“He is more attuned to the needs of everyone instead of just the rich,” Mosura, 55, said on a recent afternoon. “I think he knows it’s the poor people that got him elected, so I think Trump is going to do more to help us.”
Trump carried the Pennsylvania city of New Castle by about 400 votes, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win here in nearly 70 years. More than 1 in 4 residents live in poverty, and the median income in this former steel and railroad hub ranks as one of the lowest in Pennsylvania.
New Castle’s poorest residents weren’t alone in putting their faith in Trump. Network exit polls suggest he erased the advantage Democrats had with low-income voters across the country.
Fifty percent of voters from families with an income of less than $50,000 a year cast their ballots for Trump, according to the data, compared with 48 percent for Vice President Kamala Harris. Four years ago, President Joe Biden carried those voters by 11 percentage points; Hillary Clinton won them by 12 points in 2016 and former president Barack Obama by 22 points in 2012.
Now, low-income Americans who voted for Trump say they are counting on him to keep their benefits intact even while his Cabinet picks and Republican lawmakers call on him to reduce federal spending.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy – whom Trump has chosen to lead a new nongovernmental advisory panel, the “Department of Government Efficiency” – have said they want to trim $2 trillion from the government’s annual budget, a cut that some experts say could be accomplished only by slashing entitlement programs. Trump’s pick for White House budget director was a key architect of Project 2025, a plan drawn up by conservatives to guide his second term that calls for steep cuts to programs such as food stamps. And GOP leaders in Congress and Trump advisers are considering significant changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other federal aid.
The uncertainty comes after last week’s high-stakes showdown in Congress over the federal funding bill. Lawmakers narrowly avoided a shutdown after agreeing to fund the government until March. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) had unveiled a bipartisan bill to put off a shutdown, but Trump and Musk railed against what they said was unnecessary spending in the initial package.
“Everybody is on hyperalert,” said Tom Scott, the chief executive officer of Lawrence County Community Action Partnership, a social service agency that helps New Castle residents. “You have to be concerned because you don’t know which programs could be targeted” for spending reductions.
In a recent appearance on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Trump said any efforts by his administration to streamline the federal government would not impact entitlement programs such as Social Security.
“Americans of all backgrounds elected President Trump because of his plans to lower costs, end the financial drain of illegal immigrants on our healthcare system, and ensure that our country can continue to care for American citizens who rely on Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security,” said Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for his transition team.
Some longtime Democrats like Mosura said they initially struggled over whether to vote for Trump. They had believed Democrats were the most likely to help the poor and disagreed with Republicans on issues like abortion. But Mosura said she kept coming back to the conclusion that Trump would put Americans like her first and improve her economic prospects.
Mosura said she has been unable to find full-time work in her field and is planning to change her party affiliation to Republican. But she also gets anxious when she hears GOP politicians talk about reducing government spending.
“We helped get you in office; please take care of us,” Mosura said, shifting the conversation as though she were speaking to Trump. “Please don’t cut the things that help the most vulnerable.”
‘Serious, serious trouble’
Located about an hour north of Pittsburgh, New Castle is the third-largest incorporated city in western Pennsylvania.
After it was founded around the turn of the 19th century, the city became a major destination for Italian immigrants. New Castle emerged as an industrial hub known for its tin mills in the 1800s. The new residents built a lively downtown filled with shops and bars.
New Castle was also home to a thriving labor movement that helped shape the city’s historically left-leaning politics. Before Trump won New Castle, the city had last backed a Republican presidential candidate in 1956, when voters narrowly supported Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) over Adlai Stevenson (D), according to Andrei Pagnotta, a resident who has spent years studying the region’s election results.
But the city changed dramatically as factories closed and younger residents moved to more vibrant urban areas. The busiest destinations downtown today are the 60-year-old Capitol Grill bar, which sells $2.75 Bud Lights, and Hazel’s Restaurant, where guests can get a stuffed pork chop dinner for $11.99. The city’s population of 21,000 is roughly half what it was during its peak in the 1940s.
Federal benefits have helped keep residents afloat, and today that safety net is deeply interwoven with daily life. The 8.5-square-mile city includes 10 public housing projects. About 60 percent of the houses in the city are rental properties, and federal housing vouchers help countless families afford rent. Many residents also receive Medicaid and food stamps.
More than half of the Lawrence County Community Action Partnership’s $32 million budget comes from federal aid, said Scott, the organization’s leader. That helps it do things like shuttle low-income residents to medical appointments and offer rental assistance. Federal aid is also key in keeping New Castle’s children fed. About 90 percent of students come from low-income families and qualify for free school lunches, and many are sent home with food to eat over the weekend.
“It’s a very depressed area, so if our funding were to go away, and I have not heard it will, but if it were to go, we would be some in serious, serious trouble,” said Gregg Paladina, superintendent of the New Castle Area School District.
A decade ago, Mosura was a fervent supporter of the Clintons. She recalls meeting former president Bill Clinton in New Castle at a rally during Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for the White House.
But the single mother said she began to drift away from Democrats as the party’s promises to help people like herself began to ring hollow. She said she’s been “suffering a lot” because of rising prices. Groceries she once thought of as staples – like soda – are now luxuries.
“People are struggling now more than ever, in this city especially,” said Mosura, who pays $375 a month for her apartment. She said she’s “prayed more in the past year than ever before” because of her mounting bills.
New Castle was a bastion for Democratic votes up until this year. But in larger Lawrence County, the shift toward the GOP has been ongoing. White, working class Americans were increasingly drawn to Republican candidates, in part because of their messaging on security and immigration.
According to Census data, White residents make up three-fourths of New Castle’s population, while Black residents account for 10 percent. The population also includes 10 percent of residents who identify as mixed race and five percent who are Hispanic.
Lynne Ryan, chairwoman of the Lawrence County Republican Party, said Democrats lost the support of New Castle residents over their handing of illegal immigration and foreign aid. She said Trump was a skilled politician whom low-income voters found to be honest and relatable.
“Trump won’t cut necessary programs, and nowhere has he said he is cutting any of that,” Ryan said. “He is cutting bloated government. He is not cutting programs that work for the American people.”
City Administrator Chris Frye, a Republican and former mayor of New Castle, said he expects GOP leaders will push for some changes to how federal programs are administered. But Frye urged his party to show “empathy” when it comes to determining the actual benefits that people receive.
“I think it would be stupid to just take something away,” Frye said. “We would have mass chaos. Mass homelessness … so nationally, I don’t think it is going to be a situation where they are taking away from people.”
Detractors worry that New Castle residents will come to regret their votes.
“I have big concerns those who voted for him didn’t realize what they are doing and it’s going to affect their family and friends and probably themselves, too,” said Timothy Buck, chairman of the Lawrence County Democratic Party.
On the 100 block of Richelieu Street in New Castle’s Lower East Side neighborhood, many residents rely on some form of government assistance – and most people support Trump. More than a month after the election, Trump signs and flags were still planted in yards and on porches.
Steve Tillia, 59, receives $1,600 a month in Social Security disability payments and $300 in food stamps to support himself and his son. Tillia, who said he is unable to work after suffering from mini strokes, still drives around New Castle with a Trump flag anchored on the bumper of his SUV.
Tillia said he’s confident that Trump and GOP leaders will reduce spending by “cutting the fat” out of government – and not slashing benefits.
“It’s not cutting government programs, it’s cutting the amount of people needed to run a program,” he said. “They are cutting staff, which could actually increase the amount of the programs that we get.”
Tillia’s neighbor, Dawn Simmons, nodded her head in agreement. Simmons receives $900 a month in Social Security benefits and $171 a month in food stamps, and she also said Trump’s decisions may even lead to enhanced benefits in the coming years because he plans to “put Americans first.”
The neighbors on Richelieu Street said they are broadly supportive of Trump’s Cabinet picks, as well as Musk’s plans for the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk has been highlighting examples of what he considers government waste on X, his social media platform – at times pushing misleading information. Some of those examples have nonetheless resonated in New Castle.
“Why do we need to be studying cats in Russia?” asked Tillia, referring to a program that used cats to study spinal cord injuries.
New Castle residents who didn’t support Trump said they are dismayed that their community appears to have voted against its own self-interests.
As they folded clothes at the Colonial laundromat, Tom Jones, 86, and his 75-year-old wife, Lottie, said they are already hearing from parishioners at their church who worry how they will get by if federal spending is reduced.
“My fear is, they will get rid of Obamacare, and mark my words, this will just be the beginning of their troubles,” Jones said. “I want to say, ‘I told you so.’ … These people who voted for him didn’t look at the big picture.”
But as Kathy Davis sat in the “smokers patio” at the Riverside Apartments, she said she is as confident as ever that Trump’s presidency will benefit her.
Davis, a retired artist, subsists on a monthly $1,300 Social Security payment and $75 in food stamps. She rents her studio apartment for $385 per month. Asked whether she worries that Trump’s agenda could hurt the poor, Davis said the incoming president is “too smart for that.”
“You can’t wipe out half of the population” of New Castle, Davis said. “We are old and tired and just want to be taken care of, and Trump has too much common sense, so I don’t think he is going to do anything to hurt us.”
