Kansas City-area seniors voice fears for the country’s future. ‘I’m afraid’
Former Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver had spent over an hour at a Lee’s Summit retirement village talking about how President Donald Trump risked destabilizing the federal program when a small woman with an Austrian accent spoke up.
“My question concerns the constitutional issue,” asked 78-year-old Christl Webster. “What happens if the president does not obey a ruling by the Supreme Court? The Supreme Court does not have an army.”
Webster had her reasons for concern.
A former Fulbright scholar who came to the United States in the early 1970s to study, she became a citizen in 1981 after marrying an American. But her path to citizenship was treacherous – she recalled receiving deportation notices and having to hire an immigration lawyer.
She’s set to travel to Turkey in the coming weeks, Webster said in an interview, but her U.S. passport lists her country of birth as Austria, not America. U.S. citizens must be allowed back into the country, but the worry was evident in her voice.
“I have global entry, I have TSA, but I’m still…” Webster said, her voice trailing off.
O’Malley and Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, hosted a town hall-style gathering at John Knox Village, a senior living community, to discuss Social Security. O’Malley, a former Maryland governor who ran the agency during President Joe Biden’s administration, has become a vocal critic of Trump’s approach to the agency, which he warns risks its ability to deliver benefits on time and without interruption.
But many of the questions from the roughly 100 seniors in attendance spoke to the deep unease, even fear, they feel over the country’s direction.
While O’Malley and Cleaver certainly fielded questions about Social Security – was something a scam, what’s Medicare’s role, how will artificial intelligence affect the program – several others struck a more ominous tone.
“I cannot understand why the Democrats don’t do more? Why don’t you get out front? Why?” one person asked.
“My question is for the congressman. Why don’t you develop a plan like the Republicans did, like Project 2025?” asked another.
Afterward, Webster said President John F. Kennedy had been her idol growing up. She had pictures of him and had seen him when he came to Vienna. Now the United States’ international reputation is suffering, she said.
“I always wanted to come to America,” Webster said. “Not to stay but to experience it, and then I got married – it just happened – but we are losing something that is irreversible.”
Trump’s defiant tone
While the Trump administration faces legal challenges on numerous fronts, the White House has moved closest to open defiance of the courts on immigration policy.
For weeks, lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have sought to bring him back to the United States after the administration deported him to a prison in El Salvador despite a court order prohibiting the government from sending him to that country. The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered federal officials to facilitate his release but he remains in El Salvador’s custody.
The Trump administration has struck a defiant tone. The president has sought to link Abrego Garcia to the gang MS-13, despite a lack of evidence.
“This is the gang that is, perhaps, the worst of them all. What is wrong with our Country?” Trump asked on social media recently.
Republican lawmakers in Missouri have voiced support for Trump’s approach and instead attacked Democrats.
“The Democrats want unfettered mass migration and a problem so big they can pitch mass amnesty as the solution,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, wrote on social media on Monday. “Hell No.”
During the Lee’s Summit event, Cleaver responded to Webster’s question by saying the country’s founders hadn’t anticipated a president who would defy the courts.
“It’s called a constitutional crisis because there is no road. We don’t know what could happen,” Cleaver said.
At other points, Cleaver urged the audience to raise their voices while cautioning that change wouldn’t happen overnight. The 11-term congressman and former Kansas City mayor told reporters that he’s trying to explain that Democrats are doing everything they can do legally.
O’Malley said, “we all keep defaulting to the America in which we grew up” – with norms like the rule of law – but that Trump “has now taken it beyond any of those guardrails.” He said it made the transgressions of President Richard Nixon, who resigned amid the Watergate scandal, almost look quaint.
“I would support Nixon returning,” Cleaver joked.
More seriously, Cleaver said he has never seen the level of concern and worry from his constituents, even dating back to his time in local Kansas City politics.
“I’ve never seen anything remotely like this,” Cleaver said. “This is a nightmare compared to whatever we’ve dealt with in the past. Every meeting. Every meeting.”
As Webster prepares for her trip to Turkey, she said her level of concern is “very high – I’m afraid.”
When Webster asked her question during the meeting, she said that until recently, she was a “very, very proud” citizen, eliciting scattered chuckles.
“I’m still a very proud citizen,” she said.
This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
