Millions stick by Trump at his lowest
TUCSON, Ariz. — After four years of President Trump, Betsy Smith has no trouble reciting many of his faults.
“He’s inar tful. He has a big personality. He uses the wrong words. He makes people angry,” said Smith, who worked for 29 years as a police officer in suburban Chicago before moving to Tucson and launching a police training company.
But despite the many scandals, racist invective, lies and violence that have left Trump with his lowest approval ratings, fewer allies than ever in Congress and a looming Senate trial as the only president to be impeached twice, Smith has no regrets about voting for him.
“Trump has done so much for this countr y and my family,” said Smith, 61. “I mean, this is the first time in ages we had a president who so unabashedly supported police. For us, that is huge. And that’s just one thing.”
Tens of millions of voters like Smith have remained loyal even after Trump incited the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol that left five people dead and will almost cer tainly be the defining moment of his presidency. The mob, which included factions of white supremacists, was but a tiny fraction of the 74 million people who cast ballots for Trump in November.
In dozens of interviews across the countr y, suppor ters spoke of Trump in reverential terms as the only president in memor y who stood for working people rather than the elite. They said they never doubted his claims that he won the election — a fiction echoed for weeks by right-wing media outlets and many Republican lawmakers. And they pointed to the economy before the COVID19 pandemic to argue that he deserves a second term, even if that means waiting until the next election.
Boycotting Wednesday’s inauguration of Joe Biden, Trump will depart the White House with about a third of Americans approving of his job performance, according to various polls.
Just under half of Republicans told pollsters from the Pew Research Center that Trump shares no responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot, despite his caustic speech on the National Mall immediately before the mob infiltrated the Capitol.
A majority of Republicans — 64% — say Trump won the election, despite no evidence of significant fraud, dozens of unsuccessful court challenges and assurances from state election officials of both major parties.
“I respect and welcome Joe Biden as president,” said Smith, who blames Trump’s extremist suppor ters for giving people like her a bad name. “But I never wanted it to be this way.”
Trump, she said, her feel “prouder” American.
Some supporters spoke fondly of Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal, his appointment of three conser vatives to the Supreme Cour t or his staunch backing of Israel. But above all, they talked about the economy before the pandemic.
“We had a great economy, the unemployment rate was low — that was because of President Trump,” said Margaretrose Cox, a 52year-old speaking coach from Tallahassee, Fla. “He never gets the credit he deser ves.” made to be
Janet Flanigan, a 58-yearold freelance writer in Newnan, Ga., said the vast majority of Trump voters were people like her who reject racism and violence.
She accuses Trump’s opponents of a double standard, arguing that during the racial justice protests over the summer, they were careful to distinguish rioters and looters from peaceful demonstrators.
As for Trump’s role in the attack on the Capitol, she chooses to focus on the one line in his speech in which he called for a peaceful march — and not statements such as “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a countr y anymore” or his tweets decrying a stolen election that came after the rioters were already rampaging the building.
“I do not believe at all that President Trump incited a riot,” Flanigan said. “He said, ‘Let’s peacefully march.’ Peacefully march! That is not inciting a riot!
“This whole impeachment is a sham,” she added. Clampdowns on Trump and his suppor ters on social media have further aggravated her sense that conser - vative voices are being suppressed.
“The Democrats have once again fur ther alienated more than half of the countr y, and they don’t care,” she said. “They don’t care.”
That anti-democrat sentiment was common at small, largely uneventful rallies that took place over the weekend at various state capitols.
Many of Trump’s supporters want him to run again. Trump hasn’t indicated his plans, though he would be eligible unless he is barred if convicted during a Senate trial after leaving office.
The impeachment and trial are “just a way to keep him from running for president again,” said Jeff Koch, a 69year-old retired sign painter from Federal Way, Wash., who also attended another rally of two people over the weekend in Olympia.
He suggested impeachment was revenge for Trump’s attacks on “the swamp” — as the president likes to call Washington lobbyists and other insiders, even though they have been as present in his administration as in any other.
Koch long ago gave up on his local newspaper and most mainstream media. He liked that the president — one of the few politicians he trusts — could until recently share news himself on the @realdonaldtrump Twitter account. Twitter’s decision to ban Trump and moves by Facebook and other social media companies to take down materials supporting false theories of election fraud only fortify Koch’s belief that the president’s supporters are being muzzled.
“Now people can’t speak for Trump in a meaningful way, and he can’t defend himself,” he said.