The local impacts of Trump’s executive orders
Covering the specific ways the new admin hurts people at home
It’s hard to believe it’s been less than two weeks since Trump’s inauguration, especially when you consider the unprecedented amount of news and executive orders that have poured out of his White House (and Truth Social account) in just the past few days alone. And while it’s essential that we don’t let ourselves get overwhelmed by every Trump stunt or Musk tweet, we each have an urgent responsibility to sift through the daily chaos and keep Americans informed and engaged about the most egregious decisions and policies put forth by this corrupt organization and the direct impacts those decisions will have on their lives and communities.
While our national team continues to see incredible growth and engagement on their relentless coverage of Trump Inc. on social media (our national TikTok will likely hit 2MM followers any minute now 🚀), our state reporters across the COURIER network have been busy breaking down what Trump’s tsunami of executive orders will mean for their states and communities in practice. While an increasing number of Americans are understandably tuning out national news and politics, we have seen time and time again that localizing what’s happening in Washington is the kind of information and reporting our audiences do want to understand and engage with. Interviewing local representatives and providing digestible, shareable explainers of complicated orders and their impacts not only helps people make sense of the news but is the most effective way to get audiences at risk of disengaging to stay informed and engaged.
That’s exactly what our state newsrooms are doing. For example, in Michigan, political correspondent Kyle Kaminski produces videos every day explaining how Trump’s EOs are impacting Michiganders and spotlighting the responses of local trusted messengers, such as Michigan doctors, professors, and elected leaders.
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In Arizona, our political correspondent explained the stakes of the freeze on federal grants, while in Pennsylvania our newsroom invited their audience to share how it could impact them. Our Iowa Starting Line team reminded audiences of their rights when it comes to possible ICE raids, and our New Hampshire reporters exposed how Trump’s actions were putting Medicaid at risk. These are just a few examples of how our state newsrooms are showing up in the social feeds and inboxes of critical audiences in their states every day with news that empowers and informs.
Our state newsrooms are also there for their communities when tragedy strikes. I’m always proud of our teams but especially so when they rise to the occasion during difficult moments, from covering school shootings to hurricanes. This week, the team for our Virginia newsroom, Dogwood, has done incredible work covering the tragic plane crash at the Reagan National Airport in northern Virginia. My thoughts are with all those impacted by this horrific incident.
Take care,
Tara
Weekly highlights from our national coverage
TikTok: Elon Musk “salute”
18.8M views, 3.3M likes, 18.2K comments, 109.7K shares
TikTok: GOP wants kids to get jobs
11.3M views, 1.3M likes, 97.8K comments, 310.4K shares
TikTok: RFK Jr confirmation is a disaster
5.7M views, 493K likes, 22.4K comments, 79.8K shares
4.8M views, 57K likes, 4K comments, 64K shares
IG: Air Force stops teaching about Tuskegee Airmen
2.6M views, 67K likes, 5.5K comments, 42K shares
What I’m reading/listening to
“Between the lines: Democrats face an uphill climb. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS earlier this month found that 70% of U.S. adults would describe themselves as disappointed with today's politics. The same CNN poll found that 58% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say that the party needs major changes or to be completely reformed.”
"There need to be news channels and media outlets for getting messages across to non-metropolitan areas dominated by far-right news sources. Liberal-minded billionaires should not sit idly by as they did in Hungary, watching the right take over the media."
If You Can Keep It: How *you* can protect democracy
“Action #1: Invest in local news. Since we know our greatest impact can be at the local level, start with local news. Civic engagement is strongly tied to local news habits.”