A former Trump supporter in rural Missouri has gone viral after speaking to MS NOW reporter Rosa Flores about the impact of President Donald Trump's second term on some of the nation's poorest communities.
Ahead of the interview, a news segment notes that Flores "is traveling Route 66 to talk to real Americans about their real lives" and recently spent time speaking with people in Missouri, reporting on their current reality with midterm elections just months away.
The voter, identified as Leslie Luttrell, at one point told Flores:
"I'm really not into politics, but I know what's right and what's wrong."
When asked to elaborate, Luttrell said:
"The way Trump is treating us, and treating us poor people. I mean, it's just — it's bad because he's never been poor. He's always had that gold spoon in his mouth ever since the day he was born."
And when asked what she would tell Trump directly if she could, she responded:
"Go take a hike and let somebody else have the job."
Flores herself had this to say when asked by MS NOW host Stephanie Ruhle what else the voter said as communities nationwide struggle with a wide-reaching affordability crisis:
"You know Steph, you just can't separate health care and affordability because they go hand in hand. And that's what I've been hearing in towns like this one in Rolla, Missouri. People are trying to figure out how to pay for their medicine and also how to put food on the table."
"Leslie Luttrell, that woman that you just saw, she said, you know, President Trump can't relate to poor people, that he was born with a gold spoon in his mouth. She lives at an extended stay motel, and she's afraid that she is going to lose SNAP, that she's going to lose Medicaid, and she doesn't know what she's going to do, she said."
"And here's how she described it. She said, living during Trump's second term is like living in the Great Depression. And she voted for President Trump in 2016. And she didn't vote in 2024 because she didn't have transportation. But again, she's just one person. There are so many people around the country who have the same fear, Steph."
You can watch the segment below.
Luttrell's reaction was not unexpected but responses were mixed, with many observers arguing that anyone who had followed the campaign's warnings should not have expected Trump to champion policies benefiting America's poorest communities.
The MS NOW report comes just weeks after a new analysis by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that more than 3.5 million people nationwide—nearly 9% of all recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food assistance to low-income families—lost their benefits between July 2025—when Trump signed his "big beautiful bill" into law—and February.
The organization also found that the Trump administration's final rule implementing the new Medicaid work requirement included major last-minute policy changes that will likely cause more people to lose or be denied health coverage, while complicating states' efforts to roll out the requirement on time.
Additionally, the number of children receiving food assistance has dropped by at least 776,000, according to a ProPublica analysis. Data from 12 states that report program participation by age showed that of the 1.67 million people who have lost benefits, 776,134—or 46%—were children.
