10/29/2025
🕊️ A Tale of Two Presidents: It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times
It’s 7am. I am at our nations capital in my hotel room preparing for the 1st day of my conference. As I am looking out from my window with marvel over the views of the National Mall, i cant stop thinking about national news.
There’s an uneasy sense that what once felt stable is shifting beneath our feet in just a few short years.
A tale of two presidents: president Trump during the covid crisis vs today’s Trump in 2025. It truly was the best of times, and now, it’s the worst of times.
In 2019, President Donald Trump led a nation through a crisis at a time when people were dying by the thousands, families were stuck in their homes, people lost their jobs, it was pure and utter chaos during that times. And, despite the amid deep divisions, the Trump administration in 2019/2020 projected a certain confidence.
I remember vividly, in that moment of fear and confusion, the Trump administration appeared benevolent, at least briefly when the Federal relief checks went out, unemployment benefits expanded, and “protecting the American people” became a shared priority.
⏩Fast forward to 2025…the tone feels radically different.
👉In 2019, the story was growth and deregulation. The federal safety net still functioned, however imperfectly. Families in crisis had access to SNAP, unemployment aid, and housing assistance.
👉Today, we face a reality where government shutdowns are used as bargaining tools. Federal employees are furloughed, social programs halted, and benefits delayed. Reports suggest that cuts or interruptions to food assistance could leave millions of working families wondering how to feed their children next month.
And this is no longer just an economic problem.
It’s becoming a public health emergency.
Under the same Administration, President Trump in 2019, when things looked broadly optimistic and his administration had a veneer of benevolence; and President Trump in 2025, when policies are contributing to disruption of supports, the erosion of safety nets, and a public-health crisis in the making.
As social workers, advocates, and citizens, we must not stand by.
No one can fix this alone. But together, we can push back against the tide of indifference‼️
