Almost 6 in 10 voters in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, cast their 2024 presidential ballots for Donald Trump. Two months into his second term, a sampling of voters are concerned about federal job cuts at Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
On Thursday morning — two months since Trump was sworn in — diners at Linda’s Café, on the town borders of Lexington Park and California, took a few minutes between forks full of omelets, thick slices of bacon and hash browns, to offer a snapshot of how they’re feeling 60 days into the new administration.
”I don’t know yet, I’m just kind of going to sit back and watch — we did things for a long time one way, and it didn’t kind of work out,” said one man, a military contractor, seated at the end of the counter. “And this is a drastic change.”
Voters who spoke with WTOP cited inflation during the Biden administration as the main reason Trump was reelected.
”Overall, I would say there was a lot of optimism, a lot of hope to see things go the right way, right now I think there’s a lot of uncertainty,” said another diner, who owns a nearby steakhouse.
Many of the customers said recent federal job cuts, as well as the Trump administration’s return-to-office mandate has the area in flux.
”Most times, when we want change, we want it to affect other people, not ourselves,” said the military contractor. “And this is affecting quite a lot of people.”
Approximately 10% of St. Mary’s County’s workforce consists of federal employees.
Traditionally Republican, many county Trump voters have lost their jobs with the ongoing downsizing of the federal government.
”There’s some folks who didn’t expect this — didn’t see themselves as being the fraud that was being referenced,” said the military contractor, referring to the Trump and “Department of Government Efficiency” efforts to reduce fraud and waste within the federal government.
The steakhouse owner is worried over how uncertainty at the Patuxent River base, which is two miles south, would affect the St. Mary’s economy.
”A lot of people’s jobs are at stake — that base is kind of our breadwinner,” he said. “So, any pressure, or any threat to that base kind of hurts us, as a community.”
Restaurant owner Linda Palchinsky said for the past few years, starting with COVID, many of her customers were Patuxent employees who were working from home, who would stop by for breakfast.
“Now, they’re rushing to get on the base, because it’s bumper to bumper traffic to get on there now,” Palchinsky said. “When I’d come to work at 5:30 in the morning, there used to be no one else on the road.”
As for her personal opinion on the first 60 days of the Trump administration?
”I learned a long time ago I don’t discuss politics or religion in my business. I just say ‘good morning, thank you for coming, I appreciate it,’ and let it go like that. But I do hear a lot,” she joked.
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