It begins with a number that is more than just a statistic: 150,000 people in Minnesota are at risk of losing their health insurance. What is dryly referred to as “budget consolidation” in the corridors of Washington means, in the lives of these people, a plunge into uncertainty, illness, and despair. The author of this social cruelty: the Republican-controlled government under President Donald Trump, who is dismantling the social safety net with ruthless calculation - thread by thread, life by life.
The planned cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act are not slips or necessities. They are ideologically driven. About 110,000 people in Minnesota alone would be affected by the Medicaid cuts, another 40,000 by the weakening of federal subsidies for Obamacare. What the president sells as an “efficiency reform” is in truth a systematic destruction of social infrastructure. Nationally, 13.7 million Americans would be affected.
And while millions lose their coverage, Trump’s tax policy simultaneously ensures the exact opposite of balance - tax giveaways for the rich, billions in relief for corporations - and a national debt that is expected to grow by three trillion dollars over the next ten years. It is a fiscal imbalance not born of accident, but of political intent. Those at the bottom are to have less. Those at the top - even more.
Like a magnifying glass, Minnesota reveals the full extent of the damage. It’s not just the healthcare system that is faltering, but also an economic giant: UnitedHealth, one of the world’s largest health insurance companies and a flagship of the state, has lost half its stock market value in just a few months. CEO Andrew Witty resigned, and the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating alleged Medicare fraud. In the midst of a health crisis, of all times. Now, of all times.
And as if that weren’t enough, another America is dying in Minnesota - the one that protects its children. Since 2000, 23 children under the age of eight have died from accidental fentanyl ingestion. A quiet dying that no one wants to stop. In 2023 alone, the number of accidental fentanyl exposures among children nationwide reached 539 cases. And what does Trump do? No comprehensive prevention policy. No state support for affected families. Instead - rhetoric, harsher penalties, symbolic politics.
The retreats continue - now also on the rails. The planned Northern Lights Express, a rail project between Minneapolis and Duluth, is not being realized. The state funds - 77 million dollars - are being redirected, for example into unemployment insurance, because Trump never delivered the promised federal funding. Instead of vision - dismantling. Instead of progress - stagnation.
A glimmer of hope? Maybe. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing 2.2 million dollars for the cleanup of contaminated soil in Minnesota. But even that is more an attempt at damage control than real forward-looking policy.
Minnesota today stands at a tipping point. It is a state long regarded as a model - for social justice, economic strength, and innovation. But under Trump, it is losing all of that - the social fabric, the economic confidence, the trust in the state. If even a state like Minnesota is faltering - who will still stand?
Trump’s policies don’t just affect individuals. They strike at the very principle of solidarity. They hollow out what generations have built - the promise that the state will protect in times of need. Today, that promise falls. And with it, a state.
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