Nearly 1,000 people attend Lexington rally to protest Trump cuts. Rep. Barr is a no-show
About 1,000 people attended a Lexington town hall Saturday to decry President Donald Trump’s cuts to veteran’s healthcare, education, research and his administration’s hardline stance on immigration.
Kim Edwards, a cancer survivor, said she benefited from cutting-edge treatments at the University of Kentucky’s Markey Cancer Center. Trump has threatened to nix National Institutes of Health and other medical research funding that helped save her life and others lives. A recently-passed federal budget resolution calls for a 57 % cut to medical research, Edwards said.
“It has thrown our cancer research into chaos,” Edwards said. “People will die because of these cuts.”
Marilyn Daniel, a retired immigration attorney who still works in an immigration clinic, recently spoke to two immigrant women whose children were American citizens. One woman has a child who is 14 months old and the other had a child with special needs.
“They are terrified that they will lose their children,” Daniel said. “That’s what keeps me up at night.”
It has happened before. During Trump’s first administration, 1,300 children were separated from their parents during crack downs on immigration, Daniel said.
“They were never reunited,” Daniel said. When kids are separated from their parents at the time a parent is detained for allegedly entering the country illegally, the child is often placed with the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, an agency so overburdened that children removed from guardians’ custody have had to sleep in state office buildings, Daniel said.
Daniel encouraged U.S. Rep. Andy Barr to make sure there is a path for parents and children to be reunited as Trump has again stepped up immigration enforcement.
Barr hints town hall coordinated attack by paid liberal activists
Barr, R-Lexington, who represents Fayette and many surrounding counties, did not attend.
An empty seat was placed on the stage at the Kentucky Theatre, where the town hall was held, to signify Barr’s absence.
Barr was also greeted by protesters when he spoke Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency before the Commerce Lexington luncheon. Barr said after Wednesday’s speech that he would hold a virtual town hall instead of attending Saturday’s town hall.
Dozens of other protests and town halls have also popped up across Kentucky in recent weeks. On Saturday, there was a protest In Louisville over possible Medicaid cuts called for in the most recent federal budget.
A spokesperson for Barr called Saturday’s town hall a coordinated liberal attack. Kentucky voters overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2024. He won with 64.5% of the vote, Barr’s office said.
“This is a town hall organized by liberal activists with no coordination from our office,” said Tyler Staker, a Barr spokesperson. “The Congressman continues to travel the district and listen to his constituents, and the feedback he’s hearing is his constituents are fired up about President Trump’s agenda to Make America Great Again and to clean up waste, fraud, and abuse across government.”
Moreover, Saturday’s demonstration was likely staged by paid agitators, Staker said.
“These organized, often paid, efforts by a small group of liberal activists across the country to disrupt this mandate for change won’t work,” Staker said.
That’s blatantly false, said the event organizers, a grassroots group called Gathering for Democracy. The group of local Lexington residents asked Barr to have a town hall but was told by Barr’s staff Barr has been told not to conduct an in-person town hall due to security reasons, said Rena Wiseman, one of the organizers.
More than two dozen people spoke during the 90-minute town hall. A video of the speakers, as well as cards people filed out about specific issues they want to see addressed, will be sent to Barr’s office, Wiseman said.
People voiced concerns about loss of education funding, cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, social security, Medicaid and the politicization of the U.S. military. It was a standing-room only crowd at the Kentucky Theatre, whose main theater holds 800 people.
‘Why is inclusion a bad word?’
Lynn English is a retired physical therapist from the University of Kentucky. UK students and faculty work in a clinic in Ecuador three times a year. That clinic was supposed to receive a United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, grant to expand services to include rehabilitation services for kids and adults with disabilities. That funding has now been terminated as a result of Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE cuts, English said.
It’s the only clinic of its kind in Ecuador, she said.
“Do you know or care about the individual stories related to USAID?” English asked the absent Barr.
Multiple people voiced concerns about possible cuts to Veterans Affairs. Lexington has two large VA medical campuses — one on Leestown Road and another on UK’s campus.
State Rep. Adam Moore, D-Lexington, is also a military veteran. Veterans are dependent on that system to meet all of their medical needs, he said.
“I am a veteran and I get my care at our local VA,” Moore said. “What are you doing to protect our care?”
Dr. Megan Wolack is a doctor and a physician educator in Lexington. Wolack said cuts to the VA will also hurt doctors and doctor training. The Trump administration has said they want to cut between 70,000 and 80,000 employees from the VA. More than 6,000 Kentuckians work for the VA, according to federal data.
“It is estimated that 70% of doctors have received training at the VA,” Wolack said.
The recent federal budget resolution also calls for billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, the state and federal program for the poor and disabled. It is estimated one in three Kentuckians receives health insurance through that program.
Patti Logsdon has a son who is autistic and receives services and healthcare through Medicaid. She is also involved in research that helps teachers and others communicate with students and others that may have communication limitations. Yet, she and other researchers feel they can’t use the word inclusive in their research because of attacks at the federal and state levels on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“What are you doing to support people with disabilities?” Logsdon asked the absent Barr. “Why is inclusion a bad word?”
Others said they have grown increasingly concerned Elon Musk and other billionaires have been given free reign to make cuts no one elected them to make. The threats to the U.S. Constitution are real, many said.
Trump’s administration has repeatedly ignored court orders, including deporting people after a federal judge told them to stop, many said.
Ross Carter said he and others who have attended protests aren’t paid liberal agitators. They are people.
“Our nation is careening down the road to dictatorship,” Carter said. Trump has alienated and continues to alienate scores of people.
“He has also angered teachers, veterans, government workers social security recipients and most people who stayed awake during middle school civics classes,” Carter quipped. “What I am asking, Mr. Barr, is that you pump the brakes on our crash course toward dictatorship.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2025 at 3:04 PM.
