Simple Message Advice to

Tell Your Story About a Trump Disaster

  1. Tell what Trump did in simple language with just the key information (from this website or another source):
    Trump put a freeze on all federal grants and payments for libraries.

  2. Explain the impact on people and your community in personal, human terms:

    Trump is holding up resources for the library that I’ve used for years to find books for my children and grandchildren.

    The after-school program at our local library, which gives children a safe place to go after school, is facing big cuts in funding because of Trump.

  3. Always put the blame on Trump:

    • Do NOT say “the Trump administration.”

    • Do NOT say that the action was from a government agency or department, unless you first put the blame on Trump.

  4. Job loss is about Trump firing people, not reducing staff:

    It’s important that we talk about federal employees being fired in human terms. For example:

  • Trump is firing people — they are not losing their jobs.

  • Trump is firing people who do vital work… People, not staff or federal employees.

A table with two columns labeled 'DO NOT SAY' and 'SAY THIS'. The 'DO NOT SAY' column contains a statement about the Department of Health and Human Services announcing staff reductions of 20,000. The 'SAY THIS' column contains a statement attributing the reduction to Trump's actions and suggesting that staff are working to safeguard health at the Health Department.

5. DO NOT talk about cuts, as a lot of people like the idea of cutting government.

DO talk about the way the government program helps people and communities.

A table with two columns titled 'Do Not Say' and 'Say This.' The left column says, 'Republicans in Congress propose to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid.' The right column says, 'Trump and Republicans in Congress are moving to take away health care and raise costs for tens of millions of children, seniors, working people, and veterans who get health coverage through Medicaid and the ACA.'