(C) Arizona Mirror
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'A disaster for Arizonans': Dems blasts Trump's first 6 weeks in office ahead of State of the Union • Arizona Mirror [1]
['Jim Small', 'Caitlin Sievers', 'Jennifer Shutt', 'Ariana Figueroa', 'More From Author', '- March', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline']
Date: 2025-03
President Donald Trump’s funding freezes, federal firings and resulting concerns about social safety net programs have been “a disaster for Arizonans,” Democrats said in advance of tonight’s State of the Union address.
The Democratic National Committee released a report detailing what it describes as the harm Trump has brought to Arizonans during his first month in office.
“As Donald Trump prepares to take the stage tonight, there’s a reason he is the least popular president in modern American history at this point in his term,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a written statement. “Trump has been a disaster for Arizonans — his dangerous funding freezes and mass firings have put seniors, kids, and families already struggling to make ends meet at risk.”
The DNC report highlights several specific concerns for Arizona, including:
State officials unable to access federal funds intended to modernize Arizona’s electric grid and improve local energy efficiency
Federal employee terminations at Veterans Affairs and Department of Agriculture offices across the state
Paused funding for Colorado River water management programs
Delayed access to funds for community health centers
Potential impacts to nearly 2 million Arizonans who rely on Medicaid and approximately 925,000 state residents who receive SNAP benefits
Rising unemployment claims, with nearly 12,000 Arizonans filing for unemployment since January
According to the report, nine mass layoffs have occurred in Arizona since Trump took office in January, affecting nearly 1,300 workers. The largest reported layoff included 855 people at bankrupt EV-manufacturer Nikola — 540 in Phoenix and 315 in Coolidge.
The document also cites Department of Labor data showing weekly unemployment filings ranging from 2,740 to 3,245 Arizona residents through February.
Martin accused congressional Republicans of “advancing a budget plan that would take money out of the pockets of working Arizonans, kick millions off of their health insurance, and take food off the table of low-income families in order to finance a massive tax handout to the richest 1%.”
Trump is expected to address economic policies during tonight’s speech to Congress, which will begin at 7 p.m.
The report also details specific demographic information about social program recipients in Arizona, noting that Medicaid covers 36% of Arizona children, 46% of births in the state, and 53% of nursing home residents. More than two-thirds of SNAP recipients in Arizona are families with children, according to the data.
***CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included figures for layoffs by HelloFresh in Goodyear. The company’s former staffing agency erroneously issued a WARN notice in late January disclosing that 564 workers were being laid off. However, the company said the next day that no workers were being let go. The story has been updated to remove the HelloFresh layoffs and to recalculate figures.
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[1] Url:
https://azmirror.com/briefs/a-disaster-for-arizonans-dems-blasts-trumps-first-6-weeks-in-office-ahead-of-state-of-the-union/
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