'The Trump effect is real': Conservative Santa Feans tout early months of second term

Yahoo

01-06-2025

Freddie Lopez, a native Santa Fean, feels the best is still to come for President Donald Trump's second term — despite the flurry of executive orders already issued in the early days of his presidency.
'Amazement' was how Lopez characterized his assessment of Round 2 for Trump.
He thought 'everything went down the drain so quickly' under President Joe Biden, Lopez said, so Trump had to act fast in the face of what he called 'misinformation' and 'disinformation' from the mainstream media and Democratic officials.
'Our nation's border is sealed again,' he said, adding he believes Trump is off to a flying start.
Lopez and other conservatives in heavily Democratic Santa Fe — and across the state — are heartened by federal policies that have roiled their neighbors, and they are baffled by progressives' protests against what they see as a necessary course change — the cuts, the tariffs and the hardline immigration policy. They hope the 'Trump effect' will help buoy a Republican Party that long has had little power, both locally and statewide.
Conservatives here are feeling energized by Trump's second term, which has ushered in a whirlwind of changes they stand by.
'Everybody is 100% behind what is happening,' said Bob Witsenhausen, the former chair of the Republican Party of Santa Fe County. 'This is what we voted for. This is what we wanted.
'The only griping is they are not going far enough in Congress,' he added. 'We've got some Republicans in Congress dragging their feet.'
Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, continue to sound the alarm bells but remain in the minority in both the U.S. House and Senate.
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Jean Palmer, left, Sandy Schwartz and Betsy Lombardi with the Raging Grannies belt out rally songs in January at the Roundhouse during a "freedom rally" organized by Cold War submarine veteran Beach Beauchamp. The event focused on defining a new Democratic approach in the wake of losses in the November and the election of President Donald Trump.
'The only thing Trump has been successful at in his second term is maintaining his hold over cowardly GOP leaders who will sing his praises no matter how bad of a job he does or how much of a cartoonish embarrassment he is to our country and Constitution,' Daniel Garcia, a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of New Mexico, said in a statement.
'Progressives went too far'
Santa Fe County is one of the bluest counties in New Mexico, a state where Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature and the Governor's Office, and hold all five congressional seats.
The county reaffirmed its status a Democratic stronghold in November, when 73% of voters favored Kamala Harris over Trump in the presidential race.
While he lost New Mexico, however, Trump picked up votes almost everywhere in the state, doing better in most counties than other recent Republican presidential candidates. He lost New Mexico by just 6 percentage points, compared to 11 points in 2020 — the best showing for a Republican since 2004, when President George W. Bush narrowly won the state.
Public displays of opposition to moves made by the Trump administration have been widespread and routine in Santa Fe, with swarms of protesters gathering in front of the state Capitol in recent months to express outrage and frustration.
Another such event is planned June 14, when Trump plans to roll out a military parade in celebration of the U.S. Army's 250th birthday — as well as his own birthday.
The 'No Kings Day Mass Protest' — a 10 a.m. march from the Roundhouse to the Plaza — is part of a nationwide movement 'in response to the increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption of the Trump administration,' a group of organizers, including the Democratic Party of Santa Fe County, said in a news release last week.
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Protesters line Paseo de Peralta in April as thousands of people gather at the state Capitol for a 'mass mobilization' against President Donald Trump.
But the City Different's Republican minority have had a different reaction to new developments in the federal government, doubling down in their support of Trump's policy priorities.
Witsenhausen cited lower inflation and Trump's crackdown on immigration as two issues central to his support for the new administration's agenda.
He said he feels the 'Trump effect is real.'
He believes the problem of rising homelessness has improved slightly in the City Different since Trump's election and that folks are reining in progressive policies at the state and local levels.
'I don't know if that's people realizing what's going on, or if deportations are a part of that, or what,' Witsenhausen said. 'But the message is progressives went too far, and now we have to correct course. It's definitely happening.'
'Losing their political power'?
Since Trump was sworn in Jan. 20, New Mexico's all-Democratic congressional delegation has been tearing into the Republican president as he rapidly issues a dizzying series of executive orders and seeks to reshape the federal government.
The state's federal lawmakers have held town halls and news conferences, raising alarms about policies coming out of the Trump administration — most recently concerns about sharp cuts to Medicaid and federal food assistance.
Federal government workers caught in sweeping layoffs and organizations affected by steep federal cuts have decried the impacts. And rally-goers have spoken out repeatedly in Santa Fe.
During a demonstration in February, more than 500 protesters clogged the areas in front of the Old Santa Fe Trail entrance of the Roundhouse to rail against Trump policy directives as well as the role tech billionaire Elon Musk had taken on at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency.
They wielded signs bearing slogans like 'Flush Musk' and 'Stop the Steal of Our Democracy.'
'I truly feel like our democracy is at stake,' said protester Missy Jones, a Santa Fe resident. '… My concern here is for all groups of people — Jewish, [transgender], [racial minorities], women — I just feel like I'm seeing it being picked apart piece by piece by piece.'
The Republican Party of Santa Fe County, meanwhile, took to social media to offer a different viewpoint, writing in a Facebook post there were 'lots of Santa Fe crazies out.'
'Do they know what they are protesting? Serious question,' one person wrote in the comments section of the post.
'Well, it's Santa Fe. It's going to be the last holdout,' Witsenhausen said, referring to progressives in the state. 'They are losing their political power. … They don't really have any right now, except for places like Santa Fe.'
Nonetheless, the Republican Party remains an underdog in the state.
With a gubernatorial election looming in 2026 one GOP candidate — Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull — has entered the race to succeed Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, whose second and last term ends in December 2026. But Democrats are the front-runners, with former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's campaign raising $3.7 million and Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman raising $1 million.
The last time Republicans won a gubernatorial election in New Mexico was 2014.
'Fat around the middle'
DOGE reforms and the slashing of federal jobs have perhaps been the subject of the most controversy when it comes to protests in Santa Fe. Protesters have directed plenty of ire toward Musk, the Tesla CEO who has recently said he will reduce his political spending and spend less time in Washington, D.C., to focus on his companies.
State Sen. Pat Boone, R-Elida, an Eastern New Mexico rancher, hasn't seen a move he has not agreed with.
He isn't concerned about new work requirements in the House budget bill for many receiving Medicaid coverage, echoing others who have said Trump and Republicans are aiming to make the program more efficient.
'If they are qualified for it, they are going to get it,' Boone said. 'I think there's a lot of hysteria that's unnecessary. … We've been headed off a steep cliff, and I think he's getting us back from falling off that cliff.'
Fears about cuts to Medicaid are looming large in New Mexico, where almost 40% of patients are enrolled in the government-subsidized insurance program — well above the national average. Garcia, the state Democratic Party spokesperson, noted in a statement almost 880,000 patients are enrolled in Medicaid in New Mexico, with 34% of them children and 37% living in a rural area.
'It is no exaggeration to say that these GOP cuts will be deadly in New Mexico,' Garcia said, adding, 'The pain felt by working New Mexicans by these cuts to critical programs would be exacerbated by the soaring consumer and grocery prices caused by Trump's trade policy.'
Boone feels the layoffs of federal workers in New Mexico, and in other states, is another important step in shrinking the federal government. Though local, state and federal governments are large employers in Santa Fe and statewide, in Boone's view, whether there are too many people on the payroll is something that merits a closer look.
'I think it's a streamlining process that really needs to be implemented,' he said. 'I think there's way too much extra fat around the middle of what we do. I'm not sure what the statistics are, but I think there's more workers than there is work.'
'The DOGE reforms are necessary because there's been a lot of fraud and abuse in our government for many years, not just through the Biden administration,' said state Sen. Ant Thornton, R-Sandia Park, who was a guest speaker at the Republican Party of Santa Fe County's May meeting.
Anthony Thornton
Anthony "Ant" Thornton
Among the Trump priorities Thornton espouses is the president's embrace of digital currency. Trump has ordered the establishment of a 'strategic bitcoin reserve' for the federal government.
In the Legislative session that ended earlier this year, Thornton, who recently attended a bitcoin conference in Las Vegas, Nev., sponsored a bill that would have created a bitcoin reserve for New Mexico. The proposed measure did not make it out of a committee.
But Thornton is among the Republicans expressing displeasure with Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' that will now be weighed by the U.S. Senate after its passage in the House. He feels the legislation does not go far enough. In particular, he is concerned about how it would, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, increase federal deficits by $3.8 trillion over the next decade.
'When you have to live within your means, you have to actually stop buying things, or stop paying for things, and that's hard for the government to do because there are so many people who are dependent on it,' Thornton said. 'That's why politicians, I think, have a hard time.'
Speaking of cuts, he said, 'I guess I feel like it's something that has to be done, but I don't see any party willing to make that true sacrifice.'