesday, January 20th, 2026. As he begins the second year of his second term, USA Today spoke to dozens of Americans across the country to hear their take on how the president's policies have impacted their lives. Joining me now to share just a few of those stories is USA Today national correspondent Trevor Hughes.
Good to have you back, Trevor.
Good to be here.
I'd like to start with some broad strokes here. Trump's presidency so far has been an eventful one, to say the least. We've seen new trade wars, a huge ramping up of immigration enforcement and assault on Venezuela that led to the capture and arrest of their president, and a surge of executive orders covering everything from
what genders the federal government will recognize to declaring birthright citizenship no longer legal. The country feels like it's reached a political divide of new heights. What did you find here?
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Chapter 2: How have Trump's policies impacted the economy according to citizens?
Well, it was fascinating in my conversations, you know, and our conversations were supposed to be focused on the economy. But what we really found was that, you know, how you see the country and how you see the economy is very much based on whether or not you support President Trump. I didn't find a lot of folks who supported the president who criticized him.
They tended to say that what he's doing is what he was elected to do. And they're very pleased to see it. And then, of course, you have many, many liberals who are incredibly upset and say, you know, this is exactly what we warned was going to happen. And they're horrified.
I want to turn to housing because when it comes to the issue of affordability, mortgage rates remain a sticking point. USA Today spoke with Christine O'Donnell, the longtime suburban Philadelphia realtor, about the issue of affordable housing. What's her take on the current housing market?
What she said and what we heard over and over from a lot of people is that those people who have homes who refinanced during the pandemic, you know, they're sitting at 3% in their mortgage, which is a great rate, right? But it means you can't afford to upgrade. And that's what she saw. You know, there's a lot of folks who are sort of stuck in their houses.
And so there's this strange pent up demand for people who would love to move, but just feel like they have these golden handcuffs in their existing houses.
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Chapter 3: What challenges are Americans facing in the housing market?
And of course, those people who don't own homes yet, for them, the barrier to entry is still significantly high when you're looking at a mortgage rate of 6%, especially in an economy where it's hard to get together a bunch of money for a down payment. You know, this realtor we talked to, she was telling us that things are sort of slow and she's hoping that they get better.
But, you know, she's had to cut back on her marketing materials because she's a realtor who's been impacted by tariffs. She's reduced the frequency of the newsletter she sends out because the price of stamps has gone up. So the economy really runs her center through so many Americans' concerns right now. And, you know, in the housing market is chief among them.
Let's turn now to energy, beginning with coal. In Colorado's coal town, how do people like 61-year-old lifelong resident Trula Simmons feel about Trump's first year back in office?
I've been covering this part of Colorado for many, many years. And Trula, like a lot of other folks out there, are very happy with the president.
They wish he had done more to protect coal mining because under the Biden administration, a lot of coal mines are shutting down or sort of moving in that direction because a lot of coal-fired power plants are being pushed to shut down because of environmental considerations. Now, the president has promised for years to protect coal miners. And frankly, he's pushed to keep coal mines open.
And so people like Trula are looking out at her neighborhood, at her area. And she says, you know, my husband lost his job as a coal miner.
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Chapter 4: How do coal miners perceive Trump's impact on their industry?
My son lost his job as a coal miner. But my husband got a job at the reclamation and her son is getting a different job at a different coal mine because that one is going to remain open because coal still is producing a lot of electricity in this country. But. For her, you know, they drive, they live in a very rural area, so they drive 100 miles round trip for groceries.
When you're driving 100 miles round trip to Sam's Club, that price of gas makes a huge difference. I paid, I think, $35 to fill up my 25-gallon tank the other day. During the height of the gas crisis, it was closer to $80.
In response to threats posed by climate change, former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden championed green energy. How did that affect people like Trula?
But for many of these rural areas where there are coal mines and giant coal generating power plants, it's been the backbone of their economy. These are jobs where you can earn $75, $100 an hour, depending on overtime, really good, solid, reliable jobs day in and day out.
And so when a president like Obama or Biden or even Hillary Clinton said, we're going to put a lot of coal miners out of business, they understood what was going to happen. And the issue has been in those rural remote areas, there's not a lot of other job opportunities.
And so if you take away that single largest employer, those huge jobs, those huge reliable paychecks, you can devastate a community. And the folks out there are very cognizant of that.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of green energy policies for workers?
And that really did drive their decision making when it comes to presidential elections.
I want to stick with green energy. USA Today also profiled an American industrial painter. His name is Nick Reynolds. He's a wind farm worker who feels like he got the rug pulled out from under him, along with about 12,000 other workers by a decision by the Trump administration. Tell me about the project he was working on and where things stand now.
He was working on a project called Revolution Wind. It's off the coast of Rhode Island, and it would provide clean energy for hundreds of thousands of households in the Northeast and hopefully stabilize their power rates. Because once the wind farm is up, it doesn't really require a lot of inputs. It's not like coal mining where you have to mine coal every day.
It's not like burning natural gas where you have to get more natural gas. The wind blows for free. And so Nick really saw this as a fantastic job. It pays well. It's reliable.
Chapter 6: How is the price of gold affecting jewelry store owners?
It's in his hometown. And he felt, you know, looking at the way America was going, especially under President Biden, that green energy was an important field. It was important for the country. It was important for his environment and for his neighbors. And so he was really frustrated when the president tried to kill this project. And a judge just overturned that decision.
And so he his buddies went out and celebrated the other night, but they still don't know when they're getting back to work.
Trevor, in reading your piece, Reynolds sounds like a guy who tried to make smart choices by adapting to a changing employment landscape. He told USA Today, quote, I did all this training in this promising field that the president encouraged. And for what? How does he feel about Republicans?
Not good. I mean, Nick went through a whole bunch of very specialized training so that he could actually go out and paint in the wind turbines as they're being installed off the coast, right? Which requires familiarity and expertise with boats, with first aid, with high angle rope rescues. You know, this is not sitting in a factory painting something with a can.
Chapter 7: What concerns do child care providers have regarding immigration policies?
This is incredibly technical work. And so, you know, he spent all this money of his own money and his own time to get this training because he looked at this and said, boy, the U.S. is really going all in on green energy. I would really like to be a part of that. And so he's been very frustrated to feel like the rug got pulled out from under him. You know, and he lost his job.
He has been laid off. And then even though the project has officially going to be restarted, he hasn't started work again and he hasn't gotten paid.
In your piece, you shared an interesting story about a couple in Oklahoma City who faced uncertainty last year due to the price of gold. What have the last 365 days been like for jewelry store owners George and Valerie Nypha?
We heard it from them and we've heard it from other people, which is if you have gold right now, people have been selling it because it's worth so many thousands of dollars. I mean, the price of gold under the president, I think, has doubled. And so what that means is people who have gold have been turning it in, selling it to keep their bills paid.
But what it means for the jewelry store owners is that people are less likely to buy gold because they sell gold based on the ounce. And so they can't sell as many items if the price of gold is just super high.
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Chapter 8: How do agricultural producers view the economic environment under Trump?
And so they've been working on their design, sort of trying to figure out how to pivot. But they're actually really optimistic that ultimately the economy will get better, that people will be able to afford more things, and that they'll be able to bring on some trainees with help from some tax incentives.
Is that something that's included in Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill?
Yes. I mean, the president proposed in Congress passed the one big, beautiful bill, and it has all kinds of voter friendly things in it. I mean, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on the interest paid on American made cars if you bought the car. I think this year. So there's quite a lot of things in there that were really meant to help working people.
And, you know, I have seen folks, I've talked to folks who have said, you know, the tax on overtime, maybe it'll help, maybe it won't help. It really depends on whether you work in an industry where you're declaring that overtime and declaring those tips.
Of course, some of Trump's biggest detractors are incensed with the way he's tackling immigration. The killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis has become a national rallying cry for many Americans to force ICE out of American cities. 48-year-old Jamila Wilson, a licensed child care provider in Chicago, spoke with our colleagues. What did she share with USA Today?
Jamila is one of those people who's lived in Chicago all her life, and she's really concerned about what she's seeing. Chicago is not a fan of Trump, and Trump is not a fan of Chicago. And it is creating this very challenging situation where child care providers like her feel like they're really being targeted. And she specifically said that she feels like the president is very...
very specifically targeting black and brown Americans and not targeting fraud or waste or abuse that's committed by white Americans. Jamila feels like the president's budget really prioritizes tax breaks for billionaires, really prioritizes creating fearful environments for immigrants in this country. And it's something that she says she sees on the faces of the parents she talks to every day.
Our colleague spoke to dozens of Americans. But let's end with 73-year-old Kansas cattle rancher Hal Luthie. He had a banner year thanks to the high price of beef. How much of that is tied to policies implemented by President Trump?
It's unclear how much of it is tied specifically to the president's policies. The price of beef has been high for quite a long time. But what's interesting is that Americans continue to pay it. They haven't really cut back on their beef consumption in the way that you might expect. But Hal, you know, he had a banner year. When I talked to him, he was sitting in his brand new pickup.
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