Tonight, Trump will give his State of the Union address. No doubt he will try to paint a rosy picture of the economy while blaming any hardship on anyone else but his administration. But around the country, people are preemptively not having it. 

Miranda Miron, a single mother of a 3-year-old in Michigan said that even the risk that comes with speaking out against Trump’s policies shows the declining state of our country. Despite the dangers, she uses her TikTok platform to speak truth to power. From ICE abductions to the Epstein files, she said she’s disgusted by the state of our union. 

Miron lost her job while pregnant, and since has been doing gig work because she can’t afford the childcare needed to work full-time hours. While gig work allows her to cover her bills, benefits like SNAP, Medicaid, and WIC help to feed her family and keep them healthy — all programs that have been cut in the Trump administration.

She tries to give back to her community by maintaining a food pantry at home to share with her neighbors and other moms — but it’s no replacement for the responsibility the federal government has to take care of its people.

“We’re paying Congress for services we aren’t getting — they’re no longer serving the American people; they’re serving themselves, and Americans are insanely over it,” Miron said. “Americans are in the street every single day risking their lives to resist.” She adds that members of Congress who don’t agree with Trump’s policies should use the State of the Union as an opportunity to “make a scene, obstruct, resist.”

Kate Bivona, a professional violinist and teacher from Arizona, has also been using her voice to speak out. Thanks to Trump and the GOP’s attack on our healthcare, Bivona had to downgrade her insurance and now has a $15,000 deductible when she used to pay none. She said she fears adding medical debt to her student debt, which has also increased since Trump axed Biden’s SAVE Plan.

Bivona also isn’t happy about Trump’s immigration crackdown. “People should be able to live here, and work here, and be safe — he’s made our communities more dangerous,” she said.

Tami Burch, a single mom of twins from Kansas, is another who believes the government isn’t doing enough to care for its people. She runs the kitchen at a senior living facility, but thanks to this administration, she can barely afford to put food on her own table. Her SNAP benefits were slashed nearly in half last year and she’s been stocking up on medications she needs for fear of losing her Medicaid.

Meanwhile, Caroline Fulpher, an in-home childcare provider in Georgia, has also seen her health insurance increase from $9 a month to $263 a month — leaving her to decide whether she can afford both health insurance and her mortgage. At the same time, parents are withdrawing their children from her program because they’re also having to make impossible financial choices. Fulpher has been an early childhood educator for 30 years, but she’s considering a new job that will provide her with health insurance.

But she’s actively working to stop this administration by reaching out to her representatives and engaging with Black Lives Matter, the Democratic Party of Georgia and the African American Caucus of Dekalb County.

Janna Rodriguez is another early childhood educator on the frontlines of Trump’s latest assault on child care. For the last several years, she’s participated in Community Change Action’s Day Without Child Care and organized dozens of other providers and parents in New York to do the same.

“Being silent is being complicit. Continuing a broken system shows the world what kind of country we are — one that would leave behind the very same families that are part of the economy that keeps this country going,” she said.

All of the people we spoke to about how they feel about the state of our union had more than a crumbling economy in common — they also shared an understanding that their voices and their organizing is more important than ever.