Emmitsburg, Maryland (population 2,855) in northern Maryland (just near the border of Pennsylvania) had a lot of Republican voters. It is a small town whose claim to fame is that it houses the National Fire Academy, which is in charge of training the entire United States' firefighters and first responders. Due to cuts to the federal government thanks to DOGE, they are in the Finding Out Phase of FAFO. And they are not happy...but still love King Donald Trump.
Here are a few fun quotes from important residents to show you just how deep the cult mentality goes and how hard it really is to break the spell:
Frank Davis worked in the federal government and he is pretty happy Trump getting rid of "waste" in the government. Oh, and he is the Mayor and emergency medical services captain at the local firehouse, known as the Vigilant Hose Company. But he thinks government is full of waste. He said: "I'm probably gonna get shot for this, but he is doing what he said he was going to do,"
Shortly after the Trump administration canceled in-person classes at the National Fire Academy, Davis realized that maybe this was not a great move, since Emmitsburg relies heavily on visitors to the academy.
If funding doesn't return, he said "It will change my outlook to say that they're not being fair. They're just going in to cut and not caring what they cut."
You don't say.
NPR interviewed about two dozen people in the small town - almost all of them voted for Donald Trump. And many of them said the main reason they voted for him was because his plans to "cut federal spending." Now they are shocked to find out that their national firefighting training academy is THE WASTE that Trump plans to cut.
For those unaware of the history of this academy, it trains about 8,000 to 10,000 firefighters a YEAR. It offers courses in "everything from leadership and management for fire chiefs to how to conduct fire, arson and explosion investigations."
FEMA didn't provide an answer to NPR about why the funding was cut or if it would be restored, suggesting that it had to do with travel costs, saying: "The bottom line is we are no longer paying for non-employee travel. We are only authorizing travel for mission critical programs, this isn't one. Some of these classes are still available online."
Online. Firefighting. Courses.
John Beck, another Trump supporter, "serves as fire chief of the Waynesboro Volunteer Fire Department nearby in Pennsylvania, had applied for a weekend leadership and development course at the academy in July" and may have voted himself out of the job. He claims that he "voted for Trump and supports cutting waste and making government smaller" but says he "I wish[es] things were going differently." He doesn't regret his vote, though. I am sure he (and everyone else that voted for Trump) is super happy about the racism, anti-LGBTQ and misogyny.
Ok, another Trump voter, this one co-owner of Ott House, a large family pub that relies on the firefighters to come in and eat at her restaurant...Susan Glass is a bit worried. She has "already told a lot of our employees that it's a possibility they won't have a job for the summer, but we're hoping things open back up.:
BOOTSTRAPS, Susan.
How can you be mad when you got what you asked for?
