From ‘A+’ grade to ‘we can’t stand this much longer,’ Georgia voters take stock of Trump’s first year back in office

Boston, Georgia
 — 

Franz Rowland has heard President Donald Trump endlessly brag about a roaring economy, but he’s seen few signs of it from his cotton farm here in southern Georgia.

“Trump says, you know, be patient. The farmer is going to be better than ever,” Rowland said, standing on the edge of his field about a dozen miles north of the Florida-Georgia state line. “Well, you better hurry up because we can’t stand this much longer.”

Rowland voted for Trump, hoping a stronger economy and better trade deals would follow. He doesn’t entirely blame the president’s policies for one of the worst years he’s ever had farming, but he said the administration hasn’t made it any easier to make a living.

“The economy may be doing better for some people, but on the farm it ain’t,” said Rowland, 72, speaking slowly and measuring his words. “With the prices like they are today, we’re not going to make any money, we just try to figure out a way to not lose so much.”

As the president begins his second year back in office, 58% of Americans call the first year of his second term a failure, a new CNN poll finds, with 55% saying Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the country.

Similar sentiments came alive during conversations this week with voters in Georgia, a state critical to the fall’s midterm elections.

One of the most closely-watched Senate races in the nation, a wide-open contest for governor and competitive state legislative races are already shaping up here as a referendum on Trump’s agenda and how the state has fared over the past year.

“We’re still treading water,” said Florence Allen, the owner of a toy store in Macon who has ridden a yearlong roller coaster of the Trump administration’s trade policy. “My economy is not hot. My costs have not gone down on anything, not here at the store and not at home.”

Inside William’s Fun Smart Toys, which Allen has run for 20 years, the fallout from the president’s on-again, off-again tariffs are apparent on shelf after shelf. She has stopped carrying some items, swallowed the duties on other goods and passed along rising costs to customers when she feels like she has no other choice.

“Something that was $15 on my shelf suddenly went to $30,” Allen said. “One of my philosophies when I’m looking at new toys, if I wouldn’t buy it to give to my own grandchildren, I don’t need it here.”

When Trump visited Macon two days before Election Day in 2024, he pledged to “handle inflation” and “get energy costs so low.” A week earlier at another campaign stop in Georgia, he pledged: “I will cut your energy prices in half within 12 months — 50 percent, half, 5-0.”

Asked whether those promises had been fulfilled and her energy bill was now half, Allen said: “No, it’s gone up.”

High energy costs have emerged as one of the most contentious political issues in Georgia, largely attributed to a rising demand for electricity to power new data centers. Last fall, voters expressed their anger by knocking off two Republican members of the public service commission and electing two Democrats, the party’s first statewide wins to state-level offices since 2006.

Georgia has long stood as a leading barometer for Trump’s performance.

He won the state in 2016. He lost it in 2020, which placed it at the center of unfounded claims of widespread election fraud and an unprecedented attempt to overturn a presidential race.

He won it again in 2024, defeating Kamala Harris by 115,000 votes after falling 11,779 votes short to Joe Biden.

Along the way, Trump also flipped Baldwin County for the first time, ending a 20-year winning streak for Democratic presidential candidates in the central Georgia county about 100 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta.

“He gets an A+ from me,” said Janice Westmoreland, a retiree and longtime Republican activist, adding that she feels more secure with Trump in office. “He’s working hard. He has a plan and he’s implementing that plan.”

She embodied a sustained sense of excitement reflected in interviews with several loyal Trump supporters in downtown Milledgeville.

“I think he’s doing great,” said Tony Agee, who works as a grading contractor. “I’m tired of the United States getting pushed around.”

Elinor Carrick, a military veteran, said she believes Trump has restored stability to the White House and law and order to American cities. Asked about his handling of the economy, she said: “Looking at where my 401k is, I’m going to give him an A. It’s done pretty well.”

Carrick said she gave Trump credit for his policies at home and abroad, but added that she was closely watching the foreign policy of his second term.

“I don’t want us to be the world’s police force, however, I do want us to take care of our own and I think by what they did in Venezuela was a very good step,” Carrick said. “I do not want any long drawn-out entanglements, but at the same time I recognize that there are times you have to go on offense. You can’t always play defense because it does nothing but weaken you.”

For all of the many challenges facing Trump as he enters his second year back in power, the ability to keep his winning coalition together will be at the center of the fight for control of Congress as voters give their verdict on the actions of the first half of his second term.

Sweeping cuts made across the federal government, including about one-third of the workforce at the Atlanta-based CDC, are expected to be at the heart of political arguments in the midterm elections as Democrats seek to make Republicans accountable.

“It just felt like someone came in and just knocked all the pins over and just left, without any consideration to what they were doing or what they were cutting,” said Vi Le, who lost her job in violence prevention. “Many of us have been working at CDC for decades through multiple administrations, Republican and Democrat, and it didn’t matter.”

She added: “I don’t think that voters voted for this.”

‘Somebody wasn’t looking out for us’

For 48 years, Rowland has worked his family’s farm in Thomas County, which sits on the state’s southern border with Florida. He grows cotton, oats and corn, hoping a diversified portfolio helps him weather a financial crisis that is looming over wide swaths of rural America.

“We’re going to try to plant the crops that’s going to allow us to lose less money,” Rowland said. “Not make money.”

From his home nearly 800 miles away from the nation’s capital, he has watched the Trump administration’s trade policy with bewilderment.

“I don’t know who dropped the ball in Washington, to allow these prices – this trade – to diminish like it has, but somebody dropped the ball,” Rowland said. “Somebody wasn’t looking out for us.”

He is among the farmers who will soon receive a payment from the government, part of an $11 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, which is intended to help offset losses from 2025 and projected losses for this year. He’s grateful for the assistance, but he echoes the sentiment of many farmers who call for fair trade, not more aid.

“I’m not against tariffs,” he said, “but right now, they’re not helping us.”

As he thinks about whether his two sons and grandsons will be able to make a living farming in the next generations ahead, he sounds as disappointed as he is dismayed.

“I thought by now, we would have some really good trade. I thought it would be better,” Rowland said. “I don’t see that light at the end of the tunnel and I’m worried about what’s going to happen out here.”