In his first month back in the White House, President Donald Trump has moved quickly to roll out restrictions on immigration and stop diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. And he’s turned to a key ally from his 2024 campaign, billionaire Elon Musk, to slash jobs and federal spending.
NPR roving national correspondent Frank Langfitt joined "Florida Matters" to share insights into how the administration is shaking up the federal government.
Before his current assignment, Langfitt was a foreign correspondent for NPR, reporting from China, Ukraine and the U.K., among other places. Recently, Langfitt was at the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs, and he stopped by WUSF’s St. Petersburg studio to talk about what it’s like to come back and report on the United States.
“It’s dramatically different. The country I left, there was an agreement on facts. That’s no longer the case,” said Langfitt. “It was polarized, but not remotely like the way that it is now.”
Langfitt said he takes the same approach to reporting on America that he did as a foreign correspondent. And that means getting into the community and talking to people.
“I find … in the United States, people mix less and less, and we know the political geography of the country. To me, the best thing that I can do is get out there and just travel and travel and talk.”
During the 2024 election campaign, immigration dominated headlines, and it came up time and time again as one of the things people told WUSF they were worried about.
Jeh Johnson was the Department of Homeland Security secretary during President Barackk Obama’s second term. He’s keenly aware of the challenge of securing the country’s borders, and he joined "Florida Matters" to reflect on this new administration’s approach to immigration.
At the start of February, "Florida Matters" stopped by the Church of the Palms, a Presbyterian congregation in Sarasota, where Johnson had been invited to give a lecture by the Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning.
Before his talk, he sat down with us to chat about what makes immigration and border security so challenging. By the time we packed up our recording equipment, the church’s sprawling parking lot was full ─ one sign that interest in the issue remains high as the Trump administration rolls out tough enforcement policies.
“To deal with the problem of our southern border effectively, we as a nation have to address the underlying push factors through sustained, smart investment in improving the economies, the integrity of the governments in the countries where people are fleeing,” said Johnson.
“When I was secretary of DHS, I used to tell our immigration enforcement people ─ including [current border czar] Tom Homan, by the way, who worked for [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] when I was secretary of the whole DHS ─ 'do your jobs, enforce the law.' But one controversial incident in a particular community can undermine your entire mission,” Johnson added.
“Snatch a grandmother off a church steps one Sunday or pull a child out of junior high school who's undocumented in front of the cameras and that will become a highly controversial single incident that can undermine your ability to work effectively in the communities where you need local law enforcement support.”
