Americans weigh in on Trump's first year
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s been exactly one year since President Donald Trump took the oath of office and laid out his vision for America. 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. USA TODAY National Correspondent Trevor Hughes joins The Excerpt to share some of their stories.
Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@usatoday.com.
Episode transcript available here.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's been exactly one year since President Donald Trump took the oath of office and laid out his vision for America. |
| 0:12.0 | During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first. |
| 0:23.6 | Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Tuesday, January 20th, |
| 0:29.7 | 2026. As he begins the second year of his second term, USA Today spoke to dozens of Americans |
| 0:36.5 | across the country to hear their take on how |
| 0:39.1 | the president's policies have impacted their lives. Joining me now to share just a few of those |
| 0:44.3 | stories is USA Today National Correspondent Trevor Hughes. Good to have you back, Trevor. |
| 0:49.7 | And 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. |
| 0:58.3 | We've seen new trade wars, a huge ramping up of immigration enforcement and assault on Venezuela |
| 1:05.0 | that led to the capture and arrest of their president, and a surge of executive orders covering |
| 1:10.2 | everything from what genders the federal government |
| 1:13.0 | recognized to declaring birthright citizenship no longer legal. The country feels like it's reached |
| 1:20.1 | a political divide of new heights. What did you find here? What was fascinating in my conversations, |
| 1:27.1 | you know, and our conversations were |
| 1:28.5 | supposed to be focused on the economy. But what we really found was that, you know, how you |
| 1:34.3 | see the country and how you see the economy is very much based on whether or not you support |
| 1:39.6 | President Trump. I didn't find a lot of folks who supported the president who criticized him. They tended to |
| 1:46.1 | say that what he's doing is what he was elected to do, and they're very pleased to see it. And then, of |
| 1:51.6 | course, you have many, many liberals who are incredibly upset and say, you know, this is exactly |
| 1:56.7 | 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 |
| 2:05.6 | remain a sticking point. USA Today spoke with Christine O'Donnell. It's a long time suburban |
| 2:11.4 | Philadelphia realtor about the issue of affordable housing. What's her take on the current housing market? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from USA TODAY, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of USA TODAY and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.