The Brief

One year into President Donald Trump’s second term, Californians who voted for him are mostly happy with how his policies have played out so far.

Trump’s support among California Republicans has slipped to 79%, down from 84% near the start of his term, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released last month.

The survey found that Californians name the cost of living and the economy as the most important issues facing the state today. Those concerns also dominated follow-up conversations KQED had with voters first interviewed 100 days into Trump’s second administration. From Southern California and the Central Valley to the North Coast, seven voters offer a mixed review of Trump’s performance.

They weigh in on a range of issues, including sweeping tariffs, immigration raids, National Guard deployments and a redistricting battle. While there is general support for his “America First” platform, they are divided on whether the president’s actions fulfill that mandate. Several also criticized Trump’s rhetoric and tone.

Emerson Green, 26, El Dorado County

Of all of his expectations for Trump’s second term, Emerson Green had been most optimistic that the president would improve the economy. Instead, he said he’s deeply disappointed and believes Trump let him down.

“I wish I never voted for him,” Green said. “It’s not that he lied or he didn’t hold up his promise. It is that he did the exact opposite, with intent, of what he promised he was going to do.”

Since Trump returned to the White House, Green got engaged and is expecting a baby in May. The 26-year-old now works at O’Reilly Auto Parts after changing jobs twice last year. He said he’s noticed the cost of some car parts rising because of tariffs, though not as dramatically as he expected when Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs last April.

Emerson Green sits during a hike in Adams Canyon, Utah, on May 4, 2025.

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Courtesy of Emerson Green

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He’s also noticed everyday expenses like groceries and medication becoming more expensive and has begun to see home ownership as nearly unattainable.

“The idea of owning a house at this point in my life seems like something that is, if I even do it, it might be 30 years out at this point,” Green said. “It’s probably as bleak as it gets for young people these days … and [Trump] has done nothing to improve that.”

Last year, Green’s mom received an offer letter for a job with the Internal Revenue Service, but when Trump issued a government hiring freeze, her offer was rescinded. It took her a couple of months to find another job, and she now works in funeral insurance sales.

“She is really struggling to make ends meet,” Green said.

Beyond his dissatisfaction with the economy, Green is most critical of Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela, which he sees as veering away from the president’s pledge to prioritize America first. On Jan. 3, Trump ordered U.S. forces to seize President Nicolás Maduro in a stunning extraction that resulted in Venezuela’s leader facing federal charges in New York.

“I can’t see a strategic benefit to it at all,” Green said. “I do think he did it as, like, a stunt to boost his approval ratings.”

Green also faults Trump for repeatedly delaying the release of the Epstein files, then issuing heavily redacted documents despite vows on the campaign trail to declassify them.

“You may as well have red hands,” he said.

Ben Pino, 56, Los Angeles County

Following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis over the weekend, Ben Pino still stands behind the administration’s immigration tactics. The shooting marks the second killing this month of a Minneapolis resident during an operation after 37-year-old Renee Good was fatally shot in her car by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer earlier in January.

Pino believes Pretti and Good were “antagonizing the feds,” echoing statements made by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who said Pretti approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and claimed, without evidence, that he attacked officers with intent to harm them.

Ben Pino in his neighborhood in Los Angeles County on May 7, 2025.

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Video footage shows Pretti holding a phone, with his concealed gun removed from his waistband by an agent, before he was shot.

“I think the loss of life is tragic. I think that those young people used poor judgment and got themselves killed,” Pino said. “I don’t understand the outrage, to be quite honest with you.”

Pino lives in the Diamond District in Los Angeles and works in Carson. He supported Trump’s decision to deploy thousands of California National Guard troops to Southern California, without the governor’s approval, to quell anti-ICE protests last summer.

“If you ask me, ICE needed some kind of protection because people were going nuts,” he said.

In December, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower-court ruling barring Trump from deploying National Guard troops to Chicago without Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s permission.

“I’m a little bit surprised that they can take that kind of power away from the president of the United States. He is the ultimate leader of our country,” Pino said.

While he bristled at limits on the president’s authority at home, Pino praised Trump for exercising that power abroad by ordering a military incursion into Venezuela.

“I’ve never seen a president take an action like going into a foreign country, grabbing its Communist criminal leader and bringing them back to face trial,” Pino said. “It’s one of the most spectacular foreign policy events that I’ve seen any American president make in my lifetime.”

Pino, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba, hopes Trump will intervene there, too.

“As a Cuban American, I feel that direct U.S. intervention should happen if you want to protect something that’s that close to your shores,” he said.

One year in, Pino remains fully on board with the administration.

“I approve of everything he’s done so far,” he said. “I’m a bigger fan now than you found me last year.”

Kim Durham, 68, Sacramento County

Kim Durham is thankful to have Trump in office, but wants to see him temper his rhetoric.

“I think he shoots himself in the foot by saying things he doesn’t need to say,” she said. “Decorum could be utilized a little bit in public speaking.”

Immigration ranks among Durham’s top policy concerns, and she supports Trump’s rapid push to secure the southern border as well as his aggressive approach to deportations. Her daughter is a police officer, and Durham believes national media coverage has fueled hostility toward ICE that has spilled over to local law enforcement.

Kim Durham sits outside of an apartment she rents outside of Sacramento on May 6, 2025. 

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Beth LaBerge

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“It’s just infuriating to watch just regular people in uniforms … have to fight through angry mobs of cars,” she said.

In response to the killing of Pretti, Durham repeated Noem’s rhetoric, blaming Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for not coordinating with ICE.

“If they’ve let ICE do the job that they’ve been called to do, this wouldn’t be happening,” she said.

Durham would not condemn the individual officers involved, saying that a final judgment should come from the courts.

“There’s no guarantee that individually every ICE agent is gonna act perfect,” she said. “So, I don’t believe as a whole ICE is wrong. Or even necessarily overreaching.”

Durham also backs Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard in Los Angeles, and said she wishes state leaders would cooperate with the president.

“There are some that say he’s a dictator. Well, no, he’s not a dictator — we voted him in,” she said. “I think it would all be a lot better if we didn’t resist the federal government and instead just got together and said, ‘Hey, I’m with you … Let’s sit down, work together and clean it up instead of fight it.’”

On health care, Durham said she’s glad to see the administration target Medicaid fraud. In July, Trump signed into law his sweeping policy bill, including an estimated $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts. Much of that reduction would come from new work requirements and additional paperwork demands that would shrink enrollment.

“I honestly believe if all the fraud could be cut out of Medicaid and Medicare, we would be in a surplus of money,” she said.

Durham also praised Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again initiatives, especially efforts to remove synthetic dyes from the food supply and curb ultra-processed foods, raising concerns about what her grandchild eats. She’s also in favor of his updated childhood vaccine schedule, calling the previous standard “ridiculous” and saying families need choices.

Cindy Cremona, 66, formerly San Diego County

When Cindy Cremona heard about Proposition 50, the November 2025 ballot measure approved by voters that redraws California’s congressional maps, she felt Republicans would never have a voice in the state.

“I think for many, people just felt that it was going to lock in California as a blue state forever and ever,” she said.

In September, Cremona moved from Encinitas, a coastal city in northern San Diego County, to Wellington, Florida. She had been considering the move since Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in 2019 and was even more compelled to leave during the pandemic, when she felt the state went too far with vaccine and mask mandates and lockdowns.

Cindy Cremona and her 12-year-old Andalusian horse, Durango, in San Marcos, California, on May 8, 2025. 

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Carolyne Corelis

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Last year, she reached her breaking point and decided to move, citing “the politics, the taxes, the over-regulation, the traffic, the overdevelopment.”

Cremona finds Florida’s housing costs and policies preferable to California’s. For instance, she took issue with last year’s passing of SB 79, which makes it easier to build apartment buildings near major public transit stops.

She’s optimistic about Trump’s housing proposals, including a recent pledge to target institutional investors who buy up single-family homes. Newsom echoed a similar stance toward corporate landlords in his State of the State address, a rare instance of political overlap between the Democratic governor and the president.

Looking ahead, Cremona expressed confidence in the president’s ability to deliver on other economic promises, like lower food and energy costs.

“I think 2026 is the year where we’ll see some of those policies borne out,” she said.

Debbie Pope, 60, Long Beach

Debbie Pope is deeply disillusioned with Trump’s first year back in office. At the beginning of 2025, she welcomed what she described as Trump’s “guns-a-blazing” return. But her view shifted in the second half of the year, following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and repeated delays in releasing the Epstein files.

“I saw a whole different view of Trump after that for some reason,” she said. “The biggest disappointment is the Epstein files. It’s just like, Trump, you’re in them. You’re in it.”

Debbie Pope in her Long Beach home on May 10, 2024.

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 (Courtesy of Debbie Pope)

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Pope voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, but before that, she was a Democrat and voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. Her party switch was driven by a distaste for Hillary Clinton and Trump’s hardline stance on immigration, one of her top policy concerns.

The daughter of a Nicaraguan immigrant, Pope supports stricter border enforcement — and thinks Trump has failed to deliver on promises of mass deportations.

She wants to see the president focus on domestic issues, like ramping up deportations even more, rather than foreign military interventions in Venezuela and Iran.

“He’s veered off the America First train, I think,” she said. “So yeah, I’m a little disappointed in him.”

These days, Pope sees Trump as prioritizing the interests of billionaires over those of his constituents. She also points to his massive ballroom renovations and putting his name on the Kennedy Center as diversions from America First.

“Dude, we know you’re a narcissist, but really, you’re getting carried away,” she said.

Ron Dawson, 68, Eureka

Ron Dawson said he would give Trump’s performance in 2025 a B+. He feels his cost of living has improved since Trump took office, noting lower grocery and fuel prices. He still wants to see the president lower the federal deficit.

Dawson voted for Trump in 2024, but his preferred presidential candidate was Nikki Haley. He still favors the president over Kamala Harris.

Once a Democrat like his parents, Dawson said the last time he voted blue was for Bill Clinton in 1996. Since then, he’s felt like the Democratic Party has become elitist, prioritizing identity politics and social justice issues, which he said have “nothing to do with running a country.”

Before settling in Eureka six years ago, Dawson spent almost five decades in Southern California. He recalls working as a machinist in 1980 and losing the job to an immigrant.

“He could work cheaper than I would accept,” he said. “I have a problem with the system. The system I recognized way back then is really broken.”

Today, Dawson approves of Trump’s secure border platform.

Now living in far Northern California, Dawson is critical of Proposition 50 and the newly redrawn 2nd Congressional District. Previously stretching from Marin County to the Oregon border, the new boundaries push further inland to the Nevada border, pulling in Siskiyou, Modoc and Shasta counties.

“Our congressional representative, Jared Huffman — he already has a very, very large district and a lot of people say, like, you never see him, never hear from him,” Dawson said. “They didn’t stop and think, how does this one guy represent such a large area?”

Those concerns deepened following the recent death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican who represented rural Northern California for more than a decade.

Mari Barke, Orange County

Mari Barke, president of the Orange County Board of Education, has mostly positive things to say about the president.

“He puts our country first, which to me is critically important of somebody who is president,” she said.

Mari Barke, photographed at the California Policy Center in Irvine in 2024. 

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(Courtesy of Mari Barke)

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Above all, she aligns with Trump’s education agenda, like his executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports and his push to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The administration has threatened to withhold federal funding from schools with DEI initiatives.

“I think it’s important to get rid of all the biases and just let people enter higher education based on merit,” Barke said, arguing that merit incentivizes students to work hard and reduces the likelihood of academic failure.

Barke is a staunch advocate for parental notification policies, which require school teachers and staff to notify parents if their child identifies as a gender other than what they were assigned at birth.

“I never think it’s a good idea to teach children to lie to their parents,” she said. “I think if a child is going through something like that, nothing is more important than having your parents’ love. I have a gay son who has a husband, and I love him to death, no matter who he is or what he decides.”

Despite her alignment with the administration, Barke occasionally finds fault with Trump’s delivery, suggesting he could behave “more presidential” so as not to offend people.

This story was originally published by CalMatters.

Democrat Xavier Becerra will advance to the November general election in the race for California governor, capping a sudden and dramatic ascent for a career politician who is running on his experience and his willingness to take on President Donald Trump.

Becerra, the former state attorney general, has secured nearly 27% of the vote in the June 2 primary, with about two-thirds of votes counted as of Friday afternoon. If elected in November, he would be the first Latino to serve as California governor in more than a century.

It’s still unclear who his opponent will be: Returns so far show Republican Steve Hilton most likely to advance with more than 26% of votes counted, though the trailing Democrat Tom Steyer has not conceded and could make up ground in the nearly three million votes that remain to be counted.

California uses a top-two primary system; the two candidates with the most votes advance to the November ballot regardless of party.

The November race could differ dramatically depending on the opponent. If it’s Hilton, Becerra would be heavily favored to win: Democrats in California outnumber Republicans nearly two-to-one, and Hilton is endorsed by Trump, whom Californians disapprove of in high numbers.

If it’s Steyer, California can expect an all-out slugfest between opposing wings of the Democratic Party, supercharged by the hundreds of millions of dollars Steyer has spent from his personal fortune on the primary alone.

While the hedge fund manager-turned-Democratic donor and climate activist has run a progressive campaign and garnered the support of Bernie Sanders surrogates, Becerra is favored by more of the Democratic establishment.

Becerra, who had lingered in the single-digits in polling, surged in popularity following the political implosion of former frontrunner Eric Swalwell, with establishment Democrats favoring the former Health and Human Services secretary and former state attorney general over former Rep. Katie Porter and the outsider Steyer.

It was a surprising and swift ascent for the mild-mannered career politician who was previously part of a crop of lower-polling Democratic candidates that party chair Rusty Hicks was publicly pressuring to drop out of the race.

“Guess what? The underdog stayed in the fight,” Becerra said at an election night rally Tuesday in Los Angeles, calling his near-victory “the everyday miracle of living in a state that regularly makes the improbable seem inevitable.”

The decision comes at a particularly consequential time for California. Residents face a crushing cost of living, nation-topping gas prices made worse by the war in Iran, wildfire risks that have driven insurance companies out of state, an unstable state budget, impending federal cuts to the state’s expansive health system and an economy dampened by immigration enforcement.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Nearly three months ago, the Los Angeles City Council voted to fund homelessness prevention programs to the tune of $177 million. Despite approval by Mayor Karen Bass, the funding still has not been cleared by City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto.

Now, city leaders want answers about the delay.

A motion introduced earlier this week by Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said the “contracts remain unexecuted without explanation.” The motion goes on to say the setback has caused “$17 million ... in emergency rental assistance to sit unused” and has put “services for those at risk of homelessness in jeopardy.”

If passed by the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee and later approved by the full council, Jurado’s motion would call on Feldstein Soto to report back to the council within 30 days about the reasons for the delay.

Representatives with the City Attorney’s Office did not respond to LAist’s repeated requests for comment.

Tenant aid providers said they’ve entered their third month without funding from the city. They said without an executed contract, legal aid organizations may soon have to lay off staff and stop taking eviction cases.

“The people who are providing the services are all in nonprofit organizations that don't have a great deal of extra funding to cover this contract that isn't being paid,” said Barbara Schultz, housing director at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

How we got here

Feldstein Soto has held up the tenant aid funding since April 2025, when she refused to sign a previously approved five-year funding deal with the Legal Aid Foundation. At the time, she argued the contract should have gone through a competitive bidding process.

City officials responded by putting out a request for proposals. They ultimately selected the Legal Aid Foundation, along with several other tenant rights groups, to receive funding set aside for rent relief, tenant education, enforcement of the city’s tenant anti-harassment ordinance and programs that provide free attorneys to tenants facing eviction.

Much of the funding for these homelessness prevention programs comes from the city’s Measure ULA, also known as the L.A. “Mansion Tax.” That tax is now facing potential elimination from a statewide November ballot measure from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

The city attorney’s tenant rights track record 

Feldstein Soto has frequently clashed with tenant rights advocates.

She previously attempted to remove the word “right” from the city’s “Right To Counsel” ordinance, which supplies free eviction defense attorneys to qualified tenants.

Feldstein Soto also has faced criticism for not prosecuting more landlords accused of rent gouging in the wake of the 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires.

She also was accused of failing to defend the rights of tenants at the high-rise apartment complex Barrington Plaza, who went to court to successfully fight wrongful evictions from landlord company Douglas Emmett, which donated to a campaign opposing Feldstein Soto’s opponent in the 2022 election.

Feldstein Soto launched an audit of the Legal Aid Foundation last year. So far, no findings have been released.

Schultz said the organization has provided all the financial and administrative documentation requested by the L.A. Housing Department related to the contracts.

Why it matters for renters

The Legal Aid Foundation is the lead contractor for the city’s eviction defense funding, but the money is shared with other legal aid organizations as well.

Elena Popp, who leads the Eviction Defense Network, said her small team of lawyers can’t continue to take on tenant cases until funding is approved.

“We're contemplating layoffs effective June 15 unless we can raise the part of the money that is our budget from the city,” Popp said. “If we lay people off, then tenants won't be served.”

Anna Urena, a paralegal with the Eviction Defense Network, says her organization would normally do intake for about 300 tenants per month.

“We're not taking on new cases. We're not representing new people right now because we don't know what's going to happen,” she said. “We really cannot leave our tenants behind.”

What’s next?

Jurado’s motion has not yet been scheduled for a vote in the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee.

Based on her third-place showing so far in the June primary election results, it appears Feldstein Soto will not be L.A.’s city attorney much longer. Popp said Feldstein Soto’s lame duck status doesn’t bode well for the contract getting signed soon.

“She now has no incentive to sign, and pressure on her will not get her to sign,” Popp said. “If that happens and the City Council doesn't take charge of this, maybe hire outside counsel to get the approval, then we won't see any money until the new city attorney comes in.”

Millions of people are about to pack stadiums across the U.S., Canada and Mexico for the World Cup, starting June 11.

Public health officials have been working to ensure the health and safety of the masses of fans they're expecting at the 104 matches across 16 cities through mid-July.

In the U.S., World Cup preparations are coming in a time of a diminished federal health presence and funding. It's upped the workload for host city health departments, as they're also strapped for federal funding.

Nevertheless, World Cup host city health officials say they're prepared for the many challenges that come with large-scale celebrations and gatherings.

"We've been focusing on expecting the expected" — issues related to weather, health and human behavior, says Dr. Marcus Plescia, district health director for Fulton County, Georgia, which includes Atlanta.

Planning for the event is ongoing, says Dr. Philip Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services in Texas. "To be able to begin preparations a year out is a luxury for us, compared to a lot of the situations that we deal with," he says.

"We call Atlanta 'Hotlanta' for a reason"

For public health departments, the World Cup is a big deal –- but they're well prepared for the biggest challenges.

Summer heat, for instance. "We call Atlanta 'Hotlanta' for a reason," says Georgia's Dr. Plescia, "It's going to be hot and humid here -– so heat-related injuries are going to be an issue."

Atlanta is hosting eight World Cup matches and the team from Uzbekistan. At downtown Centennial Olympic Park, a month-long fan festival is expected to draw some 15,000 people a day. Cooling stations will offer air-conditioning and hydration.

Then there's feeding the crowds. "The biggest lift for us and for all health departments is that our environmental health workers have to inspect all of the food vendors — and there will be a whole lot of food vendors," Plescia says.

Inspectors will check every day to ensure the facilities are in working order and the food is safe to eat. "We want to make sure that people feel confident that they can go out to eat and have a good time –- and they don't have to worry about getting food poisoning," Plescia says.

When lots of people gather, germs tend to spread. "We're worried about sexually transmitted infections because there's going to be a lot of people here and it's going to be a festive atmosphere," Plescia says. "And then we're worried about things maybe we wouldn't have been worried about as much before, particularly measles." Measles is highly contagious among those who haven't been vaccinated, and there have been 30 U.S. outbreaks this year.

Dallas is hosting nine World Cup matches — the most of any city. The health department is stepping up disease surveillance in wastewater, expanding sites and covering more area, says Dr. Huang, the county health authority. Beyond looking for typical threats like influenza and COVID, they're also testing for "whatever might appear" through genomic sequencing, he says.

They're also broadening mosquito surveillance –- setting insect traps and testing for pathogens they can spread. "We always test for West Nile virus," Huang says, "But we're also increasing our testing for dengue, chikungunya and Zika because of all the [incoming] international travel."

Medical staff are also looking out for symptoms of Ebola or hantavirus, due to outbreaks.

Keeping track of which diseases are circulating means they'll be able to alert hospitals and the public quickly if they see a spike. "It's a lot of things we normally do but certainly more enhanced," Huang says.

They're also preparing health tips for the public in different languages: Wear a hat and sunscreen and hydrate when it's hot out. Bug spray and long sleeves help prevent mosquito bites. Stay home if you're sick. "It's the same messages [we always share], but it's really concentrated because we've got so many people coming during a hot period of time in Dallas," Huang says.

"Most of our staff are not taking vacations"

The World Cup finals are jointly hosted by New York and New Jersey on July 19.

Officials have been running practice simulations to prepare for outbreaks and mass casualty events. "We plan for the worst case scenario and go through it before it actually happens," says Dr. Alister Martin, New York City's health commissioner.

They've also set up "incident command" to "divert resources from normal stuff so that we can manage any potential emergencies," Martin says, adding that the operation will continue through much of the summer, for other big events planned in New York, including America's 250th anniversary, Pride month and the Puerto Rican Day parade.

In Los Angeles, which is hosting eight games, including the U.S. opening match versus Paraguay, risk-assessment teams will monitor the surroundings for chemical exposures and biological threats.

In L.A., diminished federal assistance means the health department is counting on existing staff to do the extra work. "Most of our staff are not taking vacations during the month of the World Cup because they'll need to work -– we'll be obviously accruing overtime costs," says Barbara Ferrer, the L.A. county health director.

And much of their regular work, like routine food inspections, gets put aside. "I know it would be easier if we weren't in a resource constrained environment," Ferrer says. "But I want to provide assurance that even in a resource constrained environment, we're well prepared."

Ferrer says they've successfully planned and managed other events of national significance, like the 2022 Super Bowl. "This work isn't new to us," she says, adding that staff are making great efforts "to make sure this is a joyous time in L.A. county and [that] we're all safe."

This year's experience will better prepare Los Angeles to host other events, she says — like the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Ferrer hopes these events will help authorities see that public health is key to public safety — and worth investing in.

Less of a federal presence

On the federal level, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which serves as the nation's public health agency, has a muted presence this year.

"Usually, the CDC is a visible lead when we have international events in the United States, particularly across the country, versus just in a single state," says Dr. Debra Houry, former chief medical officer for the CDC who resigned last year.

The current Trump administration has pushed thousands of workers out of the CDC workforce and tampered politically with some of its functions, such as setting vaccine policy and publishing scientific papers. The agency's scientists rarely speak directly with the public anymore; their messages are filtered through politically appointed leadership.

Other governmental groups that would typically be involved, such as the National Security Council's biosecurity group, the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, have been disbanded, left vacant or don't have permanent leaders, Houry says.

The diminished federal presence serves as the backdrop for the World Cup.

Emily Hilliard, press secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services which oversees the CDC and ASPR, wrote in an email response to NPR: "HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are actively coordinating with state, local, and global partners to ensure public health and safety during FIFA World Cup 2026 and enhance any measures, as needed."

Localities have found that the federal presence is late in coming, and not as coordinated as it may have been in the past, says Lori Freeman, CEO for the National Association of County and City Health Officials, which represents health departments.

Freeman says the CDC started holding coordination calls and issuing some guidance a few months ago –- long after host cities started their own preparations. She notes: "When it comes to merging public health, emergency response and preparedness, that is an area we worry constantly about because the federal government is the agency that must manage across state jurisdictions between and among states."

Some have stepped up to fill perceived gaps. For instance, Georgetown University has set up a Health Security Operations Center to track infectious diseases and send out daily reports, to inform places expecting an influx of travelers throughout the World Cup.
Copyright 2026 NPR

If you’re looking for a great place to watch the upcoming World Cup on L.A.'s Westside — particularly if you can’t break the bank for a ticket — there’s O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Santa Monica.

Owner Willy O'Sullivan sat down with Larry Mantle, host of AirTalk, to discuss how the pub has managed to maintain its customer base, while others — like Brennan's and Britannia Pub — have had to close their doors. He says it all comes down to partnerships with local sports fans, trivia nights and maintaining their authentic Irish pub food and brews.

About the owner

A native of Cork City, the second-largest city in Ireland, O'Sullivan arrived stateside in 1987. He opened the pub in 1994, and as interest in soccer has grown, he's built a community around European football matches, especially after subsequent World Cups. Along the road, he's also built a following for New York sports teams.

The ultimate O'Brien's experience

St. Patrick's Day, obviously.

But ... any other day he'd recommend coming in for the Irish breakfast with a coffee in hand or "the best Guinness in Southern California," in his words.

How he ensures quality Guinness

Because Guinness is the pub's signature drink, he's made sure to give it a short beer tap line, meaning it goes from keg to glass quickly. He also makes sure to clean the tap line every two weeks to ensure quality.

Restaurant details

• O’Brien’s has Irish pub classics, including fish & chips, corned beef and cabbage, and a full Irish breakfast.
• It’s best known for hosting the local Manchester United F.C. fan club known as Los Angeles Red Army.
• Its also hosts groups for Leeds United and the New York Giants.

Menu items we tried

• Potato skins (potatoes, cheddar and bacon)
• Banger sandwich (two English sausages, sautéed onions and mixed greens)
• Irish breakfast (two eggs, two Irish sausages, Irish bacon, beans, mushrooms, tomato, black and white pudding)

What should we try next?