How the Trump Administration Has ‘Put the Fear of God’ Into Low-Income Families

By Roqayah Chamseddine | April 29, 2025 | 11:32am

Photo by The White House

Trump Administration Budget cuts

How the Trump Administration Has ‘Put the Fear of God’ Into Low-Income Families

On April 1, the entirety of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program’s (LIHEAP) staff were abruptly fired, threatening the health and welfare of millions of American households. According to data from Statista Research, “nearly six million households in the United States received financial aid with energy bills from the LIHEAP.” The Trump administration’s massive budget cuts and federal layoffs have started to obstruct funds that helped thousands shoulder the costs of programs that otherwise would be out of reach for them and their families, impacting their livelihoods almost overnight.

Marta Garcia, a woman in New York who helps care for her elderly mother, tells Splinter that the Trump administration’s attacks on social services have “put the fear of God” into many people, especially low-income families. “Some places here don’t even have proper heating or AC units and so they have to apply to get assistance through things like [the Home Energy Assistance program]. Now we’re wondering what will happen to us, to our parents, and to our children if these benefits are cut or made even more difficult to access,” Garcia said. “My mother is ill, and I can’t imagine her going through the winter or summer here without some kind of government aid. I’m terrified for her, and for anyone else who can’t keep up with things as it is. These cuts are hurting millions of us. What they provide is already barely enough, so how much more can we take?”

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Garcia is one of millions of Americans who are now being forced to come to terms with the Trump administration’s so-called attempt to “make America healthy again,” leaving them without life-changing federal assistance and throwing them deeper into poverty.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program—in place since 1981—and other federal initiatives that help Americans reduce the costs associated with heating, cooling and home weatherization are now in crisis. In an interview with PBS, Logan Atkinson Burke, executive director for the Alliance for Affordable Energy, emphasized that these cuts and lay-offs will dramatically impact states without safety net programs. “We’re really concerned about the summertime,” Burke said. “Here in Louisiana, it gets extraordinarily hot. And if our local community action organizations don’t have the funds to support people through the summer, it gets people off-balance and unable to manage all of their other costs.”

Utility services aren’t the only programs facing cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to a report from Politico, the Trump administration is threatening to eliminate dozens of federal programs which fall under the jurisdiction of the Administration for Community Living (ACL) which include “protective services for vulnerable seniors, chronic disease self-management education, resource centers for people who have been paralyzed or lost a limb and one that tries to help older people prevent falls.” The ACL, which is a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is set to be disassembled under the Trump administration’s proposed reorganization of the HHS—what the administration describes as a “dramatic restructuring” that will result in thousands of lay-offs, causing “a total downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees.”

The administration’s attacks on federal programs have also put initiatives that support childcare, community development, health research, and housing assistance in its crosshairs. In West Virginia, the farms that once benefited from services like the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Program (LFPA) are being threatened with the loss of millions of dollars. Trey Yates, a local West Virginia farmer who produces a churn-style butter that goes to school food programs and food banks, told MetroNews that he “never thought that the government would think that government funds were a waste of money going to kids and folks facing hunger.”

As Trump’s budget cuts continue to threaten social safety net programs across the United States, the impact will undoubtedly reverberate for years to come, especially in states where federal assistance is already difficult to access, let alone maintain. What can arguably be best described as a form of sabotage designed to undermine the welfare of the American worker, the administration has gone from pandering to the working class to putting their livelihoods and health at even greater risk. This jarring economic destabilization will only deepen inequality across the country, and it amplifies a troubling agenda to gut vital institutions that, for millions of people, are their only lifeline.