They really do think he’s making America great

Republicans feel bonded to Trump

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.

“It makes me angry at them, which causes me to want to defend him to them more,” Anders said.

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 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 U.S. House in November.

“He’s not a perfect guy; he does some stupid stuff,” said Tony Schrantz, 50, of Lino Lakes, Minnesota, owner of a water systems leak detection business. “But when they’re hounding him all the time, it just gets old. Give the guy a little.”

Republican voters repeatedly described an instinctive, protective response to the president, and their support has grown in recent months: Trump’s approval rating among Republicans now is about 90 percent.

While polling has yet to capture the effect of the past week’s immigration controversy, 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 9/11.

Trump also has retained support across a range of demographics other than the working-class voters who are most identified with him. This includes portions of the wealthy college-educated people in swing counties, such as Virginia’s Loudoun, in the country’s most politically competitive states.

Many of these voters say their lives and the country are improving under his presidency, and the endless stream of tough cable news coverage and bad headlines about Trump 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.

Many of these voters say their lives and the country are improving under his presidency.

Tom Brenner / New York Times Supporters cheer President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Duluth, Minn. Many Trump voters recount undergoing something akin to a bonding experience with him.