How Trump’s first 100 days in office have touched Connecticut and what’s ahead

CT Insider – Sunday, April 27, 2025
By Alex Putterman

Ben Proto, chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party, says President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office can be summed up as, “promises made, promises kept.”

Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, uses the words, “rocky” and “uncertain.”

Jim Chapdelaine, founder of Indivisible CT, which has organized protests against Trump’s administration, struggles to keep his response to just a few words.

“Market down, prices up, chaos in the government, institutions of democracy being dismantled and destroyed systematically and relentlessly, innocent people being disappeared,” he said. “I could go on for a long time.”

As Trump approaches 100 days in office, a milestone pundits and analysts often use to mark the early phase of a president’s tenure, his administration’s policies ripple across Connecticut. Impacts include, among other things: cuts to grants that fund education, public health and more; an increase in deportations and visa cancellations; and trade policies that have contributed to a stock market dive and threaten to increase costs for businesses and consumers. Connecticut’s attorney general has filed or signed onto more than a dozen lawsuits seeking to stop a number of these policy changes from moving forward.

Connecticut’s top elected officials, essentially all of whom are Democrats, have responded with sharp criticism at nearly every turn, accusing Trump of gutting government for the benefit of billionaires like his ally Elon Musk and of creating a constitutional crisis by withholding money appropriated by Congress and defying orders from judges.

Top state Republicans have defended the president, voicing support for most of his initiatives and alleging that Democrats have overreacted to minor stories out of “political expediency.”

Clearly, at least some Connecticut residents have had enough of Trump. In growing statewide protests, thousands have shown up to oppose the president’s agenda, decrying him as a “king” and demanding his administration keeps its “hands off” federal funds.

Policies in effect

Perhaps the most direct effect of Trump’s presidency so far has been a succession of budget cuts touching numerous corners of Connecticut life.

More than $150 million in public health grants that would have been directed to state and municipal agencies for disease outbreak surveillance, testing for viruses, newborn screenings, childhood immunizations and more? At risk, pending litigation. Pandemic-relief funds nearly two dozen K-12 school districts were relying on to fund an array of programs? Gone. Certain grants for Connecticut universities? Cut.

The list goes on: $5.6 million in reduced money for schools, $3.7 in cuts for food pantries, more than $3 million pulled from the Connecticut Humanities Council, programs for solar energy and electric vehicle chargers placed on hold, funding for refugee relocation eliminated.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has worked to reduce staff across an array of agencies, costing some Connecticut residents their jobs, and has also canceled leases and private contracts in the state worth tens of millions of dollars.

Lamont says the spree of federal cuts has made his job difficult. The more federal funds disappear, the more the state will have to fill either fill gaps — possibly through its “rainy day” fund — or let valued programs wither.

“I hoped that the campaign was over and the president would move more to a governing mode. I don’t see that right now,” Lamont said. “I know what the uncertainty means for a governor, because you just have no idea.”

But it hasn’t been just cuts. Trump’s tariffs, imposed on a range of nations, including traditional U.S. allies, have caused dramatic fluctuations in the stock market, which has risen and fallen based on stray comments from administration officials. The president’s attempts to ban gender-affirming care for children has caused fear and confusion among transgender Connecticut residents.

Trump’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement has begun to touch Connecticut as well, with reports of increasing deportations, and many advocates, attorneys and undocumented people are braced for far more to come. And at least 53 international students at Connecticut colleges have had their visas abruptly revoked as part of a national way of visa terminations, creating considerable fear on campuses statewide.

“Our community members are feeling a lot of fear and uncertainty with everything that’s happening,” said Katherine Villeda, coalition director for the advocacy group Husky 4 Immigrants. “It has very real impacts on people not going to the doctor, people missing work, people not sending their kids to school because they don’t feel safe.”

Outrage and protests

As much as any state in the country, Connecticut has seen a fierce and sustained opposition to Trump and his policies, from its top leaders and from its everyday citizens.

In the opening months of the Trump administration, Sen. Chris Murphy emerged as one of the administration’s most vocal critics on a national level, slamming Trump and Musk for what he described as authoritarian, corrupt and damaging policies. Murphy’s colleague, fellow Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal, has also opposed Trump with increasing vigor.

At the state level, Attorney General William Tong has joined colleagues in suing Trump repeatedly, helping to block restrictions on birthright citizenship, blanket freezes on federal spending, cuts to medical research, the cancellation of public health grants and more.

Numerous other public officials, including the state’s congressional delegation and Gov. Ned Lamont, have spoken out against Trump policies as well, to varying extents.

In a statement this week, ACLU of Connecticut policy and advocacy director Chelsea Infinity-Gonzalez said Trump has “routinely attempted to subvert the rule of law” and abused “core democratic structures.”

Then there’s the grassroots opposition. Over the past 100 days, thousands of Connecticut residents have gathered to protest Trump, including as part of a national campaign of coordinated demonstrations.

These protests have gained steam as the administration has progressed, from several hundred people outside the capitol in February to thousands spread across the state in mid-April.

“This is Donald Trump’s America and I don’t want it,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, said at one protest earlier this month. “We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”

Chapdelaine, from Indivisible CT, says membership has surged since November’s election, from 3,500 hundred members to more than 6,000. Anti-Trump energy statewide remains strong, he said.

“People are hungry to demonstrate their outrage,” he said.

Republicans defend Trump

Though Connecticut is a deeply blue state that went for Democrat Kamala Harris by double digits in November, the state has plenty of Republicans as well, many of whom see Trump as doing more or less what they voted for.

“You look at his promises to secure the border, to work to remove violent, illegal immigrants who are here causing problems in the country,” Proto said. “You look at his reorganization of the federal government … trying to get the government monster kind of back under control.”

Those policies, Proto said, “are all important aspects of putting us in a position down the road to be a lot stronger and a lot better off.”

Over the past 100 days, top Republicans in Connecticut have often brushed aside concerns about programs cuts and threats to defy federal judges.

When Democrats held a news conference in early April to draw attention to the Trump administration’s firing of staff that administers a federal heating assistance program, for example, top Republicans accused them of overreacting.

“In two days and two news conferences, Democrats have absurdly predicted thousands of deaths in Connecticut due to federal policy changes — while admitting they don’t even understand the real impact,” House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, and state Rep. Jay Case, R-Winsted, said in a statement. “The reason? Political expediency.”

At other times, other top Republicans have similarly accused Connecticut Democrats of fixating on Trump to distract from issues closer to home. At one news conference in late March, GOP leaders alleged Democrats have overlooked serious problems in state government while devoting excessive energy to criticizing Trump.

Proto said Tuesday he sometimes disagrees with Trump’s style, wishing the president would focus less on criticizing his predecessor, Joe Biden, and “talk more about tomorrow than yesterday.” As for policy, however, he supports Trump’s direction.

What’s ahead

As eventful as Trump’s first 100 days have been, all signs point to more significant policy changes to come — and more impacts on Connecticut.

The president’s hotly debated tariffs have only recently taken effect and have not had time to drive up consumer prices the way most experts say they will. Meanwhile, congressional Republicans continue to work with the president on a bill that will extend his 2017 tax cuts while sharply reducing federal spending.

Though it’s not clear exactly what that bill will look like, advocates fear key programs such as Medicaid and food assistance could see funding cuts. This could, in turn, strain Connecticut’s state budget, if state lawmakers are compelled to replace missing federal money.

“I’ve got a pretty good budget, it’s more or less in balance, but if these guys take a whack out of Medicaid or SNAP benefits, it’s (trouble),” Lamont said.

Asked what he expects from the Trump administration moving forward, Proto predicted more of the same, including a continued push on tariffs.

“I think you’re going to see the president continue to do what he what he said he was going to do, which was implement some very strong trade policies to put America back in a position of strength on trade,” he said.

What seems clear is that Trump will continue advancing aggressive policies that excite some Americans and draw ire from many others. In some cases, these actions will draw legal pushback, amid growing concern that the administration is overstepping its constitutional authority.

And, almost certainly, some in Connecticut will continue to push against him.

“Fighting back is good to throw sand in the gears, and that’s part of what we need to do,” Chapdelaine said. “These are my opinions, but I share them with many folks.”

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