He traveled
from rally to rally with his guitar in tow, crooning pro-Donald Trump tunes and
hailing the then Republican candidate as the answer to the US heroin epidemic
that took his son’s life.
Though his
songs earned him the moniker “the Trump troubadour,” these days Kraig Moss has
stopped singing for the president: the US leader’s push for a health bill that
would have restricted access to opioid addiction treatment for thousands of
people left the 58-year-old mired in doubt.
When Moss
strums his guitar now, it’s to sing sorrowful ballads in memory of his son Rob,
who died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 24. Trump “is the one that
pioneered the idea that we have a heroin epidemic in this country,” Moss said.
“I feel on that subject very let down — because that’s what drove me in order
to want to do everything I did; make all of the sacrifices I did to follow him
around.”
Moss had
stopped making mortgage payments so he could trail the Trump campaign; now he
is about to leave his house in the small upstate New York town of Owego for a
mobile home.
But he said
he has no regrets: “I’m not ashamed of what I did, mostly because I know I’ve
gotten at least one person, one young adult to stand up at a party and probably
say, ‘You know what? That stuff kills — I’m out of here.”
“I know
there’s young adults that have that attitude now because of the talks that we
have had.”
– Potential for change? –
Despite his
disappointment in the first two months of Trump’s tenure, Moss said he thinks
the president “still has potential.”
“He’s got to
come down to real life and… remember the little people who got him into
office,” Moss said.
But the
former construction worker wonders what Trump — who cast himself as a hardline
dealmaker who alone could uplift America — can really get done from the White
House.
“I’m
concerned that the same complications that presented itself through health care
will present themselves with the immigration and the same complications might
arise with his business plans.”
The
Republican bid to repeal and replace former president Barack Obama’s signature
health care law ended in crushing defeat, after dissent within Trump’s own
party stymied his efforts.
It is too
early to tell whether Republicans will launch another fight to kill Obamacare.
Meanwhile
Moss, who has been separated for years, finds himself alone mourning his
child’s death. His house is nearly empty — save for the living room, which is
littered with piles of photos and t-shirts bearing the likeness of his son,
three years after the young man’s death.
After the
campaign catapulted him into the public eye, Moss began receiving contributions
from people nationwide to pay for a memorial stone — but he does not yet have
the heart to get one.
Moss said
following the Trump campaign granted him a way to keep his son alive. “I did
not realize it until these people just offered to pay” for the memorial, he
said. “It’s like, that is a final closure.”
“I don’t
know if I am ready for that.”
(Vanguard)
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