North Carolina was deeply impacted by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Soon after, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump emphasized the need to respond and support our state, efforts that aided our communities. It was no surprise that North Carolina was the first battleground state Republicans secured in the 2024 presidential election. We wanted leadership that understood the needs of us here at home.

Trump insisted our nation needed to support North Carolina while running for president, but this stance seems to have changed after his administration took office.

In cutting federal funding to the Triangle and restricting our freedom of speech, the White House has ensured our state’s community and economy will continue to suffer. These actions imply that the wellbeing of North Carolinians interferes with the Trump Administration’s personal agenda.

“What about North Carolina?,” Trump asked during a briefing for Hurricane Helene recovery in January 2025. “One of the reasons I’m happy to help North Carolina get fixed up, they supported us in record numbers and I’m supporting them in record numbers too.”

But these numbers aren’t checking out. Alongside blocking the extension of aid for Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, administrative decisions have directly interfered with our state’s economy through cutting research funding, revoking documentation for legal immigrants and harming North Carolinian farmers under the 2025 tariff war.

North Carolina’s Research Triangle is its primary economic driver, centered around the research efforts here at Duke University, NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill. Our universities have developed an $86 billion biotechnology industry that fuels the entire state. 

Efforts of the Triangle propelled North Carolina from being the second lowest per capita income in the nation to a top three state in bioscience. Specifically, vaccine research has made our state a world leader in science and is necessary for maintaining both our status and economy.

Yet, our state’s universities are in the district most affected by recently proposed budget cuts. Over 5,000 North Carolinian jobs will face direct impacts by these changes. Nearly 600 staff members at Duke University have already left their jobs as imminent involuntary layoffs were announced in April 2025.

Without the ability to continue our research in major fields like agriculture, medicine, engineering and science, the progress of the Triangle cannot continue. Frankly, the investors and industries that came to our state have no reason to stay.

As a newspaper, even sharing about the impacts political decisions have on our community threatens our work under current administration. A war on the press becomes evident when words have been condemned and our speech is no longer free.

This is not a complaint, but a response by those whose ability to live, eat and work is being threatened by brash policies and broken promises. Hurricane Helene aid cuts have left locals struggling to recover from physical destruction in Asheville and Boone. Our universities have lost students, staff and research due to a disregard for the importance of education by axing grants and revoking visas.

Legislators need to recognize the consequences of these policies and start voting in the best interests of our economy, both for our state and its role in our country. And as North Carolinians, we need to continue to advocate for ourselves to prevent additional policies from wreaking further havoc on our state’s industries and community.