Billionaire entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban is sounding the alarm over what he calls a looming “Red Rural Recession,” sparked by sweeping federal job cuts under President Donald Trump’s second administration.
In a series of posts on the decentralized social platform Bluesky, Cuban painted a grim picture of economic instability spreading across America’s small towns — areas that overwhelmingly supported Trump in the last election.
“I think there is going to be a Red Rural Recession and soon if all the cuts continue as is,” Cuban posted earlier this week. “All the firings, cancelling of grants and contracts with companies, the closing of offices, disproportionately impact small towns, cities and states. Their finances will be turned upside.”
Cuban’s warning comes on the heels of widespread layoffs triggered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a controversial Trump initiative led by Elon Musk. The initiative has targeted various federal agencies for restructuring, including the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Fiscal Service.
A recent CNN report detailed the fallout in Parkersburg, West Virginia — a city of 29,000 where the Bureau employed 2,000 federal workers before the cuts. One former employee, Jennifer Piggott, a self-described “MAGA junkie,” expressed deep regret over her support for Trump after being let go.
“I was a MAGA junkie who thought her government job would be safe with Donald Trump in office,” Piggott told CNN. “I expected better from you. I really did… you’re not doing that — you’re creating a disaster.”
The report noted that Piggott and 124 others were let go on grounds of “poor performance,” despite evidence some had recently received stellar performance reviews. Many of those fired are now on paid leave while a federal judge’s ruling temporarily halts the terminations. The Trump administration has appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, leaving workers in limbo.
Cuban expressed particular concern for veterans, a demographic that makes up roughly 30% of the federal workforce. In another post, he asked, “Does anyone know the unemployment rate for Veterans? If 30 percent of the federal workforce is Vets, the number could get ugly quickly.”
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He also took a moment to thank federal workers enduring the crisis:
“I just wanted to say THANK YOU. I can't imagine the sh*t you are going through right now. Thanks for your service to our country.”
The situation has reignited debate over Trump’s federal workforce policies, with critics arguing that his aggressive push for “efficiency” is gutting small-town economies and leaving behind the very voters who helped put him back in office.
As the 2026 midterms loom, the political and economic fallout from DOGE’s cuts may redefine the landscape in red America — where loyalty is being tested not by rhetoric, but by pink slips.
