In Alaska's Far-Flung Crab Port, Trump's Cuts Land Hard Before Midterms

Unalaska sits closer to Beijing than to Washington, and this week it feels a long way from Capitol Hill. Alaska votes Tuesday, and the state could decide whether Democrats claw back control of Congress. Unalaska backed Donald Trump in 2024, but plenty of locals now say his second term has cost them money, jobs and their library.

Start with the fuel. Diesel has climbed on the war with Iran, and that stings in a town where diesel keeps the lights on. Oystein Lone, fishing these waters since 1989, already spent $86,000 on 12,000 gallons for one of his two boats; filling up again could run $100,000, with the Bering Sea crab season opening inside 17 hours and quotas higher this year. 'This is the most challenging time I've seen,' he said.

City council member Daneen Looby feels it at the Norwegian Rat Saloon, where shipping fuel surcharges keep creeping up and she's weighing higher menu prices. 'I didn't want to, but I kind of have to, otherwise I'm going to become a charity,' she told the Guardian. Roughly 4,300 people live here, and the port of Dutch Harbor has led the nation in seafood volume for more than 25 years, moving 780m pounds worth nearly $225m in 2023, according to NOAA.

Then came the cuts. Trump's March 2025 executive order targeted agencies including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, killing a $6,000 grant librarian Karen Kresh had counted on for books. The Museum of the Aleutians lost more than $347,000 in National Endowment for the Humanities money in April and laid off six people, executive director Virginia Hatfield said. Longshoremen, meanwhile, load empty containers onto ships to dodge tariffs.

Public media took a blow too. Congress ended funding for public broadcasting, and KUCB — the island's emergency lifeline — lost half its budget, general manager Lauren Adams said. The Senate was debating the cut the same day the station broadcast a tsunami warning. Donations poured in afterward and the Bureau of Indian Affairs sent temporary money, but Adams is blunt about the math: windfall fundraising isn't a long-term plan.

That leaves Tuesday's ballot. Republican senator Dan Sullivan faces Democrat Mary Peltola, whose campaign has been rocked by scandals, and Democrats see an opening in rising fuel prices and Trump's plunging approval. Campaign signs are scarce and candidates rarely make the trip. The mood, though, is loud. 'I feel like we have a rogue government right now,' Looby said.