A Trump-voting nurse is furious over the current administration’s decision to exclude nursing from the list of professional degrees.
One of the most recent controversies stirred up by the Trump administration revolves around what degrees are classified as “professional.” Specifically, under the One Big Beautiful Bill, the Department of Education is reverting to an outdated definition of professional degrees from 1965.
This will impact who qualifies for federal loans and how much, which has sparked frustration among professionals in fields that are suddenly being excluded. Nursing, accounting, architecture, social work, and physical therapy are among the degrees not being classified as “professional” under this shift, while theology is.
The backlash has been far and wide, with many individuals and organizations chiming in. One note in particular that has recently drawn attention comes from a self-declared Trump voter and nurse who seems to be shocked and appalled that President Donald Trump would “disrespect our profession.”
“Please remove the limitations of professions!” a self-described nurse wrote on a Facebook post from Trump, according to a screenshot circulating on X.
“As a PROFESSIONAL nurse who has her Masters Degree and as someone who voted each time for you, I cannot believe that you would disrespect our profession!”
She went on to say that she has one daughter about to complete her schooling to be a physical therapist and another planning on becoming a physician’s assistant, both of which are being excluded from the list of professional degrees.
“All of which take care of patients on a daily basis,” she continued. “Grad school is very expensive….trust me I know! I have paid my way myself for each level of my education. Please reconsider your thoughts on this bill. We all need professional staff that can afford education in their effort to care for our nation.”
Proponents of nursing and other degrees being left out of “professional” classification have offered plenty of reasons why it’s actually a good thing, from stopping people from going deeper into debt for fields that aren’t high-earning to claiming that it will actually force the cost of education to go down.
Those who think this is the wrong move are worried that the lack of access to federal loan money will discourage people from going into high-demand fields and have questioned why it is that so many of the fields being excluded are ones dominated by women.
But outside of that debate itself, there’s another level of frustration with those like Hines who voted for Trump and are now acting surprised that he’s turning out to be exactly the person everyone else warned them he was.
“Where has she been? I can’t think of a profession he hasn’t disrespected,” wrote @LisaMK2021.
“I hope those nurses paid attention in their post-leopard attack facial reconstruction surgery classes,” @torieskill joked, referencing the now-iconic and often relevant Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party meme.
“She didn’t read Project 2025 or hear all the ‘get women out of the workforce’ crap being spread everyday last year?” asked @ChristaCalap. “He’s doing everything he said he would aside from lowering cost. This is what they voted for.”