Older voters turned out for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. But not everyone in their golden years is happy with the administration.
77-year-old Suzanne D’Spain is hanging out at a senior community center in Tulsa. She’s among friends here, but she says lately she’s been a little stressed out.
D’Spain relies on Social Security, a safety net program meant to support those who are retired or disabled. She says she paid into the public insurance program her entire working life.
“The money from Social Security came into my bank on Wednesday, and I was so thankful, ‘cause I’ve never had to worry about it before. But now it’s what about next month? Will it actually be there next month?”
The worries come as President Donald Trump’s administration is chaotically reforming Social Security. New rules have been rolled out and then rolled back as Trump’s team vows to fight fraud. It’s left people who depend on the popular benefit scrambling to figure out what’s happening.
Tom Cameron characterizes Donald Trump as either “crazy or an idiot.” And Cameron is no liberal.
“I am 77, and I was Republican my whole life and a conservative. But he’s not a conservative.”
Cameron’s complaint is that Trump is damaging relationships with allies like Canada as he whips up fear around immigration. He mentions a viral hoax story about Haitians eating pets that Trump elevated before he was elected.
“Everything he says is a lie. You know? Every word he says is a lie. The Canadians are probably going to be eating the dogs and cats next.”
Eldon Edwards, also 77, is a native Oklahoman and a veteran, but don’t call him a Republican.
“No, I’m a Kennedy Democrat.”
Edwards points to Trump ally Elon Musk, the richest man in the world who’s overseen drastic federal slashing as the administration looks to fund tax cuts. Edwards says Republicans must wake up.
“They need to pull their heads out of their rear ends and understand what is going on, because they’re allowing our country to be taken over by these rich idiots who are only using the power to enrich themselves. They don’t care about the American people at all, plain and simple,” said Edwards.
Of course a lot of older people chose Donald Trump. National media outlets report voters older than 50 favored him over opponent Kamala Harris by significant margins. But no one in this group at the community center is a supporter.
Online, though, where Trump campaigned very effectively, a 106-year-old Connecticut woman named Rosie Cianelli says complainers need to “put a zipper on their mouth,” sit back, and watch. She says Trump was only scheming when he initiated dramatic tariffs that put markets around the world into panic mode.
“The United States of America is $36 trillion in debt. We can’t ignore this. I know that President Trump crashed the stock market on purpose. This was his plan all along. Trust the process,” said Cianelli in a recent video.
She points to the fact that both egg prices and mortgage rates are down.
But back in Oklahoma, retired public school teacher Glenda Murphy says those facts aren’t as important as the way Trump, famous for his mockery, treats people.
“It’s like his whole thing of calling people names and making fun of people, and I think he does that some because he doesn’t have to remember what their name is. He doesn’t have to learn things like that, and he can belittle someone that way, and I find that a bullying behavior,” said Murphy.
None of these Tulsa seniors knows what comes next, but one thing is clear: they don’t see today’s Republican Party as one they recognize.
