The Trump Effect: How his executive orders could change North Carolina
by Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press March 5, 2025
Upon taking office, President Donald Trump wasted no time before issuing a series of wide-reaching executive orders impacting federal funding, immigration, diversity efforts and environmental work.
Now, some North Carolina lawmakers are falling in line while others are planning how to fight back.
For state Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch, Trump’s “frenetic” pace is nothing more than a distraction. Batch, a Democrat, would rather focus on state issues. Talk to her if an executive order isn’t blocked by the courts.
Still, in today’s political environment, state and local conversations increasingly mimic the national rhetoric. Such is the case in North Carolina, where Trump’s impact can already be seen through copycat legislation, funding cuts and policy shifts.
Trump and Musk
With Trump’s backing, Elon Musk’s newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency — more commonly known as DOGE — has opened a Pandora’s box of unprecedented cost-cutting measures.
First on the block was the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides aid to countries pursuing democracy, struggling with poverty or recovering from disaster. Then came proposed funding limits to the National Institutes of Health, which supports medical research.
Next could be the U.S. Department of Education.
After that, it’s anyone’s guess.
State Sen. Sophia Chitlik, D-Durham, said the threat of losing funding at any moment influences countless industries.
“I would argue that it affects every major industry in our nation,” she said.
North Carolina is home to a pair of USAID’s biggest contractors: RTI International and FHI 360. Funding cuts may amount to a loss of 1,500 jobs, Chitlik said.
According to Batch, many of the state’s farmers could struggle from cuts, too, because they send much of their crops abroad through USAID programs.
Medical research at stake
A Trump executive order would cap NIH funding for indirect expenses at 15% of the grant amount. Indirect expenses pay for staff, maintenance and safety measures among other related needs. Current practice involves case-by-case negotiations between NIH and research groups.
Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill receive rates above 55% for indirect costs as top-15 recipients of NIH funding. Lost funding, if Trump wins in court, could put 25,000 North Carolina jobs at risk, Chitlik said. But more than the potential brain drain of researchers leaving North Carolina to pursue funding elsewhere, critical research may be lost, she added.
“I have been in touch with constituents who are literally on the verge of major breakthroughs in cancer, whose work has been completely disrupted,” Chitlik said. “I mean, we’re talking about innovation, destroyed jobs, destroyed human potential, destroyed by this instability.”
Environmental funding frozen
The Inflation Reduction Act, former President Joe Biden’s landmark environmental legislation, is also now frozen under the new administration.
According to an organization called Climate Power, North Carolina invested over $20 billion in new clean energy projects since the bill’s passage — a total of over 17,000 jobs that have revitalized rural communities.
The exact implications of the frozen funding remain unclear, but are sure to be damaging to North Carolina’s carbon neutrality goals, said Democratic Sen. Graig Meyer, who represents Caswell, Orange and Person counties.
State lawmakers take after Trump
North Carolina Republicans, inspired by Musk’s DOGE, have launched efforts of their own to cut down on alleged waste and fraud in government spending. So far, the House Oversight Committee has requested the state treasurer, secretary of revenue, state controller, secretary of transportation, state budget director and DMV commissioner testify as part of that effort.
In the meantime, Trump is reportedly drafting plans to eliminate the Department of Education in favor of leaving educational policy to the states.
While he technically needs Congress to do so, he’s unlikely to garner enough opposition to thwart his plans. In early March, most members of the agency received emails offering them a $25,000 buyout.
Chitlik is worried about early childhood education cuts, considering 17% of North Carolina children live below the poverty line, according to 2023 Kids Count data.
Additionally, Meyer is concerned about the fate of Title I funding for high-poverty schools and special education services overseen by the Department of Education.
“Title I funding is one of the largest pieces of economic redistribution that the federal government has — taking money from rich communities and giving it to poor communities through their schools,” Meyer said. “And so that means that in many of your redder states and redder areas, if you get rid of or cut that funding, you’re hurting the Trump base disproportionately.”
FEMA’s fate could hurt Western NC
The Federal Emergency Management Agency could also be on the chopping block.
When Trump visited Western North Carolina to survey Helene damage, he mentioned major reform to the federal disaster agency, suggesting states should play larger roles in recovery.
Nobody is entirely sure what he means, Meyer said. But he added that mayors in the region are feeling neglected and may be reaching a breaking point as they wait for federal and state funding to reach them.
DEI’s funeral comes to North Carolina
With a stroke of a pen, Trump signed the death warrant for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the federal government.
Now, North Carolina Republicans are looking to do the same on the state level. On Monday, Senate President Phil Berger filed Senate Bill 227, which would eliminate DEI in public education.
Under the proposed legislation, educators could not teach certain “divisive concepts” relating to race and sex. Also, banned would be DEI training, offices and hiring practices.
Last week, the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus spoke out against the bill and Trump’s actions.
Democratic state Sen. Kandie Smith, who represents Edgecombe and Pitt counties, said anti-DEI efforts promote a false narrative that embracing diversity, equity and inclusion means lowering standards and hiring unqualified candidates.
“But the truth is, it expands opportunities without lowering standards because talent and opportunity are equitably distributed,” Smith said.
NC Republicans further Trump immigration mandate
By voting Trump into office, North Carolina Republicans argue that residents stamped their approval on his immigration agenda, federally and statewide.
First, it would require state law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
Second: It would charge the state budget office to determine whether non-citizens are getting public benefits they are ineligible to receive.
Third: It would incentivize counties and cities to comply with laws banning them from acting as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants by removing their immunity from civil lawsuits if a foreigner commits a crime within their borders.
And finally, it would ban University of North Carolina institutions from restricting immigration enforcement in any way.
The bill takes the “necessary next steps” after last year’s House Bill 10, which required county sheriffs to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said bill sponsor Sen. Buck Newton, aRepublican representing Greene, Wayne and Wilson counties.
The ties that bind
So far, Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson has sued Trump over four executive orders and actions alongside his counterparts from other states.
But if North Carolina Republicans have their way, Jackson won’t be able to join suits for much longer.
Senate Bill 58 would ban the attorney general from fighting against any presidential executive order in court.
State Sen. Timothy Moffitt, a Republican representing Henderson, Polk and Rutherford counties, is sponsoring the bill. For the past several decades, Moffitt said the General Assembly has given executive officers too much authority.
“We need to control that,” he said. “One person shouldn’t have ultimate power or too much power or too much ability to do at will.”
State Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, D-Mecklenburg, said that North Carolinians voted for Jackson and Trump, which suggests they do want the checks and balances of a divided government.
“Today might be politically convenient for you to go after a Democratic attorney general,” Mohammed said. “We have a Republican in the White House. But imagine if this was a different scenario, where you had Kamala Harris as president with executive orders, and you had Dan Bishop as our attorney general. Would you want to tie Dan Bishop’s hands?”
When will Helene-damaged Broadmoor Golf Course be ready for play? FernLeaf Charter School back in business in previously flooded location? • Asheville Watchdog
The Broadmoor Golf Course near Asheville Regional Airport, owned by the airport and leased to DreamCatcher Hotels, suffered over $10 million in flood damage from Tropical Storm Helene. DreamCatcher is rebuilding the course, clubhouse, and maintenance buildings using insurance and company funds, aiming to reopen in spring 2026. Meanwhile, FernLeaf Community Charter School in Fletcher, flooded by Helene, reopened its elementary Creek Campus after nearly a year with new modular buildings. Despite challenges, including ongoing construction and flooding risks, the school rebuilt on its original site with community support and flood insurance, celebrating resilience and continued education.
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:
Question: The Broadmoor Golf Course near the airport suffered catastrophic damage during the floods of Helene. Only the driving range has been able to operate. But now there is great activity that looks like the course is being rebuilt. I think the property belongs to the airport, and it is contracted out for management. Who is paying for this work, and when might the course be ready again for play?
My answer: I do miss playing this course, mainly because it’s not often I get a chance to hit a wayward shot onto an interstate, in this case I-26. Usually my drives are confined to the woods or a simple two-lane road.
Real answer: In short, a lot is going on at Broadmoor, which is located off Airport Road about a mile from Asheville Regional. The airport does own the property, but it leases the golf course to a company, DreamCatcher Hotels, which operates the golf course and plans to build a hotel on the property.
Zeke Cooper, president and CEO of DreamCatcher, told me his company has a 50-year lease, and it is committed to site improvements.
“As always planned, we are developing a hotel on the property, which we plan to start site work on later this year,” Cooper said via email.
Tropical Storm Helene inundated the Broadmoor Golf Links course, causing over $10 million in damage. // Photo provided by DreamCatcher Hotels
Helene, which struck our area Sept. 27, inundated the golf course and clubhouse. The French Broad River is close by, and the property is, as the name implies, relatively flat.
“The golf course lost over 1,000 trees and had 12-18 inches of silt covering 60-70 percent of the course,” Cooper said. “The first step was to remove all of the tree debris and remove the silt.”
The company finished that in April, and golf course reconstruction started shortly thereafter.
“The clubhouse had two feet of water on the first floor, with the basement completely submerged,” Cooper said. “The maintenance and irrigation buildings were submerged, resulting in total losses of the buildings and all equipment within them. It was a mess!”
Fortunately, they did have flood insurance. Cooper said total damage exceeded $10 million.
“So a lot of the work is being paid for with insurance funds, as well as our own money,” Cooper said. “We do not have an opening date yet, but expect to reopen in spring of 2026.”
For the golfers out there, Cooper gave a detailed breakdown of all the work they’re doing:
On the golf course: Stripping all greens surfaces, adding in new greens mix and reseeding with bent grass. All greens are completed and currently growing in. The 11th green was completely destroyed, as well as some tee boxes. Those have been rebuilt and are growing in.
All of the fairways and tees have been stripped of silt, regraded and tilled. All of these areas are currently growing in with Bermuda grass.
All of the bunkers were stripped, regraded and rebuilt with new drainage and sand. Sod was used around every greens complex and all bunkers, with the work completed about a month ago.
Tropical Storm Helene left behind 12 to 18 inches of silt on the Broadmoor Golf Links course in the Fletcher area. Workers had it removed by April, and the company that operates the course is rebuilding. // Photo provided by DreamCatcher Hotels
The irrigation electrical system was destroyed, and has now been replaced. New irrigation pumps have been operational the last couple of months. Workers also had to clean out and replace drainage systems, along with lots of bank restabilization.
Driving range: “We were able to open the driving range in a temporary capacity while work was being undertaken on the course,” Cooper said. “We closed the range on Aug. 11, in order to fix damage from the flood. It is currently under construction and we hope to reopen it in the next three to four months. No timetable, yet, as it’s weather dependent this late in the season.”
Clubhouse, maintenance buildings: The company gutted, cleaned and rebuilt the clubhouse. “We are close to hopefully reopening the clubhouse and restaurant in the next two months,” Cooper said. “We are working on finalizing some construction items for a full Certificate of Occupancy, as well as waiting on furniture, fixtures and equipment.”
The maintenance and irrigation buildings are completed and in use, Cooper added.
Question: What is going on with the FernLeaf Community Charter School in Fletcher? I’ve seen they’re putting back in mobile classrooms in the area that flooded, and it looks like it’s close to reopening. I thought they moved all the students to their location further south that sits on top of a hill?
My answer: I suspect all of the new mobile classrooms are actually barges. Pretty ingenious, really.
Real answer: Back in April I wrote about FernLleaf, the flooding at its location off Howard Gap Road in Fletcher, and the school’s plans to rebuild. Helene’s floodwaters filled the buildings with up to six feet of water and swept some of them off their foundations, Nicole Rule, communications, marketing and events coordinator for the school, said then.
On Monday she had some happy news about FernLeaf’s “second act.”
FernLeaf Community Charter School, which sustained major damage at its “Creek Campus” elementary school location in Fletcher, has reopened with new modular buildings. // Photo by Nicole Rule of FernLeaf Charter School.
“On Aug. 13, FernLeaf Community Charter School in Fletcher reopened its Creek Campus — 321 days after Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic flooding swept our main buildings off their foundations and left the campus under several feet of water,” Rule said via email. “In that time, over 430 elementary students and their teachers relocated to our Wilderness Campus (previously home to middle and high schoolers), where they continued learning without missing a beat.”
Rule said, “Community partners, including general contractor Beverly Grant and even the Carolina Panthers Charities (with a $20,000 grant), rallied to help us rebuild.
“While one building is still under construction due to this summer’s unrelenting rain, the reopening marks a milestone for our students, families, and the broader Fletcher/Asheville community,” Rule said. That building should be ready by the end of September.
Michael Luplow, FernLeaf’s executive director, said the school’s “journey has been a powerful demonstration of what we can achieve when we come together.”
“We are immensely grateful for the unwavering support of our students, families, staff, and the broader community,” Luplow said in the press release. “The re-opening of the Creek Campus is not just about a new set of buildings; it is a celebration of our collective spirit and our enduring mission to provide an innovative, inspiring education to our students.”
By the way, FernLeaf did rebuild on the same footprint, which is close to Cane Creek. But this is all approved.
“Since Fern Leaf had previously been constructed in a manner that met our current elevation requirements, they are permitted to go back in at the same elevation,” Town of Fletcher Planning Director Eric Rufa told me in April. “I have encouraged them to go higher, but current circumstances with regard to grade and ADA requirements may hinder that.”
The school did have flood insurance.
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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The content presents factual information about local community issues, such as flood damage and rebuilding efforts at a golf course and a charter school, without expressing partisan opinions or advocating for a particular political ideology. The tone is neutral and focused on reporting details relevant to the community, reflecting a balanced and nonpartisan approach.
SUMMARY: Brooke Johnson, 29, became the first woman to skateboard across the U.S., completing a nearly four-month, 3,000-mile journey from Santa Monica, California, to Virginia Beach. Motivated by a promise to her late stepfather, Roger, who suffered a spinal cord injury and encouraged her to skate across the country, Brooke fulfilled her goal while raising over $54,000 for spinal cord research. Despite emotional and physical challenges, she felt Roger’s support throughout. At the finish line, she wore a necklace containing his ashes, symbolizing their shared journey. Brooke plans to rest before deciding her next adventure. Donations continue via “Brooke Does Everything.”
Brooke Johnson traveled by skateboard from California to Virginia Beach over 118 days to raise over $50000 for spinal cord injury …
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-08-18 08:01:00
Hurricane Erin, which rapidly intensified from Category 1 to Category 5 over the weekend with winds near 160 mph, weakened slightly to Category 4 on Monday while remaining offshore. At 8 a.m., it was about 115 miles north-northeast of Grand Turk and 890 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, moving northwest at 13 mph. Dare County declared an emergency, ordering evacuations for Hatteras Island and the Outer Banks, where NC 12 is at risk of flooding and damage. While Erin is expected to miss U.S. landfall, North Carolina’s coast remains within its wind field amid ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene.
(The Center Square) – Erin, once a Category 5 hurricane over the weekend that more than doubled wind speed to nearly 160 mph, on Monday morning remained on a path to miss landfall of the United States though not without forcing evacuations in North Carolina.
At 8 a.m., the Category 4 hurricane was just east of the southeastern Bahamas, the National Weather Center said, about 115 miles north-northeast of the Grand Turk Islands, and about 890 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras. Erin was moving northwest at 13 mph, forecast to be going north by Wednesday morning while parallel to the Florida panhandle.
Erin had 75 mph maximum winds Friday at 11 a.m., a Category 1, and 24 hours later was near 160 mph and Category 5. It has since gone to a Category 3 before gaining more intensity.
On the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, Category 1 is 74-95 mph, Category 2 is 96-110, Category 3 is major and 111-129 mph, Category 4 is 130-156 mph, and Category 5 is greater than 157 mph. While the most-often characterization of Atlantic basin cyclones, the scale is without context on storm surge – a key factor in damage at landfall.
Dare County on Sunday declared an emergency with evacuations ordered for Hatteras Island and the Outer Banks. N.C. 12, the famed 148-mile roadway linking peninsulas and islands of the Outer Banks, is likely to go under water and parts could wash away – as often happens with hurricanes.
NC12 begins at U.S. 70 at the community of Sea Level and runs to a point just north of Corolla and south of the Currituck Banks North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve. Two ferries, Hatteras Island to Ocracoke Island and Cedar Island to Ocracoke Island, are part of the route.
Nearly all of North Carolina’s 301-mile coastline is within the outer wind field projection from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center. The greatest speed, however, is 20 mph.
Erin’s rapid intensity is among the greatest on record, and particularly so for prior to Sept. 1. Hurricane force winds (74 mph) extend 60 miles from its center.
By midnight Thursday into Friday, the storm is expected to be past a point parallel to the Virginia-North Carolina border and gaining speed away from the coast.
The storm’s miss of the state is particularly welcome in light of Hurricane Helene. Recovery from that storm is in its 47th week. Helene killed 107 in the state, 236 across seven states in the South, and caused an estimated $60 billion in damage to North Carolina.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The content provided is a straightforward news report on Hurricane Erin, focusing on meteorological facts, evacuation orders, and recent hurricane impacts in North Carolina. It presents detailed information about the storm’s strength, projected path, and historical context without expressing any opinion or advocating for a particular political viewpoint. The language is neutral and factual, offering updates from official sources and avoiding ideological framing. Thus, it reports on the situation without contributing any discernible political bias or ideological stance.
