The Mainstream Media has done all it could to push the narrative American’s aren’t happy with Donald Trump. They constantly throw out his approval rating and paint the picture that people are not happy with how he is doing in Office. Whenever the media actually goes out and talks to Trump voters, however, they find out the exact opposite.
The first year of Donald Trump’s unorthodox presidency may have been a dizzying ride, but Belinda Miller has never regretted voting for him in 2016.
“My 401(k) and my 403 have soared, and if anybody doesn’t realize that, they’ve been asleep for a year,†said Miller, a 50-year-old emergency room nurse from Audubon, Pennsylvania, referring to her retirement accounts’ growth in a booming stock market.
“I look overall not at what he says but what he does. All that other stuff is just rhetoric, smoke and mirrors,†she added.
The Philadelphia suburb where Miller lives in Montgomery County was key to Trump’s surprising 2016 triumph. In a sign of its importance, his campaign dispatched his daughter Ivanka to the region late in the race to woo women there.
In interviews with more than half a dozen Trump supporters in the region, mostly women, his backers remained largely committed to him, citing his immigration policies and a belief that tax reform will create jobs amid a growing economy. Many of them were unfazed by Trump’s combative style and provocative language.
Trump’s strength among his base is reflected in Reuters/Ipsos polls of Trump’s approval ratings, which show his support among Republicans has slipped only slightly over the year, dropping from 84 percent in his first month to 78 percent in the last month.
Carol Markowicz, a 52-year-old Philadelphia resident, said she voted for former Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012 but cast her ballot for Trump, convinced his business background and anti-illegal immigration stance would secure more jobs for Pennsylvanians.
“I really think they need to build a wall,†she said of Trump’s proposed Mexican border barrier. “I think they need to send back all these people that aren’t supposed to be here, because they’re taking jobs from Americans.â€
Other Trump voters have grappled with how to evaluate the president’s policy accomplishments, like the sweeping tax law Republicans passed in December, amid his inflammatory words.
Some, like Miller and Loida Hopkins, a stay-at-home mother in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, said they focus on his actions, not his language.
“Let’s set aside his personality. What about what he’s actually doing that is benefiting us?†Hopkins said.
On paper, Hopkins seems a likely Democratic target: Daughter of two illegal immigrants, she collects food stamps, suffers from enormous debt and voted for Obama in 2012.
But the devout Christian said she voted in part for Trump because of his opposition to abortion and believes that God put him in the White House for a reason.
She also said she was working hard to better herself, unlike other welfare recipients, and did not object that wealthy people and corporations stood to benefit from the tax law. Her husband, she said, is receiving a bonus from his company as a result.
