What 3 Arizonans say about the first year of the new Trump era

When Paula Mercado was chosen for two prestigious government fellowships last year, she felt like it had all been worth it.

After Mercado graduated from the University of Arizona, she moved from her home state of Arizona to Washington, D.C., to pursue a career in foreign affairs, missing out on seeing family and friends to make her dream a reality.

She enrolled at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy to pursue a master’s degree. She interned, volunteered and wrote for the school’s security studies journal.

And after years of hard work, Mercado applied for the State Department’s Colin Powell Leadership Program and the Presidential Management Fellowship after graduation.

The nonpartisan, early career programs for young people pursuing government work can be life-changing, Mercado said. That felt especially true to her as the daughter of Mexican immigrants.

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“I came to D.C. with a very specific goal in mind, and I was ready to go above and beyond and do whatever it took to get there,” Mercado said.

She had been so nervous last winter to find out whether she was chosen for either program that she handed her phone to her sister to read the answer. Mercado was accepted into both programs.

“My stomach dropped,” Mercado said. “For the first time in my life, it felt like it was going to be OK.”

But that feeling didn’t last long. Shortly after President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term, he ordered a federal hiring freeze.

Both of Mercado’s job offers were rescinded and there was little opportunity elsewhere because of his broader mission to downsize the government and lay off thousands of federal employees. Approximately 317,000 federal employees left the government in 2025, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

“Every time I drive into D.C., it feels like my heart’s just being broken again,” Mercado said. “I used to look at the monuments with stars in my eyes.”

Mercado’s experience is just one way that Trump is reshaping life for Arizonans.

The president has made drastic moves to crack down on illegal immigration and is recalibrating the country’s position on the global stage with sweeping tariffs and unprecedented ambitions to take over Greenland.

This year, Trump will set his sights on the economy, a top issue for voters that he promised to improve when he was running for president. Trump’s performance will be put to the test in the 2026 midterm elections, when voters will decide whether to tip the balance of the House and Senate to Democrats.

“It’s been an amazing period of time,” Trump said during an address marking the first year of his second term on Jan. 20.

Leading up to the one-year anniversary of Inauguration Day, Arizonans spoke with The Arizona Republic about how the second Trump era is impacting their lives.

For Republican Rick Richards, 63, things couldn’t be much better. Richards lives in Gilbert and owns two businesses, a pool maintenance company and an RV and boat self-storage business.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, he’s a 13,” Richards said. “I’m extremely happy with what he’s doing and how he’s taking command and making decisions that are changing the world for the better.”

Richards praised Trump’s capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is now facing drug trafficking charges in the United States. Trump has said he will run Venezuela until an orderly transfer of power can be ensured.

Richards also supports Trump’s push to take over Greenland, saying he believes the Danish territory is strategically important for the United States.

Trump’s immigration policy also earned high marks from Richards, who said he is happy to see a major drop in crossings at the southern border. Controversial operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have drawn protesters in Phoenix and other cities, but Richards said he backs what the president is doing.“Anyone that’s here that came here illegally, is illegal. They are breaking the law and they should be deported,” Richards said.

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On the economy and tariffs, Richards acknowledged that Americans are feeling the pinch of high prices.

Inflation slowed in Phoenix more than it did in the rest of the country at the end of 2025, but prices remain high, according to federal data. Housing costs accounted for most of the recent improvement in inflation.

Richards is in the process of building an RV and boat storage facility in Gold Canyon and will soon need to buy metal to build canopies for sun protection.

The materials may cost more than they did a few years ago because of tariffs, Richards said, but he thinks retailers may also absorb some of the tariff cost and raise prices more slowly.

“I’m in favor of the tariffs,” Richards said, praising the money that the duties have brought into the United States. The U.S. government collected $195 billion in tariffs in fiscal 2025, according to the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an increase from the previous year.

Richards has seen the cost for equipment to repair pool pumps, filters and plumbing go up at his pool maintenance business, which he blames on inflation.

Phoenix salon owner D’Lisa Shayn Khademi has also been squeezed by inflation, but she has a different view on Trump’s tariffs. She started preparing for the president’s second term long before Inauguration Day.

When Shayn Khademi saw Trump had won the presidential primary, she canceled an annual vacation to save money and placed a big order of products on Alibaba, a Chinese retailer, before the president could institute his tariffs.

Shayn Khademi owns Salon D’Shayn in Phoenix and says it costs 30% to 40% more to run her business than it did a few years ago.

“I’m starting to run out of things, so I have to order things, and stuff that I used to buy is now almost twice as much, or there’s a tariff charge. So it is more expensive,” Shayn Khademi said.

She said her customers are also pulling back on their spending because of the high price of goods, such as groceries. The price of groceries in the Phoenix area rose 3.8% in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“I knew it was going to get difficult, and it has been. People are spending less on things like getting their hair done, getting skin care, getting waxing, which is what happens every time there’s a recession, or thought of a recession,” Shayn Khademi said.

Shayn Khademi classifies her politics as extremely liberal or even “hyper-liberal,” but with a uniquely Arizona bent. She voted twice for the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who did an “amazing job.” She cried when he died, she said.

She recently bought dozens of whistles to hand out to her neighborhood to prepare for possible ICE actions in her area. She said she was disturbed by the death of Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old woman who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.

“What’s going on right now, in my mind, is extremely scary, and it’s just bad. It’s just bad all the way around,” Shayn Khademi said. “I am a straight White woman who’s married, so I have to use my voice a lot more, because I’m still protected in a certain way.”

Shayn Khademi is vocal about her political views at work, too. The windows at Salon D’Shayn have stickers that carry pro-LGBTQ+ messages and slogans such as “Black Lives Matter,” “(Expletive) ICE” and “(Expletive) Donald Trump.”

“I know for a lot of businesses, people are like, you shouldn’t have to do politics or whatever. And it used to be like that when I started, I would have never had that stuff on my windows, you know, 18 years ago,” Shayn Khademi said. “But nowadays everything is political, so you have to make decisions on how you want to show up in the world.”

Reporting by Stephanie Murray, Arizona Republic