How Trumpism Is Trickling Down to Your Town

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

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4.7 • 218 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Donica Brady lost her job after the Trump administration cut grant funding to bring solar power across the country, including to tribal nations. She picked up multiple jobs to make ends meet. That, in addition to caring for children, whittled down Brady’s free time. So she invited reporter Ilana Newman over when she found a quiet moment—while skinning a deer—to talk about what the loss of solar funding meant to her and her community.

“When the opportunity came up to work and help us get something established…it was huge,” she said.

Brady was one of many Indigenous people working to build energy sovereignty for tribal nations—work that continues despite the administration clawing back federal funds.

This week on Reveal, we’re diving into how small communities across the country are navigating the current administration’s policies and how they show up in everyone’s lives, no matter where you are in this country. We’ve partnered with The Daily Yonder to share a story about the solar energy hopes of tribal nations; The Tributary in Jacksonville, Florida, to learn how local and state DOGE are complicating efforts to run the city; and Idaho-based reporter Heath Druzin to hear how the Trump administration’s immigration policy is rupturing the state’s Republican Party.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal.
0:05.6	I'm Al Letson.
0:07.0	It's been over a year now since Donald Trump began his second term.
0:12.1	It started with a rush of announcements and executive orders to remake the country in his vision.
0:17.8	And the news cycle has been non-stop ever since. Ice raids, mass firings of federal
0:24.5	workers, attacks on the press have dominated the headlines. But Trump's policies are also more
0:30.8	quietly shaping and dividing communities across the country. Today, we're going to three
0:36.8	different places to learn how the Trump
0:38.8	administration's agenda has changed things, sometimes in unexpected ways. We start in my hometown,
0:47.8	Jacksonville, Florida. All right, everybody, it is three o'clock. So we call to order the Tuesday,
0:55.9	September 23rd meeting of the Jacksonville City Council. The council is supposed to be approving a new city budget, something that's
1:01.8	usually pretty boring. The debate often centers around the basic needs of Jacksonville residents,
1:07.6	things like public safety, housing, roads, and parks. But the meeting goes a little
1:13.1	sideways after council member Rory Diamond proposes a new amendment that seems to come out of
1:19.5	nowhere. As a conscientious conservative and a pro-life city councilman, I want it in our budget
1:25.3	as a matter of law that you can't use my money for something
1:29.5	I consider murder. Diamond wants to prohibit spending money on abortion. He also wants to crack down
1:35.8	on immigration and block spending on DEI. But the thing is, not one cent of the city's new budget
1:42.8	has been allocated towards any of these issues.
1:46.0	So fellow Republican council member Matt Carlucci pushes back, wondering why these issues are being brought up.
1:52.7	This is a serious business.
1:54.5	This is not the time to make a political statement.
	...

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