Samall Town News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> to say folks here are proud of their town is an understatement, and they're no fan of the recent headlines about it. this is beattyville, kentucky, one of the poorest, predominantly white towns in the country. more than half of the people here live in poverty and rely on food stamps. less than a hundred miles from here is where president lyndon johnson declared the war on poverty just over 50 years ago. >> this administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in america. >> reporter: but for decades, people here have strugged, more and more, as their factories have ...

♪ >> susan isn't convinced, though, president trump will bring the town what it needs. >> he makes a lot of promises, says a lot of things that sound great to some people who may not have as much insight into it as they could have or they should have. >> her concern, cutbacks in social programs here. >> those are resources that we need more of. we don't need to lose what we have. >> i don't think that trump has a clue about the little man. you know, when you're born wealthy, and everything's been handed to you, and you have everything that's in your world that's gold plated, come to our worl...

I mean, some even ecstatic that we now can say president trump. >> reporter: president trump won more than 80% of the vote here. >> everybody was excited. someone told me this morning that in eastern kentucky, that the coal trucks are already out and about. >> reporter: donna kumer has been running this gas station for about a decade and knows about everybody in town. do you feel hopeful after the election? >> absolutely. he's already done more in a week than obama did in eight years. >> reporter: president trump? >> for the american people. >> reporter: i'm fascinated by what gives people so ...

So badeyville doesn't use the next generation. >> losing our young people, have to leave after their graduate high school, leave college. they have to leave here. we need good paying jobs to keep them here. they don't expect to make a million dollars. my american dream, to raise my family in a safe environment in a samall town. i think that's what people here want. there's not opportunities here for children, no. that's what i worry about. >> when jobs leave, i said before, it's difficult to bring them back in with the infrastructure we have, roads, internet connections. >> how much do you guy...

>> do you make enough to get by? >> not without working seven days a week, no. i've lived here my entire life. i've lived in poverty my entire life. so there's really no hope. >> you're young, melissa. none? >> every week, you've got to rob peter to pay paul. had my electric shut off, i've had my water shut off. >> do you get a sense that people here are more hopeful now because of the new president? >> it seems like people are, but, it's kind of almost like wishing on lost hope. because it's been this way for so long. >> reporter: her livelihood crumbled when one of the town's biggest employe...