“In this town of 16,000 — located near the Texas border in Oklahoma’s Bryan County, where Trump won 76 percent of the vote — excitement about Trump’s presidency has been dulled by confusion over an agenda that seems aimed at hurting their community more than helping it.” Many of Trump’s key supporters are continuing to support the man who gave voice to a community that felt it had been silenced by past administrations (and geopolitical trends). But that support is facing a test as “the president’s proposed budget would disproportionately harm the rural areas and small towns that were key to his unexpected win.”

+ “The surge only underscores the deeply uneven world of what economists call non-metro America, where the recession never ended in some places and is barely remembered in others.” The decline of rural America is a very real story (and one that, contrary to popular perception, has been widely covered by the media). But it turns out that we’re only getting half the story. Here’s the NYT on Twin Falls, Idaho. A region that, like many others, is bucking the trend and thriving.