In his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump will have a chance to talk about the sweeping, controversial efforts he has made to reshape the federal government, chip away at civil rights and formalize a new understanding of who belongs in the country. Trump returned to office six weeks ago, empowered by Republican majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives. The 19th asked six Americans to talk about their concerns and the potential impact of his actions on their lives, their families and their communities. 

The caregiver

Janae Stevenson is 24 and a caregiver to her 70-year-old grandfather, an Air Force veteran who has severe dementia. He moved in with her and her mother in December 2023, and the two of them took over the challenging job of managing his care.

Stevenson’s grandfather receives health care through a mix of federal and state support services tied to his veteran status. But he also relies on Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health care to nearly 80 million Americans. Medicaid helps pay for his enrollment in an adult day care program and respite care assistance that allow Stevenson and her mother to take breaks.

While Trump has said publicly that he does not intend to reduce Medicaid spending, he has also indicated support for Republican-backed plans that call for cuts to the program. If Medicaid services are cut, Stevenson believes either she or her mother will need to quit their jobs to take care of her grandfather full-time.

“It makes me angry,” said Stevenson, who works as a community organizer. “I think about my grandfather, what he has gone through as someone who has served this country. The proposed cuts across the board to Medicaid, that’s a slap in the face for veterans. That’s a slap in the face for our elderly who have invested their time and years into the economy. It’s disrespectful to the workers who provide these services who will be out of jobs.”

Stevenson said policymakers are not considering the intricate and delicate balance here.

“The effects of Medicaid cuts and cuts to other social services will impact us for generations, and some families might not come back from that,” she said.

Stevenson voted for Kamala Harris for president. Still, she has been alarmed by the scope of Trump’s actions in the first month back in office, particularly executive orders that are harmful to marginalized communities. And she doesn’t believe it’s just because of her political leanings.

Stevenson said an immediate family member who voted for Trump last November expressed regret about the vote after the president’s first executive orders targeted immigrants and transgender people.

“He’s someone who likes to consider himself a person of faith,” Stevenson said of this family member, whom she declined to identify beyond gender. “The discrimination, the racial tension, the sexist tension, the gendered tension — all of those things that came following the executive orders was not something that he had anticipated or wanted for people in his life.”

As a Black queer person who grew up advocating for the issues she cares about, Stevenson believes positive change can come from everyday Americans responding to what’s playing out in Washington, D.C. That also means staying informed about what’s going on in their local community and state.

“The first step is keeping our elected officials accountable,” she said.

— Barbara Rodriguez

The business owner

Trish Walker, a Black business owner from Boise, is a fourth-generation descendant of Black Idahoans who relocated to the state after being freed from slavery. According to the most recent census survey, Black people amount to 1.4 percent of Boise’s population — a small community that Walker has worked hard to uplift. 

Her activism began in 2020, when she founded the Idaho Black Community Alliance (IBCA), a nonprofit that provided resources for Black-owned businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs. Over time, as more people reached out to her and showed interest in social events, IBCA expanded its reach, becoming a source of support for everyone in Boise.

Walker and her colleagues have had to find creative avenues to access funding for the alliance because of anti-diversity ideologies that Trump’s administration has rallied behind, including by using new language to define its more inclusive mission and, with that, grow its support. It hasn’t been easy, though. Idaho residents, like many people across the country, face economic obstacles. Many people are losing their jobs and homes as they struggle with their financial security. If raising money was already tough before Trump made diversity, equity and inclusion a target, she and others in her community worry about what will happen next.

“A lot of the conversations are changing because people are, for lack of a better word, afraid,” Walker said. “The political climate is the same in Boise, all over Idaho [and] nationwide. We’re all [thinking], ‘What’s going to happen? What do we do? How do we do it? How do we continue on?’ Instead of the politics and the climate impacting one group, it’s impacting us all.”

— Eden Turner

The LGBTQ+ family

Jeff Walker, whose 17-year-old daughter is transgender, said his family felt the impact of Trump’s executive orders immediately. An “onslaught” of orders targeting trans people, especially youth, has left his daughter, Harleigh, anxious and scared for her future — and caused him to worry for her safety. Their family is reconsidering her college choices and whether their daughter will still have access to gender-affirming care. 

“The way that the administration talks about transgender members of the country as though they don’t or shouldn’t exist — just dehumanizing. We’ve really struggled to keep our heads above the noise and not just succumb to the rhetoric,” he said.

The new administration’s policies are hurting everyone, Walker said. Meanwhile, the government is blaming DEI initiatives, LGBTQ+ people and immigrants — and that rhetoric puts a target on his daughter’s back.  

“Here in Alabama we’re seeing real consequences of these executive orders and initiatives against our largest employer in the state” — UAB Hospital — “and locally impacting our researchers at Auburn University. Gas, more expensive. Groceries, more expensive. Cost of living going up, stocks and retirements impacted. Job loss is starting to trend up as federal workers are terminated. All of this leading to a consequence that will hurt everyday people.” 

He continued: “What I’m seeing is that people are starting to feel some of the consequences of their votes and are confused why they are impacted. It’s strange to see people think, ‘This is a mistake, he’s not supposed to be coming after me or my job or my loved ones.’” 

“What I’m afraid of is that we’re still within the first month-and-a-half of this administration and the direction we’re going, what we’re seeing is going to further gap between the ultrawealthy and the hand-to-mouth Americans. What will happen when he continues to blame all of these issues on the immigrant community or LGBTQ community? When people are desperate and they need to lash out, they’ll see these groups as the reason for their woes.

“What happens when all of the rhetoric escalates to violence against people like my daughter?” Walker said. He has wondered if she might end up on the receiving end of transphobic attacks. “This administration won’t step in to help or protect people. I’m worried who will.”

— Orion Rummler

The college student

As a disability advocate, a sexual violence survivor and a student who uses financial aid to attend Haverford College, Paeton Smith-Hiebert is very worried about the actions by Trump so early in his second term, in particular his rollback of key parts of Title IX, a 1972 civil rights law prohibiting federally funded schools from practicing sex discrimination, including against survivors. A junior English major, she co-founded the Haverford Survivor Collective, a sexual violence prevention initiative, and is also the students with disabilities caucus chair for It’s On Us, a nonprofit focused on college sexual assault prevention. 

“The Trump administration’s decision to revert back to the 2020 [Title IX] rules, as opposed to the 2024 rules, was very disappointing. There’s a lot of things about those 2020 regulations that would discourage me from seeking to participate in the Title IX process at my institution in the event that I was victimized.

“Also, I do some work in the disability access and inclusion space, so the recent executive orders that address diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) funding and those programs at certain institutions going under review or being dissolved have also been very disheartening to witness. I experience an overlap of my disability access and inclusion work with my survivor advocacy.

“I am someone who very much relies on resources that the Department of Education provides. I’m a student who makes use of financial aid, who seeks accommodations in both my academics and my housing. So, just from my perspective, it’s incredibly scary to think about things that I rely on day-to-day just to further my education or, honestly, just to exist in certain spaces, going away. Every time I see news that something may happen to the Department of Education, my heart sinks.”

Smith-Hiebert is wary of the appointment of Linda McMahon as education secretary. One reason is that she does not have a strong background in education. Another is the misconduct allegations against her since McMahon would help shape policy that directly impacts survivors of sexual abuse on campus.

“Trump was found liable for sexual [abuse] in a court of law. Many of his Cabinet picks have allegations of similar behavior,” she said. “Imagine how disheartening it is for survivors to see these people rise in the ranks of the U.S. government.”

— Nadra Nittle

The optimistic military spouse

Deborah McGee is a retired military spouse, a Blue Star mom with two active-duty sons and a business owner who employs 200 people, 85 percent of them military spouses and veterans. Her husband retired 15 years ago after serving more than three decades. 

McGee, 63, who lives in Huntsville, Alabama, said she’s optimistic about the state of the country.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity about to happen, to be honest with you,” she said. “There’s people out there that are scared. Changes are happening. But being the owner of a small business and a military spouse, I know life is always changing. We’re used to change. We embrace it as a new opportunity, a new challenge.” 

McGee moved 22 times over the course of her husband’s military career, and she did so while raising three children and working as a CPA for Big Four accounting firms, she said. She celebrated when Trump gave military spouses an exemption to returning to work in person in February — as other federal workers were mandated back to the office. 

McGee said she sees Trump as a “huge win for military spouses.” 

“My husband came in at the post-Vietnam era when the country hated the military — we couldn’t even rent an apartment for goodness sakes,” McGee said. “And Reagan came in and changed that. He changed patriotism and how people thought of the military, and I think Trump is going to do a lot of that for our military as well.” 

— Mariel Padilla

The wary military spouse

Julie Eshelman, a 38-year-old military spouse and mom, is experiencing the impact of the new administration’s mass layoffs and hiring freeze first-hand. Eshelman’s husband is in the Army Reserve, teaching for the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program at a university. His team was designed to have eight service members, but was already understaffed when President Donald Trump took office. When the hiring freeze kicked in, a new team member who was in the middle of onboarding was abruptly let go. Now, the team is operating with just three people.

“They’re all picking up extra weight,” Eshelman said. 

Before moving to Virginia, Eshelman said, her family was stationed in Pennsylvania and her husband held a demanding role with long hours. She was looking forward to seeing him more and getting family time back with his new assignment. 

“Talking to other military spouses whose husbands have been working in the ROTC programs, it’s supposed to be a lot of family time, fairly good hours, you get your weekends,” Eshelman said. “And that hasn’t been the case. It’s been a lot of long hours and stressful days.” 

Eshelman is not too optimistic about what the Trump administration’s impact will be on the military. She pointed to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plans to cut 8 percent of the Pentagon’s budget. One of her main concerns is that the cuts will impact the quality of services provided to military families, like child care, because they could move from the hands of federal workers to those of private contractors. 

“As military families, we’ve seen how privatization leads to us being treated like shit,” Eshelman said. “That’s what happened in the past and makes me nervous looking forward.” 

— Mariel Padilla