A New Deal or a Raw Deal?

Guest Opinion

By Cathye Williams | Feb. 7, 2026

President Trump often compares himself to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In a recent cabinet meeting, he asserted that his 2025 legislation known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” was the “Republican version of the New Deal.” Pointing to FDR’s portrait, Trump added that the BBB is a “much better deal than the FDR deal” (CNN News).

While this thought may have FDR rolling in his grave, let’s see how the two legislative juggernauts really compare:

FDR’s New Deal comprised several public acts implemented throughout the 1930s aimed at lifting America out of the Great Depression and making it resilient against future calamities.

One of the best known of these New Deal efforts was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which provided jobs and training to three million young men to protect the nation’s natural resources.

Corps members planted over three billion trees, created countless state parks, fought fires, and constructed hundreds of thousands of miles of roads and trails. The CCC’s erosion control work restored precious soil lost in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma and other farm belt states. Training and pay went directly to the people doing the service work, boosting the economy and their collective power (Oklahoma Historical Society).

In comparison, Trump’s legislation does very little for natural resources and not much more for job growth. It strips policies that protect our air, water, and land while Trump’s “drill baby drill” mentality damages the environment and drives climate change. Fossil fuel extraction requires far more energy and heavy equipment than it does manpower.

Trump’s jobs plan involves giving tax cuts and other advantages to wealthy people and corporations. He claims that these benefits will grow the economy and “trickle down” to create jobs and investment.

History has shown us, however, that executives and shareholders usually reap the most benefit from trickle down economics, and much less flows to workers and local communities.

Additionally, these tax cuts shrink the public funds needed to keep up infrastructure used by businesses and individuals alike. Responsibility falls more and more on working people to keep things running for the common good.

The New Deal also established the very effective Works Project Administration. Like the CCC, the WPA employed millions building roads, bridges, schools, and arts and literacy programs across the country. In these programs, thousands of illiterate people learned to read and write, leading to opportunities to enrich themselves and their communities.

In contrast, Trump’s policies aim to dismantle public funding for education and the arts. (Particularly those that don’t fuel his ego or align with MAGA ideology.) His landmark legislation introduced significant cuts targeting the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and various grant programs (Center for American Progress).

After the devastation of the Great Depression, FDR wisely created oversight for financial markets: the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for protecting people’s hard-won savings. His Social Security Act established unemployment, disability, and old age benefits for millions.

Today, Trump’s administration is trying to weaken or abolish consumer protections, market oversight, and unions, as well as interfering with the operation of the Federal Reserve.

The New Deal seems to lack what Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill has in abundance—cruelty. With the BBB, Republicans in Congress are making major cuts over 10 years to Medicaid ($900 billion), Obamacare ($31 billion), and SNAP food assistance ($187 billion). This means cutting healthcare for the poor, health insurance subsidies for the middle class, and food benefits for children and families.

Will these devastating cuts help lift the nation out of debt? Doubtful. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the BBB will increase the deficit by $3.4 trillion.

Don’t worry—it’s not all cuts. The Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for instance, will have a budget of $85 billion to carry out illegal arrests, detentions, and rights violations, making it the highest funded law enforcement agency in the U.S. (NPR).

Apparently, the real art of Trump’s deal is to make us poorer, sicker, hungrier, and more afraid.

Cathye Williams is a local climate activist. She writes from the northern corner of Manistee County.