Dad, they're trying to bankrupt me
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Trump funding cuts ripple through rural America
The phone rang over the whine of Trey Yates' butter churn. The person calling was polite, but the message was devastating: Mountaineer Food Bank was ending Yates' butter contract, due to the federal government's funding cuts.
The next day, President Donald Trump signed a declaration celebrating National Agriculture Day, praising farmers and food makers like Yates. But the canceled contract with the federally funded food bank, one of only two in West Virginia, had been a lifeline for Yates' business.
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In that moment, Yates, 27, wasn't sure how much longer he could hold on. Heart pounding, he called his father, John Yates, shocked that Trump's administration would take such action.
"Dad, they're trying to bankrupt me," he said. Yates, a registered independent, said he did not vote for Trump.
Along the winding back roads and Appalachian hollers of West Virginia, in a state where Trump won 70% of the votes cast in November, his administration's vow to cut back on government spending is being keenly felt.
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I feel bad for the guy but I feel worse for the people who will be going hungry.
