DOGE job cuts shake Trump-voting West Virginia town

Bangkok Post Group

Jennifer Piggott proudly hung a red-and-blue Trump campaign flag outside her one-story home during the November election race. Now, after she was abruptly fired from her civil service job, her days of supporting the president are over. - REUTERS

Transcript

00:00Jennifer Piggott voted for Trump in the November election, then in February, she was fired

00:07from her civil service job.

00:08Absolutely.

00:09I feel a little bit betrayed.

00:11She was among more than 125 people dismissed last month from the Treasury Department's

00:16Bureau of Fiscal Service in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

00:20There's always that back and forth conversation now.

00:22It's like, you knew this was coming, but we didn't.

00:26Everybody that I've talked to understood the devastation that having this administration

00:30in office would do to our lives.

00:38The cuts have shaken up a community that overwhelmingly voted for Trump.

00:42He won West Virginia with 70 percent of the vote, one of his biggest victories.

00:48But the betrayal felt by Piggott, a church-going conservative and three-time Trump voter, comes

00:54as political analysts are examining early signs of a possible backlash in Republican

00:59strongholds like Parkersburg, where the government-slashing efforts of Trump and Doge are beginning to

01:05hit home.

01:06Elon Musk has basically taken over our government and has called the shots, unfortunately, it

01:14seems to be.

01:15A handful of Republican voters who lost their federal jobs joined Democrats at a recent

01:20anti-Doge protest near the Bureau of Fiscal Service offices in Parkersburg.

01:25But the federal job losses in the state could soon extend beyond the BFS building, says

01:30West Virginia University economics professor John Deskins.

01:35West Virginia is at the very top of the states in terms of the federal workforce as a share

01:40of total workforce in the state.

01:42So if the federal layoffs happen, if they hit West Virginia, we stand to suffer a disproportionate

01:47share when those jobs disappear, when that income disappears, when that spending leaves

01:53the state economy.

01:55But in Reuters' interviews with three dozen workers, business owners, and politicians

01:59in Parkersburg, nearly all said that Trump's focus on cutting government spending was a

02:04worthy goal.

02:06And Reuters' Ipsos polling shows Americans' attitude toward Trump are so far essentially

02:11unchanged, since he began firing federal workers in February.

02:16As of this week, his approval rating was holding steady at 44 percent.

02:21Cutting costs and waste and fraud and, and, and.

02:24We love that big picture.

02:25I love that big picture.

02:26My friends, you know, we were excited about that because it is true.

02:30But again, I can't go, I can't help but go back to the fact that what is the decisions

02:36that you're making right now solving in the big picture?

02:40So, so the concept of voting for that again, voting for Elon Musk essentially to wreck

02:46people's lives, I can't do it.

02:49The economic impact of the mass dismissals across America may not be immediately felt.

02:55So far, 100,000 government workers have been fired or taken a buyout.

03:01Parkersburg is bracing for another round of layoffs, with all government agencies ordered

03:05to make plans to cut career staff by March 13th.

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