The complicated truth behind Trump’s ‘American comeback’
By Helier Cheung BBC News, Reno and Las Vegas
20 February 2020
Corin Kealoha and Shaun Karagory both work full time – but cannot afford food
without the help of a food bank.
“We can’t even live off our wages,” says Corin, 46, who works as a hotel receptionist. “That’s why we
come here.”
The couple are at St Vincent’s Food Pantry, in Reno, Nevada, where they have picked up cardboard
boxes containing cereals, bread, milk, peanut butter, and some meat.
And their story offers a glimpse into the complicated reality behind the economic recovery lauded
by President Donald Trump.
In his January State of the Union, President Trump hailed the “great American comeback”, stating:
“Jobs are booming. Incomes are soaring. Poverty is plummeting… the years of economic decay are
over.”
It’s a narrative he hopes will help him win November’s presidential race – including in Nevada, a
swing state that supported Hillary Clinton by a margin of just 2% in 2016.
The western state, home to Las Vegas, was one of the worst hit by the 2008 financial crisis. House
prices dropped up to 60%, unemployment soared to 14%, and the state had the highest number of
home foreclosures nationwide.
More than a decade on, Nevada’s home values have recovered, the state came first for job growth in
the US in 2018, and unemployment now hovers at a 20-year low of 3.8%.
But to get a sense of some of the limits of the recovery, you only have to take a walk in downtown
Reno.
Down North Virginia Street, there are glittery high-rise hotels and casinos, river walkways, and
tourists taking selfies at the iconic Reno Arch, which proudly welcomes visitors to “the biggest little
city in the world”.
The complicated truth behind Trump’s ‘American comeback’ – BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51578045
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Yet if you take a different turn, and walk down East Fourth Street, the city looks very different.
Instead of high-rises, there are smaller, weekly motels, and instead of tourists, you can see queues
outside shelters and soup kitchens, and homeless people sitting, chatting, or doing push-ups near
the railway tracks.
“Unemployment is low, but unfortunately unemployment is not a great indicator of how many
people are hungry,” says Jocelyn Lantrip, from the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, which supplies
charities, including St Vincent’s Food Pantry.
And often, those going hungry – or temporarily homeless – are people who already have jobs.
“We have anything from 350 to 450 new families per month,” says Carlos Carrillo, programme
director at the St Vincent’s food pantry, in between packing boxes with food.
The complicated truth behind Trump’s ‘American comeback’ – BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51578045
