How Trump Exploits Working Class Pain

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

News

4.7 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sociologist Arlie Hochschild has spent years talking with people living in rural parts of the country who have been hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs and shuttered coal mines. They’re the very people President Donald Trump argues will benefit most from his sweeping wave of tariffs and recent executive orders aimed at reviving coal mining in the US. But Hochschild is skeptical that Trump’s policies will actually benefit those in rural America. But Hochschild argues that Trump’s policies will only fill an emotional need for those in rural America.

In her latest book, Stolen Pride, Hochschild visited Pikeville, Kentucky, a small city in Appalachia where coal jobs were leaving, opioids were arriving, and a white supremacist march was being planned. The more she talked to people, the more she saw how Trump played on their shame and pride about their downward mobility and ultimately used that to his political advantage.
On this week’s episode of More To The Story, host Al Letson talks with Hochschild about the long slide of downward mobility in rural America and why she thinks Trump’s policies ultimately won’t benefit his most core supporters.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter at Revealnews.org/weekly

Read: Farmers in Trump Country Banked on Clean Energy Grants. Then Things Changed. (Mother Jones)

Read: Trump’s Trade War Is Here and Promises to Get Ugly (Mother Jones)

Listen: The Many Contradictions of a Trump Victory (Reveal)

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	First, you've lost your job. That's an absolute loss. But you're also feeling devalued that what you
0:11.6	once knew when we're good at doesn't matter anymore. I think that's actually the bigger hit.
0:17.9	And then thirdly, other people are doing better. What's wrong with me? I'm not.
0:22.8	Today on more to the story, I sit down with Arlie Hochschild.
0:26.4	She's a sociologist who spent years talking with the very people Donald Trump says
0:31.4	will benefit most from his sweeping wave of tariffs and attempts to reinvigorate coal mining.
0:38.5	Stay with us.
0:48.8	Hello, hello, Malcolm Gladwell here on this season of Revisionist history. We're going where no podcast has ever gone before. In combination with my three-year-old,
0:54.8	we defend the show that everyone else hates.
0:58.3	I'm talking, of course, about Paw Patrol.
1:01.6	There's some things that really piss me off
1:04.1	when it comes to Paw Patrol.
1:05.5	It's pretty simple. It sucks.
1:07.8	My son watches Paw Patrol. I hate it.
1:10.6	Everyone hates it, except for me.
1:13.3	Plus, we investigate everything from why American sirens are so unbearably loud,
1:17.9	to the impact of face blindness on social connection,
1:20.4	to the secret behind Thomas's English muffins, perfect nooks and crannies.
1:26.0	And also, we go after Joe Rogan.
1:30.0	Are you ready, Joe?
1:31.5	I'm coming for you.
1:33.7	You won't want to miss it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.