• Trump backers: It’s “exactly what he promised”
Supporters don’t see immigration order as hasty, but on time
The people who elected Donald Trump president say the furor over his executive order on immigration is nothing compared with the one he’d cause if he did nothing to crack down on travel into the country from nations linked with terrorism.
“This is exactly what he promised during the campaign,” said A. D. Amar, a college professor who immigrated to the USA decades ago from India. “If he did not do this, I and many other of his supporters would have been
disappointed.”
That, in the Trump camp, is putting it mildly.
If Trump backed down, “I would be furious,’’ said Barbara Cope, a retired hospital employee who lives in Elmwood Park, N. J. “I’d say, ‘ This is what you ran on! You lied like all the other politicians!’ ”
Both are members of Trump Nation, an array of Trump voters in all 50 states who’ve spoken periodically with the USA TODAY Network about their hopes and expectations for the president. Although much analysis of Trump’s order has focused on how his election victory empowers him to make such changes, it also is true that if he does not make them, there will be a political price.
Trump’s order prohibits entry by all refugees for four months and by Syrian refugees indefinitely, and it calls for “extreme vetting” in the future. It also bars any visitors for three months from seven nations deemed to be sources of terrorism, all of which have Muslim- majority populations.
At least part of the backlash against Trump’s order focused on the haste in which it was issued; the confusion it created, especially at airports; and the impression it gave of America turning its back on the world.
But Gene Dunn, a longtime Trump supporter, decried what he called the “whining about all the ‘ chaos’ ” being caused by the travel ban. “If you want chaos,” he said, “watch what happens when some ISIS maniac yells, ‘ Allah Akbar!’ and proceeds to mow down innocent Americans with a machine gun, bomb, big construction truck, or God forbid, one day with WMDs.”
Despite the inconvenience or hardship caused by the order, “with something like this, there’s gonna be some toes stepped on,” said Michael McCoy, a saw mill owner who lives outside Weaverville, in western North Carolina.
According to a Quinnipiac Poll, although Trump’s job approval among all Americans has slumped to 36%, since the inauguration his stock has risen among Republicans from 76% approval two weeks ago to 81%.