The grades are in

100 days for Trump; for voters, 2 polar opinions

As President Donald Trump hits 100 days in office today, opinion in South Florida appears to be every bit as polarized as it was on Election Day almost six months ago.

Ruben Kagan, who lives west of Boynton Beach, thinks Trump “is the best thing that ever happened.” Melissa Nocera, who lives west of Boca Raton, thinks “he’s narcissistic and out of his mind.”

Randall Bishop, of Sunrise, is worried that Trump’s handing of the nuclear threat from North Korea could end in World War III. Sandor Goldstein, a Wisconsonite who spends some of his cold weather time in West Boca — and whose son is an

Air Force physician stationed in South Korea — is confident the president’s approach will keep his son safe.

■ Leslie Fleming, of Lighthouse Point, praises Trump as “a fighter. He’s trying to do everything he promised.” Her husband, Scott, said he’s troubled by what he sees as Trump’s impulsive flip-flopping and called the president’s behavior “embarrassing” for the country.

As Trump reaches the 100-day mark, interviews in recent days with 34 people in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties show widely divergent — and intense— views about the real estate developer turned reality TV show host turned president.

There was one area of agreement that crossed party lines. Manypeople said they didn’t like the president’s use ofTwitter.

Robert Fiedorowicz, 69, a Republican from Deerfield Beach, said presidential tweeting reduced the grade he’s willing to give Trump to A minus from A. “He’s the president. He shouldn’t tweet. That’s where the minus comes from. The tweeting, it’s hard to defend.”

Pete Palmer, 43, of Coral Springs, who is active in the Republican Party, also dingedTrump, givinghiman Aminus for thesame reason. “He still needs to rein in the Twitter account.”

Natoshia Melvin, 40, of Deerfield Beach, who voted for Clinton, said she’s exhausted by the president’s use of social media. “As the president he should be focusing on the thingswe need to focus on and not stoop to this level.”

As you might expect, Republicans and independents whovoted forTrumpturned in many grades of A for his first100days. Democratsand independentswhovoted last year for Hillary Clinton mostlygaveDsandFs. Onlya handful of people judged him in the middle, with aC.

The divergent assessments show up in public opinion polls.

■ Trumpwas viewed favorably by 45 percent of Florida voters and unfavorably by 41 percent in a survey released thisweekbyFirehouseStrategies, a public affairs consulting firm, and 0ptimus, a data analytics firm. The survey has a 2.7 margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. Firehouse is led by people who used to work for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and 0ptimus did data work for Rubio’s unsuccessful 2018 presidential campaign.

■ A nationwide University ofSouthernCaliforniaDornsife/ Angeles TimesDaybreak poll this week, which asked a slightly different question, found 40 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s performance and 46 percent disapprove. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.

■ The intensity of Florida voters’ feelings jumps out within the favorable/unfavorable ratings. A total of 38 percent have a strongly favorable view of Trump, with just 7 percent viewing him somewhat favorably. And 36 percent have a strongly unfavorableview, while5percent are somewhat unfavorable.

The intensity shown in the poll reinforces what Patty Miranda has seen at her restaurant in Deerfield Beach. Miranda has owned the Olympia Flame Diner for 25 years, and said the amount and intensity of political discussions skyrocketed around the time of last summer’s presidential nomination conventions — and it hasn’t let up.

“There’s definitely more political talk,” Miranda said. “It’s more passionate, absolutely.”

It’s showing up among families, including the Flemings, whodiscussedthepresident after breakfast this week at Olympia Flame. They’re independents who both voted for Democrat Barack Obama, but cast different ballots last year — Scott Fleming, 55, for Clinton; Leslie Fleming, 53, for Trump.

Gary Nocera, 54, a West Boca Republican, voted for Trump. Democrat Melissa Nocera, 48, voted for Clinton. They disagreed over the president over lunch this weekat Ben’sKosher Delicatessen inWest Boca.

“His heart’s in the right place and people are hoping like hell he’s going to be able to do what he said he was going to do,” he said. Wrong, she said. Melissa Nocera is concerned that Trump is so unstable he’ll get the country into a conflict that will cost lives. She said she can’t think of a single positive thing he’s done as president.

There’s also debate over the100-day benchmark.

For decades — since Franklin D. Roosevelt — 100 has been judgment day for presidents. Recently, Trump has complained that it’s a phony, artificial deadline, calling it “the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days.” He called it “an artificial barrier. It’s not very meaningful” in an interview with The Associated Press.

But when he was campaigning for the job, Trump promised he’d have immense accomplishments to show at the 100-day mark and issued a “contract with the American voter” containing his plans. And days afterTrumpsaid the100-day threshold didn’t mean anything, the White House issued a list of actions that touts his 100 days.

Trump supporter Don Koury, 54, of Boca Raton, said it’s “really unfair” to judge the president after 100 days. “Let the man have a chance to do his job. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

But Ron Pomerantz, 63, a Hollywood Democrat who voted for Clinton, said 100 days of Trump as president is plenty of time for the country to judge its leader. “At 100 days we don’t expect miracles. We don’t expect a changed society. It certainly sets the tone for what’s coming,” he said. “This is a presidency that will proceed through four years with little to no results and perhaps major negative results.”

Bishop, 48, whoalsovoted for Clinton, also gave the president a negative rating. “I can’t say anything very good,” he said. “He absolutelyshoweduswhohewas in the campaign and he showeduswhoheis. Nosurprises.”

And Dottie Weinstein, a Democrat in her 80s who lives west of Boynton Beach and voted for Clinton, said she didn’t trustTrump. “He’s an immature human being. I don’t feel what he’s doing is in the best interests of the country.”

Kagan, her husband, who is also in his 80s, voted Republican. He said it’s time the country had someone, like Trump, who could “stop the B.S.”

Sal Caliendo, of Boca Raton, said the president is “doing great,” adding that he’s especially happy thatTrump is “getting rid of the cryberries.”

And Mary Barnett, 60, of Sunrise, gives the president kudos.

“I think he’s great. He’s done everything he said [he would],” she said, crediting him with saving American jobs and “finally dealing” with the threat from the Islamic State.

Some Republicans, including Barnett, were unhappy that the Affordable CareAct, alsoknownasObamacare, hasn’t been repealed and replaced as Trump and her party’s congressional candidates promised. Barnett blames Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, notTrump.

Pete Palmer, the Coral Springs resident, doesn’t faultTrumpfor the failure to act on health care. “I don’t put this on Trump. The Republicans [in Congress] blew health care.”

Even though Trump promised during the campaign thatObamacarewould be repealed and replaced by now, Koury saidhedidn’t expect resolution so soon. “I didn’t expect it overnight, but it would be nice to have some direction,” he said. “For self-employed people, it’s a big deal.” He’s a selfemployedcivil engineerwho pays for his health coverage.