Here’s how Trump’s proposed new policies may affect Mass.
Trump’s campaign promises and upcoming return to the White House could impact industries all over Massachusetts.
By Abby Patkin
November 8, 2024
Donald Trump is on his way back to the White House following his decisive win Tuesday, and his sweeping campaign promises could yield some big impacts in Massachusetts.
For one thing, there’s no love lost between Trump and Gov. Maura Healey, who took the first Trump administration to court 96 times during her tenure as state attorney general (and won in 77% of those cases, per The Boston Globe). Likewise, current Attorney General Andrea Campbell said her office is ready to pounce.
Trump’s vows to overhaul education and reshape health care hit home for Massachusetts, which prides itself on being a national leader in both sectors. His mass deportation plans could devastate some communities in the Bay State, where 18.1% of residents were born in another country.
Here’s a (non-exhaustive) roundup of five areas where Trump’s policies could impact Massachusetts.
Immigration
Trump has promised to “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.” His hardline approach focuses largely on the U.S.-Mexico border, with vows to strengthen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and increase penalties for illegal border crossings and overstayed visas. And that could have serious impacts in Massachusetts, which had about 325,000 unauthorized immigrants as of 2022, per Pew Research Center data.
The ongoing migrant crisis has become a hot-button issue in Massachusetts in recent years, with frequent battles over shelters and other forms of state aid. Immigration policies were also a key issue in the lawsuits Healey filed or joined against the federal government as AG.
Trump is likely to face more legal challenges this time around, and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition has vowed to “fight against xenophobic policies and rhetoric.”
“Policies such as carrying out mass deportations, revoking humanitarian parole programs, and ending Temporary Protected Status are unjust and un-American,” Executive Director Elizabeth Sweet said in a statement Wednesday. “MIRA will not stand by quietly while our immigrant communities are under attack. We will tirelessly work to protect our immigrant population, and their right to due process here in Massachusetts and across the country.”
Also prepared is Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights, which filed a class action lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others on behalf of a group of migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard in 2022.
“At Lawyers for Civil Rights, we have been down this road before,” LCR Executive Director Iván Espinoza-Madrigal said in a statement. “Time after time, we have filed lawsuits against the Trump Administration — as we would against any official, blue or red, who tramples on the Constitution.”
Transit
The MBTA has benefitted substantially from federal funding during President Joe Biden’s time in office, and General Manager Phil Eng has said he will seek federal grants and assistance as the T tries to stave off a “fiscal cliff” projected for next year.
Yet the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which has provided millions of dollars in funding for the MBTA and Massachusetts transportation projects, expires in 2026. The law’s future beyond then isn’t clear, and Project 2025 — a possible blueprint for Trump’s second term written by his allies — proposes further attacks on federal transit funding.
According to the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning public policy research organization, Project 2025 would defund transit maintenance and increase costs for commuters in part by eliminating critical Federal Transit Administration funding. The MBTA sorely needs those funds; last year, the agency said it would cost about $24.5 billion to bring the T’s infrastructure into a state of good repair, thanks to years of underinvestment.
Health care
Trump has long taken aim at the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as Obamacare, and in September’s presidential debate said his team is “looking at different plans” to possibly replace it. If he gets his way with proposed health care policy changes, that could mean higher costs for Americans, including some in Massachusetts.
Speaking to The Boston Globe, Massachusetts Nurses Association Executive Director Julie Pinkham also raised concerns that a growing crisis in the state’s health care system could fester or worsen under Trump’s second term. She also pointed out that the health care workforce here has long been overburdened and needs higher federal reimbursements for insurance programs for many patients, according to the Globe.
“From the standpoint of people delivering care, this isn’t good,” Pinkham told the newspaper. She also reportedly expressed fear the new administration could jeopardize the state’s health reforms and ability to treat low-income patients.
Trump has hinted that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine critic who holds no medical or public health degrees, could have a “big role” in his second administration. RFK Jr. has said “entire departments” of the Food and Drug Administration “have to go,” and his comments have stoked fear and uncertainty among public health experts and the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, which have a large footprint in Greater Boston.
Experts have also warned that Trump’s second term will likely mean more threats to reproductive rights. Abortion remains legal and protected by state law in Massachusetts, and Healey has taken steps to stockpile the abortion medication mifepristone amid federal turmoil. But experts told the Globe some New England abortion providers are likely to lose significant federal funding under the new Trump administration and may need state leaders to cover the shortfall.
Lora Pellegrini, president of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, told GBH Trump’s election stokes other fears concerning reproductive care.
“We could see a complete federal ban on abortion, contraception, IVF that would impact all the states, including Massachusetts, so that’s pretty shocking and I’m not sure everyone fully understands that,” Pellegrini told the news outlet.
Trump also made attacks on transgender Americans central to his campaign, often targeting gender-affirming care.
Environment
Trump has threatened to issue an executive order targeting offshore wind development, a cornerstone of Massachusetts’s clean energy and climate goals.
“He’s going to shut down offshore wind,” Healey said in August, according to CommonWealth. “He’s going to shut down all clean energy technology. He’s going to shut down the move toward renewables. And if that were to happen, we would end up with a sicker, less healthy population. The consequences on our economy would be devastating.”
Trump’s election raises concerns about the state’s likely loss in federal support for clean energy, a sector that contributed more than $14 billion to Massachusetts’s gross state product in 2022, according to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. In fact, Trump has vowed to increase U.S. production of fossil fuels, and the Republican platform includes a promise to “DRILL, BABY, DRILL.”
Education
Trump has said he wants to close the federal Department of Education and give more control to individual states, though he wouldn’t be able to do so unilaterally. One of his core campaign promises is to “cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children,” potentially teeing up a battle with more liberal-leaning states like Massachusetts.
Trump’s election will likely impact the state’s robust higher education sector, too, given his plan to “reclaim” universities from “Marxist maniacs.” According to the Globe, Trump and his allies propose replacing universities’ existing oversight agencies with new ones that would defend “the American tradition and Western civilization,” and they’ve hinted at plans to target campus diversity initiatives. A second Trump term also spells some uncertainty for Massachusetts student loan borrowers.
But there’s a chance Massachusetts won’t feel the educational impacts quite as deeply as some other states, John Baick, a history professor at Western New England University, suggested in comments to MassLive last month.
“The basic reality is that we’re going to be a pro-education state. And to put it rather bluntly, it’s similar to the idea of reproductive rights and a woman’s right to choose,” Baick told the news outlet. “What happens in Washington, D.C. may affect the country pretty dramatically, in some states pretty dramatically, but Massachusetts will basically be okay.”