State of Democra-Z: Three young voters weigh in on Trump’s first weeks in office

NINA MOINI: I'm Nina Moini. You're listening to Minnesota Now, and as always, we thank you for that. In a speech last night that echoed his campaign rallies, President Donald Trump celebrated his first six weeks in office and the electoral win that came before. His words were punctuated by protests from Democrats and cheers from Republicans, like this moment early on.

DONALD TRUMP: We won all seven swing states, giving us an electoral college victory of 312 votes.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country.

[BOOING]

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING) USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

NINA MOINI: And that was just early on in the evening. The president won the popular vote by just 1.5% over Kamala Harris. His win was clear, but the results were close enough to reflect the strong divides in our country's politics.

So throughout the campaign, in our series, State of DemocraZ, we heard from a group of college-aged voters from different points on the political spectrum. We're going to check back in with them now that we're weeks into Trump's second term. Cori Stockard is a senior at the University of Minnesota and a Democrat. He joins me now. Thanks for coming back on, Cori.

CORI STOCKARD: Hello. Thank you for having me.

NINA MOINI: And Addie Raum is a junior at St. Olaf College in Northfield and a conservative. Hi, Addie.

ADDIE RAUM: Hi. It's a pleasure to be here.

NINA MOINI: Great to have you back. And Cory Halada is a senior also at Saint Olaf and a Republican. Hi, Cory.

CORY HALLADA: Hi. Thank you. So happy to be here.

NINA MOINI: Well, I really do appreciate you all coming back. It's so fun to check back in with you. I'll start with you, Cory Hallada. President Trump focused on promoting some of the campaign promises he's made, what he's done so far. As a voter who supported him, I'm wondering how you feel he's delivered on the promises that he made on the campaign trail.

CORY HALLADA: Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised that he went and did a lot of the things that he said he would do. I don't necessarily agree with everything he's done, but I am pretty pleasantly surprised with his follow-through. And I think compared to 2016, he was much more prepared to bring people into his administration that would help him get his agenda done.

NINA MOINI: And Addie, you weren't really a fan of either major candidate, right? You were on the fence for a lot of the campaign. Has President Trump's time in office so far, and maybe the speech last night, has any of it changed your perspective since the election at all?

ADDIE RAUM: I mean, I'm trying to be optimistic about Trump's four years in office. I think that-- I'm rejecting pessimism in the new year. I think that it's dangerous. I also think that it's dangerous to get caught up in a certain amount of just alarmism that's not necessary. And I wouldn't say that I'm looking forward to it, but I definitely find Trump to be interesting. And his presidency so far has certainly been that.

NINA MOINI: And Cori Stockard, you supported Vice President Kamala Harris in her run for the presidency. What have been your takeaways over the last month and a half or so?

CORI STOCKARD: I think that one thing that is very clear is that Trump has essentially taken a sort of double-down approach compared to his first term. He was much more subdued by institutional forces within the Republican Party the first time around.

And I would say, for the warriors, the second time around, he is much more doing his own spin on things, which has been more chaotic than even I could have imagined from the respect of the first Trump presidency, especially with respect to things like DOGE and things of that nature.

NINA MOINI: Right. So lots has happened over the past six weeks or so. And there was, as there always is with these sorts of things, there was a response from the Democrats. So Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin gave a rebuttal on behalf of the Democrats. She criticized President Donald Trump's turn toward authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin and Elon Musk's efforts to dramatically shrink the federal government. You mentioned DOGE there. Let's take a listen to what she had to say.

ELISSA SLOTKIN: Our democracy, our very system of government, has been the aspiration of the world. And right now, it's at risk. It's at risk when the president decides you can pick and choose what rules you want to follow, when he ignores court orders and the Constitution itself, or when elected leaders stand by and just let it happen.

NINA MOINI: Addie, I want to start with you on reaction to Senator Slotkin. You mentioned alarmist attitudes and kind of rhetoric around the fall of democracy and authoritarianism, much like the senator had to say there. What do you think about her comments and that stance?

ADDIE RAUM: I mean, this is exactly what I think is so dangerous. And I mean, I think that Trump, while I don't agree with the way that he's using his executive power, and I do think that it gets away from what the founders had intended for the presidency, it doesn't mean that he's abusing his presidential power. Those two things need to be separated because he can be using it in a way that wasn't the intent, and he can also not be violating the terms of the Constitution.

And I think when we go into that area, it unnecessarily makes people feel like their lives are in jeopardy when that is just not the case. And I think that it's bad leadership to do that to your voters to make them feel unsafe when they have no reason to be that way.

NINA MOINI: Cori Stockard, what was your reaction to Senator Slotkin?

CORI STOCKARD: If I may get a little bit sort of inside baseball, I think it's kind of a tactical mistake. I think that, really, what a lot of Americans are poised, waiting for, is they're really thinking about the economy. They're thinking about tariffs. They're thinking about the fact that it does seem like the economy might be inching towards a possible recession.

Again, I don't want to be alarmist on this fact, but there are indicators that seem to be indicating, well, a slowdown. And I think that that essentially should be the primary focus for Democrats going forward, less about the threat to democracy and more about inflation and tariffs, recession, that sort of thing.

NINA MOINI: OK. Cory Hallada, what was your reaction? Do you feel that President Trump has gone too far in consolidating power, the way that he's tried to use different laws and different things going through the courts? And what do you think?

CORY HALLADA: I would generally agree with what Addie said, that just because we disagree with the way he's using power doesn't necessarily mean that he's abusing it. But I do think there are some legitimate concerns about maybe going in too hard where I know that DOGE has made a lot of big moves very early. And perhaps if I was in there, I wouldn't move so quickly.

And I do actually like what Cori said, too, where I think it is somewhat of a tactical mistake. I think the narrative of a threat to democracy had shown over the election cycle to not be an effective one. And I do agree that Democrats would be better served kind of attacking Trump in other places.

NINA MOINI: It's not a kitchen table issue. It's not something that people feel like is right in their face. Cori Stockard, you were talking about that as well. And Democratic leaders have said that they're struggling as a party to find a shared message. Last night, they certainly were sharing a message, holding up signs in different forms of protest and shouting. What was your reaction to what was going on within the chambers there?

CORI STOCKARD: Me?

NINA MOINI: Yeah.

CORI STOCKARD: So-- [CHUCKLES] sorry about that. But I--

NINA MOINI: That's OK.

CORI STOCKARD: --I do think that, essentially, the Democratic Party, as you said, very much has this divide where there are two approaches that the party is stuck between. And I think they're in an unhappy medium. You've got on one end of the spectrum, you've got this approach of, we should just wait and see.

You have political commentators like Carville, who worked with Bill Clinton when he was running for office. And he essentially had the approach of, Democrats should do the brave thing and just wait for everything to collapse from under the Republicans. And on the other end of the spectrum, you have people who are like, the Democratic Party should have refused at all to even go to this congressional address.

And I think that, really, the Democrats, again, are in the unhappy middle ground where if they really committed to one end or the other, then we would honestly, as a party, be in a much better place than where we are now.

NINA MOINI: Addie, I would love your reaction to that as well on just the Democratic Party right now because, just reminding folks, as I said at the top, you were sort of on the fence for a long time. What would it have taken or what would it take now for their message to resonate more with you?

ADDIE RAUM: Yeah, so I completely agree with everything Cory said. And I think something that Trump really hammered last night was, the Republicans are going to be the party of common sense.

And, well, I don't know if that will come into fruition, but that was something that I was really looking for during the election, was on one side, you had things that-- you had alarmism on both sides, and I really felt like there was no one just saying the truth or saying what the action plan was and saying what needed to be done.

And I think that, as we've all said already, that there's a tactical mistake being made. And a common sense decision is not to sit in the chamber and hold up signs that say, like, "Bad Elon Musk." I don't think that's a good decision. It's not one that inspires confidence in your leaders.

And if Trump is going to take the position of "we're the common sense party," you don't want to be seen as the silly party. They need to do something that also makes them seem like the common sense party, or at least equivalent to what Trump is doing because honestly, it felt quite childish.

NINA MOINI: Addie, Cori, and Cory, you three are the very best. We really appreciate when you come on. And we hope you'll come back, and we can kind of track how you all are feeling throughout the next four years. We'll see. Thank you.

CORI STOCKARD: Yeah. Thank you.

CORY HALLADA: Thank you.

NINA MOINI: All right. Take care.

ADDIE RAUM: Thank you.

NINA MOINI: Cori Stockard is a senior at the University of Minnesota. Addie Raum is a junior at St. Olaf College in Northfield. And Cory Hallada is a senior at St. Olaf.