GOP voters bond with under-siege president
LEESBURG, Va. — Gina Anders knows the feeling well by now. President Donald Trump says or does something that triggers a spasm of outrage. She doesn’t necessarily agree with how he handled the situation. She gets why people are upset.
But Anders, 46, a Republican from suburban Loudoun County, Virginia, with a law degree, a business career and not a stitch of “Make America Great Again” gear in her wardrobe, is moved to defend him anyway.
“All nuance and all complexity — and these are complex issues — are completely lost,” she said, describing “overblown” reactions from the president’s critics, some of whom equated the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children and parents to history’s greatest atrocities.
In interviews across the country over the past few days, dozens of Trump voters, as well as pollsters and strategists, described something like a bonding experience with the president that happens each time Republicans have to answer a now-familiar question: “How can you possibly Supporters cheer and stand for President Donald Trump during a campaign rally Wednesday in Duluth, Minn. still support this man?” Their resilience suggests a level of unity among Republicans that could help mitigate Trump’s low overall approval ratings and aid his party’s chances of keeping control of the House of Representatives in November.
Trump’s support has grown in recent months: His approval rating among Republicans is now about 90 percent. The only modern Republican president more popular with his party than Trump at this point in his first term, according to Gallup, was George W. Bush after the country united in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Many of these voters say
their lives and the country are improving under Trump’s presidency, and the endless stream of tough cable news coverage and bad headlines about him only galvanizes them further — even though some displayed discomfort on their faces when asked about the child separation policy and expressed misgivings about the president’s character.
“It bothers me that he doesn’t tell the truth, but I guess I kind of expect that, and I expect that from the media, too — not to always tell the truth or to slant it one way,” said Julie Knight, 63, a retired personal-injury case manager from Algona, Washington.
“He’s not a perfect guy; he does some stupid stuff,” said Tony Schrantz, 50, of Lino Lakes, Minnesota, the owner of a water systems leakdetection business.
The increasingly tribalized politics on the left and right have eroded long-standing expectations of restraint, humility and honesty in American presidents. In just the past year and a half, Trump has bounced back from crises that at the time seemed as if they might be too severe for him to recover politically.
“It’s kind of like when you experience a sensation over and over and over again,” said Daniel Arnold, 32, a warehouse manager from Leesburg, Virginia, about an hour outside Washington. “A sensation is no longer a sensation. It’s just, ‘Oh, here we are again.”’
For many Republicans, the audio of children sobbing at a migrant detention center barely registered because they don’t pay attention to the mainstream media that have covered the family separation crisis far more than their preferred channel, Fox News.
“I think it’s terrible about the kids getting split up from their parents. But the parents shouldn’t have been here,” said Lynn Dittbenner, 65, of Elk River, Minnesota, who took the day off from relaxing with her family at their lake cabin to hear the president speak at a rally in Duluth on Wednesday.
Others said they saw a ploy by the president’s enemies to obscure news that was more favorable to him, like the internal Justice Department investigation that recently uncovered evidence of FBI agents speaking disparagingly of Trump.
“It’s just incredible what the nation is trying to do to disrupt this president and his agenda,” said Jeff Butts, 58, an unemployed sales manager from Leesburg. “We don’t get to hear about that. We only get to hear about the crying babies on the border.”
Some say their patience with Trump’s divisive style is not limitless. Gary Winthorpe, a 17-year-old high school student who was on his way to see the president speak in Minnesota on Wednesday, said he hopes the first vote he casts for president in 2020 is for Trump. But he acknowledged being wary at times.
“I’m not blindly for Donald Trump,” he said. “I have a fair bit of skepticism toward him. But I feel like he is trying his best.”