Michigan Federal Worker Regrets Voting for Trump After Losing Job and IVF Access

News
Bente Birkeland
March 1, 2025
9 minutes read

Donald Trump Campaigns For President In Wisconsin (Photo Credit: by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

A rural Michigan federal worker who reluctantly voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, believing his promises about lowering the cost of living, now finds herself without the job she loved. In a Washington Post profile, 24-year-old Ryleigh Cooper detailed her difficult decision to support Trump, only to see her hopes dashed just three months after the election.

She had envisioned a career in forestry and the ability to access in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother. “Trump, at a campaign stop an hour and a half south of her, had promised to make IVF free. She knew that from a video clip she saw on TikTok. And she had believed him,” wrote reporter Emily Davies.

“She also believed him when he said that Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican administration that suggested mass cuts to the federal workforce, was not his plan.” Davies recounted how Cooper spent 15 minutes staring at her ballot before finally voting for Trump, motivated by the prospect of starting a family.

Once Trump assumed office, Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency spearheaded efforts to purge federal employees, a move that would directly impact Cooper. “She figured her job, with paychecks totaling about $40,000 a year, would be safe from the cost-cutting campaign led by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk,” Davies wrote. But Cooper was wrong.

“Getting fired meant she would no longer have health insurance, including the 12 weeks of paid maternity leave that was a guaranteed benefit of her federal service. Also gone would be the promotion that would allow her to plan for the kids she so badly wanted to have.”

Just four days after losing her job, Cooper learned of Trump’s new executive order to expand access to IVF. “But it still wasn’t free, and she was out of a job and out of a plan,” Davies wrote. As Cooper read the White House fact sheet on IVF, she saw the headline: “Delivering on promises for American families,” and thought, “That’s bulls—,” Davies wrote.

The story underscores the real-life consequences of political decisions, particularly for young workers who placed faith in campaign promises that ultimately did not materialize.