Trans troops, tariffs, DOGE layoffs, housing: Utah governor weighs in on Trump's moves

Yahoo

20-03-2025

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox conducts a news conference broadcast by PBS Utah in Salt Lake City on March 20, 2025. (Pool photo by Rick Egan \ The Salt Lake Tribune)
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox weighed in on a wide range of federal issues on Thursday during his monthly PBS Utah news conference.
Cox, a Republican, fielded multiple questions from reporters on the impacts of a variety of recent moves from President Donald Trump's administration and how they impact Utah — from tariffs, to the Department of Government Efficiency's layoffs of tens of thousands of federal workers, to Trump's policy to bar transgender military members, to the Trump administration's recent announcement to use federal land for housing.
Here's a breakdown of Cox's responses. You can also watch the entire news conference here:
In January, Trump signed an executive order to ban openly transgender people from the military. On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked that ban from taking effect and ordered Trump's Department of Defense to revert to military policy that was in place before he issued that executive order.
Last week, however, the Utah National Guard began encouraging transgender service members to consider voluntary separation from the force as part of implementing 'Phase 1' guidance related to Trump's order, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Asked about Trump's order and the judge's ruling Thursday, Cox told reporters 'we'll be watching this very closely,' adding that Utah has 'a very, very small number' of military members who are transgender.
'And we care about them,' he said. 'We care about everyone in this state. I'm grateful for anyone who's willing to put on a uniform to defend our country.'
The governor added that what ultimately comes of Trump's order will be a decision that will ultimately be made in court.
'As that decision is made, if the court rules in favor of President Trump's policy, then we'll do everything possible to help them transition to other work,' he said. 'We've got a system set up to do that. We want to do this as compassionately as possible and help those people who may need to find another job if that order goes through.'
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Cox did not answer when he was pressed on whether he supports Trump's position.
In 2017, Cox's predecessor, former Gov. Gary Herbert, spoke out against Trump's first move to bar transgender people from the military.
'I'm not going to defend President Trump on this issue,' Herbert said at the time, the Tribune reported. 'People ought to be treated fairly with equality — and that includes the gay community, the LGBTQ community.'
In an opinion piece published in the Washington Examiner, a conservative outlet, this week, Cox wrote it's 'encouraging' to see Trump and newly confirmed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon 'reducing the role of the Department of Education and returning power where it belongs: to states and local communities.'
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order directing McMahon to dismantle the U.S. Education Department.
Earlier Thursday, Cox expanded on his stance that overseeing education 'is not what the federal government was intended to do.'
'I believe, under the Constitution, this is the purview of state government,' he said.
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Cox said 'just the reporting requirements alone' by the Department of Education creates an 'overwhelming regulatory burden' on educators.
'The other piece of this that benefits all of us is the amount of money,' Cox added. 'If you look at the amount of money that is spent on the Department of Education, and then how much of that money actually gets to students, there's a multibillion-dollar delta there.'
Cox also acknowledged potential downsides, however, including that it could result in a reduction of funding that is sent to the states. He said he's advocating for an approach to prevent that.
'We can do two things,' he said. 'We can actually get more money to the states and save the federal government money, which we need to do … just by eliminating that and block granting those funds to the states,' he said. 'I can tell you that that is very popular on the right and the left when it comes to the governors in this country.'
After Trump put tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China and spurred what's now shaping up to be a full-on trade war, Cox has expressed concerns about how it could impact Utah's economy.
'Excluding gold exported to the UK for refinement, Canada and Mexico are Utah's two largest trading partners for imports and exports,' Cox tweeted earlier this month. ' Looks like we are about to find out if everything I learned in my poli-sci/economics classes was wrong.'
He also said he's 'assembled a team of experts to monitor the effects of these tariffs on Utahns and report findings — good or bad — as they become available.'
On Thursday, Cox walked a fine line between not disparaging Trump, but also calling the move 'a huge gamble.'
'Look, I hope that President Trump is right when it comes to tariffs,' Cox said. 'I really do. I hope this works. I think it's a huge gamble.'
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He added that everything he's previously learned about economics is that 'tariffs are bad. … So yeah, I'm concerned.'
However, Cox said he's also trying to keep an open mind, adding that most countries these days now have tariffs, and 'it's hard to debate the argument that if tariffs are so bad, why do all these countries have tariffs?'
'So look, I'm open to new information. I'm open to learning. I'm curious,' Cox said. 'I'm hopeful that this will lead to something better for our country. And we're going to find out. … Markets are going to do what markets do, and we'll see if it's a little short-term harm for a long-term gain, or if this potentially sends us into a recession. I certainly hope not.'
Trump's newly created Department of Government Efficiency has been aggressively cutting federal spending, which has resulted in tens of thousands of federal workers losing their jobs.
Asked how he feels about DOGE and its federal layoffs, Cox told reporters Thursday that he has 'long said that the federal government is spending way too much money and that we have to do something.'
'So I love the idea of DOGE,' he said, 'I think it's really important. I'm grateful that finally someone is taking this seriously, understanding that we can't keep spending like this.'
However, Cox acknowledged, without naming specifics, 'where it's been a little clumsy, where it's been done the wrong way.'
'My concern there,' he said, 'is if done poorly, the backlash will be so severe that it will end. And we need it to continue.'
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Cox added that he's 'hopeful that they'll learn lessons from the places where they've made mistakes.'
'But it's going to be hard. Cutting is hard. People losing their jobs are hard,' he said. 'I hope we can do that with a level of compassion and understanding.'
The governor added that his administration has been working with the state Department of Workforce Services to help any former federal employees looking for work.
'For anybody that's losing their jobs, we're on it. We've got resources available. We want them,' Cox said. 'You can come to the Department of Workforce Services, they will help you. We will try to get you another job so you can provide for your family. That's the way we should do it. … We should do it in a compassionate way that recognizes these are real people.'
Earlier this week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner announced a partnership to 'identify and open under utilized federal lands for affordable housing.' Turner said HUD will work with the Department of Interior to 'implement tailored housing programs with guidance from states and localities.'
Cox — who has an ambitious goal to help the state build 35,000 new starter homes by 2028 — applauded it as a 'great move.'
'It's something we've been advocating for a long time,' Cox said. 'We desperately need more housing all across the country, especially in the West (and) the Mountain West.'
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The federal government owns nearly 65% of Utah's total land area, or 35 million acres out of a total of 54.3 million acres, according to a recently published report from the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
Cox also pointed to a recent social media post by Arthur Gailes, senior manager of housing supply initiatives for the American Enterprise Institute's Housing Center, that said if the federal government 'sold just 0.1% of its land, it would be enough to easily build 3 million homes.'
'We're not talking about building houses under Delicate Arch,' Cox said, referring to the state's iconic landmark in Arches National Park. 'This is land within the boundaries of existing cities and towns throughout the country.'
Cox also pointed to Utah Sen. Mike Lee's proposed HOUSES Act, which seeks to allow parcels of federal land to be purchased by a state or local government at a reduced price if it's used for housing, subject to a density requirement, and protects against development of second homes.
Cox also pointed to Clark County, in Nevada, where a similar proposal was enacted after former Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat, passed a bill that allowed the Bureau of Land Management in that county to let housing be built on its land.
'It's incredible what they've been able to do,' he said. 'People wonder why housing prices are lower in Las Vegas, it's because of this bill that he passed. But it only applied to Clark County. So it's frustrating that we haven't been able to do the same things here. I would love to be able to do that here, and we might just get that opportunity.'
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