What This Moment Feels Like for the Victims of Trump’s Cruelest Policies

Donald Trump will leave office on Jan. 20, but the president’s policies—consistently anti-immigrant, anti-science, and intolerant—have left behind thousands of damaged lives: people who found themselves separated from their children or parents, those who have come to fear for their own safety over their gender identity or race or sexual orientation, those who have lived in constant fear of deportation, and those who lost loved ones to an unnecessarily horrific pandemic.

Slate spoke to four Americans personally affected by the administration’s policies about how Trump has affected their lives and how they feel about a future without him as president. These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.