Ben Lomond resident, businessman and local political activist Tom Decker celebrated Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday. In the fall, Decker wore a Donald Trump hat for two months around Santa Cruz County, hoping to engage in conversations about policy. He expected opposition, but mostly he found tacit support. Now that Trump is the 47th president, Decker outlines three Trump policies he supports – on immigration, taxes and oil – and says we should all feel good about our future.
The Trump presidency and Santa Cruz County
News and opinion coverage of reaction in Santa Cruz County to the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president, plus news from around California via Lookout’s content partners.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We need comfort, not conflict, amid L.A. fires: Here’s a lesson in nonviolent communication for Trump, Musk and more
Santa Cruz therapist Lisa Herendeen is stunned by the harsh rhetoric and blame game circling the Los Angeles fires. What we need is empathy, she writes, and leaders who understand the merits of nonviolent communication. She just finished a training on this and she applies nonviolent communication skills to the political moment – and to the angry language she hears coming from Donald Trump, Elon Musk and others. Where are our leaders, she wonders. She longs for public rhetoric that raises us all up. She is even nostalgic for the Terminator.
Posted inWatsonville / Pajaro
Watsonville police chief focuses on reassuring immigrant community ahead of Trump’s second term
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Watsonville Police Chief Jorge Zamora unveiled measures his department is putting in place to inform and protect the immigrant community as President-elect Donald Trump is set to begin his second term.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
California withdraws diesel truck ban, other clean-air rules as Trump prepares to take office
Because Donald Trump’s incoming administration is unlikely to approve them, California has no choice but to abandon its groundbreaking rules for zero-emission trucks and cleaner locomotives.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
L.A. fires underscore how much California has to lose if Trump withholds disaster aid
The federal government typically covers 75% of rebuilding costs after a major disaster. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to withhold firefighting money from California.
Posted inEducation
It’s 2025 — have pity on the poor social studies teacher
If the 2024 election finally extinguished ideas of American exceptionalism, from what framework can America’s history teachers now make their lesson plans? Wallace Baine wants Santa Cruz County educators to tell him about their approach.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Can California keep ICE away from schools? Lawmakers want to try as crackdowns loom
California legislators want to limit deportation actions at schools, but they can’t ban immigration officials.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Why Trump won revisited – let’s please not blame the media and math
Local businessperson and mom Brooke Secor responds to a recent Lookout op-ed by Tom Decker, a Republican who has strong ideas about why Donald Trump won in November. She believes it’s not about the appeal of the rallies and is still baffled how so many people can stand behind Trump’s rhetoric. She delves into the anti-intellectualism she feels is sweeping the country and the curious trend of people in cities, once bastions of liberalism and progressive thought, voting more like rural communities.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz County immigrant community prepares for an uncertain future under Trump
Undocumented immigrants say they are avoiding the news and making family contingency plans as they and local advocacy groups prepare for Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The fantasy of Trump: I’m trying to figure out why people I know voted for him
Therapist Lisa Herendeen is trying to understand why people in Santa Cruz voted for Donald Trump. She sees parallels in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Match Girl.”