I wouldn't consider them a first world country in the same way as Western Europe or Japan, but they're not a quite a third world country despite having a lot of third-worldish areas; US ghettos make EU so-called "No Go zones" look like a picnic. The US is definitely drifting into the second world sphere (Russia) very rapidly though. They're also regressing from an Atomic/Information aged nation back into an industrial era state.
As far as a developed nation, I would say those include only those nations which have progressed ahead of the Industrial era, and are primarily in late Atomic/Information age settings. So not countries who want to be coal dependent and are against science and technology.
From what I gather, New England, New York, California, and Cascadia are all fairly first-world - but the "mid-west" and the south/Texas are more like third world countries.
So on one hand you have this, which is obviously first world:
And on the other you have this, which looks like a poor African country or Bosnia during war times - so somewhere between 2nd and 3rd world:
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
