They voted for Trump. Most still back him — but not on everything

Japan Times

a day ago

From her corner of the United States near Houston, Texas, stay-at-home mother Loretta Torres, 38, admires President Donald Trump's confidence and bargaining style. She has no complaints with his presidency.
In Des Moines, Iowa, Lou Nunez, an 83-year-old U.S. Army veteran, has been horrified by Trump's cuts to federal agencies, whipsaw tariff announcements, and crackdowns on protesters.
Terry Alberta, 64, a pilot in southwestern Michigan, supports most of Trump's policies but he thinks some of the slashed federal spending might have to be restored and he dislikes the president's demeanor. "I get really frustrated with him when he starts calling people names and just saying crazy things,' he said.
Although they all helped elect Trump in November, Torres, Nunez and Alberta have very different reactions to his presidency so far. They are among 20 Trump voters interviewed monthly since February about the president's dramatic changes to the United States' government, trade policy and immigration enforcement, among other issues.
Nunez and one of the other 20 voters now regret casting a ballot for the president. Torres and four others say they fully support his administration. But most — like Alberta — fall somewhere in between.
The 20 voters were selected from 429 respondents to a February 2025 Ipsos poll who said they voted for Trump in November and were willing to speak to a reporter. They are not a statistically representative portrait of all Trump voters, but their ages, educational backgrounds, races/ethnicities, locations and voting histories roughly corresponded to those of Trump's overall electorate.
Even monthly check-ins cannot always keep pace with the breakneck news cycle under Trump. Reporters most recently interviewed the group in May, before Trump deployed U.S. service members to Los Angeles and other cities to quell widespread protests against the administration's immigration crackdown and prior to tensions erupting with Iran.
Loretta Torres, a stay at home mom who voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, at her home in Baytown, Texas |
REUTERS
Trump's efforts to tighten border security were most popular among the group. Describing their concerns about the administration, these voters most often cited the economic uncertainty triggered by Trump's federal cuts and tariffs. That tracks with the latest Ipsos-Reuters poll findings, which show Trump polling below his overall approval rating on the economy, and above it on immigration.
Recent polls also show that Americans who helped elect Trump to his second term overwhelmingly like what they see so far. In a six-day Ipsos-Reuters poll that concluded on June 16, 9 out of 10 respondents who said they voted for Trump in November also said they approved of his performance in office so far.
"I like the way he portrays himself as being a strong leader," said Torres. "It makes us look stronger to other countries."
White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that Trump had delivered on his campaign promises by reducing U.S. border crossings to historic lows and keeping inflation lower than expected.
"The Administration is committed to building on these successes by slashing the waste, fraud, and abuse in our government and leveling the playing field for American industries and workers with more custom-made trade deals," Desai said.
'Anxiety is the buzzword'
Most of the 20 voters interviewed say they now have qualms about some of Trump's most extreme measures.
Brandon Neumeister, 36, a Pennsylvania state corrections worker and former National Guardsman, said he disagreed with a May request by the Department of Homeland Security for 20,000 National Guard members to help detain illegal immigrants. "To deploy troops on American soil in American cities, I think that sends a very severe message,' he said.
Pilot Terry Alberta at the West Michigan Regional Airport, in Holland, Michigan |
REUTERS
Neumeister voted for Trump hoping for lower prices and inflation, and said he knows it will take time for the president's economic policies to yield results. But people close to him have lost jobs as a result of Trump downsizing the federal government, and several friends of his are anxious about losing pensions or health care due to budget cuts at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
"Anxiety is the buzzword for everything right now,' Neumeister said, adding that it was "hard to say' whether he's glad Trump is president.
Federal workforce reductions are also wearing on Robert Billups, 34, an accountant in Washington state currently searching for his next job. He has seen federal positions disappear from job sites, and he frequently gets worried calls from his mother, who is a contractor with the Internal Revenue Service.
"This is more than my mom has ever reached out to me. I feel like it's freaking her out,' he said.
Ethical concerns
Several Trump voters in the group also said they were uneasy about actions by Trump that critics say overstep his presidential authority.
Don Jernigan, 74, a retiree in Virginia Beach, said he likes the outcomes of most of Trump's policies but not the way he sometimes pushes them through, such as his record number of executive orders or his imposition of tariffs on other countries, a power that Jernigan says belongs to Congress. Nor does he like the fact that Trump accepted a jet given to the United States by Qatar, which Jernigan views as an enemy nation. "Trump works off of ideas. He doesn't work off of principles. He has no principles,' Jernigan said.
Overall, however, he thinks Trump is protecting U.S. borders and deterring threats against the nation better than the other candidates for president would have.
Veteran Lou Nunez outside his home in Pleasant Hill, Iowa |
REUTERS
Trump's acceptance of the Qatari jet also struck Amanda Taylor, 51, an insurance firm employee near Savannah, Georgia, as potentially unethical. "It just seems a little like he can do whatever he wants to without repercussion,' she said.
Taylor, who voted for former U.S. President Joe Biden in 2020, says it is too early to tell yet whether Trump is an improvement. She likes Trump's pledges to deport criminals and gang members. But she has been most closely watching economic indicators, especially interest rates, because she and her husband closed on a new house this month.
Changes they hope to see
Among Trump voters with fewer complaints about the president's second term, there are still areas where they hope to see some change.
David Ferguson, 53, hoped the Trump administration would revitalize U.S. manufacturing, and so far he is "pleased with the groundwork' and "at least the direction that they're communicating.'
At the industrial supply company in western Georgia where he works as a mechanical engineer and account manager, Ferguson has seen Trump's tariffs drive up prices on a range of products, from roller bearings to food-processing equipment. He does not expect the prices to fall as quickly as they've risen.
Ferguson would like the administration to offer tax incentives to companies like his that are making it possible for more things to be made in the United States. "It would help encourage businesses that are already domesticating manufacturing and give them some relief from the tariffs, kind of reward their good behavior,' he said.
Several other Trump voters voiced support for a policy that might surprise left-leaning voters: a clearer legal immigration pathway for aspiring Americans who are law-abiding and want to contribute to the U.S. economy.
Gerald Dunn, 66, is a martial-arts instructor in New York's Hudson Valley and "middle-of-the-road' voter who said he is frustrated by extremism in both U.S. political parties. Dunn said he knows people who have tried to enter the United States legally but encountered "horrendous' red tape.
People with skills and stable employment offers could become "assets to the country" instead of liabilities if it were easier for them to immigrate, Dunn said.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, engineer Rich Somora, 61, said he supports Trump's efforts to deport criminals but he also recognizes that immigrants are increasingly doing key jobs that U.S. citizens don't want to do, such as building construction.
"If somebody's contributing, give them a pathway, you know? I got no problem with that,' Somora said.