Most California Republican Voters Still Confident In Trump Administration

Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, May 1, 2025…

• Nearly 40% of Californians voted for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Now, 100 days into his second term, how do they feel? 
• In San Francisco Wednesday night, former Vice President Kamala Harris laid into President Donald Trump at the 100 day mark of his presidency.
• As Congress reconvenes this week, Republicans are proposing $880 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade. A new UC Berkeley Labor Center report warns the move would not only jeopardize healthcare for 15 million Californians, but could cost the state up to 217,000 jobs.

100 Days In, Most California Trump Voters Still Back The President

So much has happened in the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term. On Day 1, he signed a slew of executive orders aimed at, among other things, creating DOGE, his government-slashing informal Department of Government Efficiency, erasing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, getting rid of birthright citizenship for people born in the U.S. to parents without permanent legal status, declaring an emergency at the southern border and recognizing only “two sexes – male and female.”

He’s also moved aggressively to implement tariffs on imported goods, restructure the federal government and tighten his grip on power, carry out deportations, reposition the United States on the world stage, and punish perceived political enemies.

In California, nearly 40% of voters backed President Trump in the 2024 election. And most remain fully behind him. Ben Pino was a lifelong Democrat, before voting for Trump in 2020 and again last year. “It’s kind of funny because I was like all these people that are losing their minds right now over this guy, going crazy and losing sleep,” he said. Pino said he supports most of the president’s policies, including on the economy and immigration. But he does have one criticism — President’s Trump’s rhetoric on transgender issues. His friend recently transitioned and Pino thinks Trump hurts the entire Republican Party when he disparages the transgender community.

Of the two dozen Trump voters we interviewed for this story, only one expressed buyer’s remorse. Emerson Green from El Dorado County initially liked Trump’s pledge to shrink the federal workforce. But he didn’t think that would include an across-the-board hiring freeze. Green’s mom had just landed a job at the IRS when her offer was rescinded. “And I just think that’s a really big sort of middle finger to the American working class,” Green said. If he had to do it all over again, Green said he likely would not have voted for either candidate in 2024.

Kamala Harris Slams Trump Tariffs In Her First Major Speech Since He Took Office

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, in her first major public remarks since leaving the White House, criticized President Trump’s tariff policies as “reckless,” saying they pose the risk of taking the country into recession.

“Some people are describing what’s been happening in recent months as absolute chaos. And of course I understand why. It’s certainly true of those tariffs. Tariffs that — as I predicted — are clearly inviting a recession,” Harris said.

She called it the “greatest man-made economic crisis in modern presidential history” and applauded Americans who are rallying against the tariffs, saying they will increase everyday costs and impact retirement accounts and small businesses.

The former vice president who failed in her race against Trump last year was speaking in San Francisco at a gala event for the organization Emerge America, which helps women run for office. Her comments come as Trump hits the 100-day mark of his second term, and as reports show the U.S. economy is contracting.

UC Berkeley Report Paints Bleak Picture If Medicaid Cuts Are Approved 

Republicans in Congress are weighing steep cuts to Medicaid as part of a wide-ranging budget package. Medicaid is the federal-state health insurance program for people with disabilities and low-income adults. The House instructed the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the program, to find $880 billion in savings over the next 10 years.

There is some GOP opposition. A dozen House Republicans recently wrote a letter to the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee along with House leadership, warning they won’t support a bill that includes “any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.”

In California, any cuts to Medicaid would have huge impacts. New analysis from the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that California could expect to see between $10 billion and $20 billion fewer federal dollars per year coming to Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. And that in turn would lead to major job losses — in the range of 100,000-200,000 jobs. About two-thirds of the job losses would be in the health care sector.