‘Everyone is very anxious and depressed, and we have no hope for the future.’

Lua Pederson is a fifth-year Digital & Visual Communications major at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is a student worker in the LGBTQ+ Resource Center at the university. Pederson says he has a negative opinion of the current administration and that he worries for the future of the United States.

Skye Williams: So, it hasn’t been a full year of Trump’s presidency. Are you feeling any specific type of way about it, negative or positive?

Lua Pederson: It feels like it’s been forever. It doesn’t feel like it hasn’t even been a full year. I’m like, ‘What the f—?’ So much has happened already. And I don’t actively look for the information because it’s just like so much horrible s— happening, but I still hear about it. I’m like, ‘This f—— sucks.’ He needs to stop. It’s definitely negative. The first presidency, my opinion, was super negative, and I think when I was 17 when he was president the first time. And I didn’t even know that much. So, if that says anything about how horrible it is now — he hasn’t made a single good decision, and everyone is miserable. As someone who spends a lot of time around other queer students because of my job, everyone is very anxious and depressed, and we have no hope for the future. Like it’s bad. Yeah, it’s real bad.

Skye Williams: Is there a specific policy that’s caught your attention during these 10 months?

Lua Pederson: First, I’ll start off with I’m not the most politically savvy, especially with like terminology. So, if it’s not a policy, my bad. But tariffs, bad. I know there’s lots of things that have been done with like education. I can’t remember if it was if it was him specifically, but in general, if it’s not directly him, like the Wisconsin universities, for example, like funding’s been cut and like there was a point at my job where they’re like, ‘Yeah, we can’t even call you DEI anymore.’ Everyone had to be transferred to a different department/role to keep our jobs, essentially. Student workers are mostly safe, but professional workers aren’t. Because of budgeting, we also can’t have more student workers, which we need. He’s f—— up education. And there’s lots of other things that I can’t remember what it was, especially that thing that was very recent. Why can’t I remember that? But it wasn’t good. A lot of not good things happening.

Skye Williams: So, with the budget cuts, the tariffs, everything economically has seemed to have been shifting, and it has negatively impacted your work environment, like you said. Has it affected you in your personal life, like when you’re shopping?

Lua Pederson: Yeah, definitely. Obviously, some of it has to do with the president before him and other factors. It’s not 100% him, but it’s still, at least in my head, 99% him and his policies. Everything has been so expensive. It costs like $40 for groceries that are a week’s worth for just one person. And it’s a small amount of stuff. Like I went to the grocery store yesterday and I didn’t buy anything to make a meal because “making-a-meal” stuff is expensive. So that was like half of what I normally buy. So, on average for just me, it’s like $80 for the grocery store. And I try to buy stuff on sale, I try to, like, get coupons, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it’s still expensive as hell. Not just food but living expenses and everything. And it’s very difficult. And even just buying fun things, the tariffs affect a lot of that. And there’s a lot of countries that have stopped selling to the U.S. because, or companies or, international companies that are like, yeah, we don’t want to f— with that. Like, that sucks. Sometimes I want to buy some cute little thing that doesn’t exist in the U.S. And the tariffs make it really expensive, which isn’t great. Like, overall, the economy is bad. It’s bad.

Skye Williams: Do you know that some parcels are being paused? People have been getting their letters and packages returned to them in other countries. How do you feel about that?

Lua Pederson: It sucks. Especially if it’s like things like letters or more personal items. Maybe you have family overseas that you want to send letters to. I mean, a lot of people message these days, but just the fact that people can’t get the things they need or want is not good. Like that’s like a limiting of, it’s not exactly like a lack of freedom of speech, but it’s kind of like adjacent to that, where it’s like limiting contact with people and limiting certain things you need. I’m sure there’s people who get certain medication shipped to them or things that they can’t get here that maybe they really need. And that’s really bad for a lot of people’s health or just mental health or if they just want something cool. Like all of it, it’s just not good overall.

Skye Williams: Does it feel like isolation to you in the sense that we feel pretty alone on the global scale?

Lua Pederson: Yes and no, because I spend a good amount of time online and there’s a lot of people who are like, ‘F— Trump, this stuff is bad! I feel bad for my American tumblrinas,’ or whatever. So, there’s some people out there who are like, ‘Man, this really sucks.’ But also at the same time, there’s a lot of people who are like, ‘F— America, f— Americans, y’all voted for this.’ And it’s like…I didn’t vote for this. So many people didn’t vote for this. And just what he’s doing does kind of isolate us a lot, so it is definitely a form of isolation. And I feel like it’s intentional. But who knows? Because Trump doesn’t make, I don’t even know if I can say, they’re not smart decisions, but they are bad decisions, at least for the majority of people. So, he makes harmful decisions at the very least.