Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Trump gets total backing from core base

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Michael Mathes -


With Donald Trump struggling to keep his presidency on an even keel in a cacophonous first month, die-hard supporters have a message for their champion: stay on offence, never modulate, never change.


Trump is under immense pressure as missteps have plagued his debut, with opposition lawmakers and observers lobbing one assault after another at the new US commander-in-chief.


They say he lies, he lacks understanding of crucial issues, his White House is already riven with scandal and warring factions, and he’s dismissing the US Constitution by attacking the media.


Even some fellow Republicans are expressing alarm.


On Saturday, Trump escaped the fiery cauldron of Washington to host a boisterous rally in Melbourne, Florida, where he was greeted with open arms by loyal supporters who insist his presidency is running smoothly.


And they sniffed at charges that Trump, now the world’s most powerful man, is refusing to moderate the aggression, impulsiveness and sniping that defined his 2016 campaign which ended in shock victory.


“I want to see more of it,” Steven Migdalski, a 53-year-old unemployed computer technician from Titusville, Florida, said during his seven-hour wait to enter the Trump rally.


He gave emphatic approval of Trump’s combative tone with the press and his hasty policy steps including his controversial executive order restricting immigration.


“I am totally ecstatic that a Republican president has the guts to push back against not only fake news,” but the political establishment, said Migdalski, proudly displaying his red “Built Trump Tough” shirt.


Never mind that Trump’s debut has sent jitters across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with policy musings that contradict decades-old US policy regarding the Western alliance and post-World War II order.


“He’s upsetting the globalists. And I hope they’re afraid,” Migdalski said.


Such is the damn-the-torpedoes support Trump enjoys with his core base — largely white and male, predominantly working class, and increasingly nationalistic.


In more than a dozen interviews with supporters, they said they are backing their man, despite — perhaps even because of — his controversial actions.


But supporters are aware they too provide the energy, adulation and respect on which Trump feeds — a symbiotic relationship that was on full display in Melbourne.


Washington is not a friendly town for any occupant of the White House, and Trump appeared thrilled to return to a campaign-styled event, complete with a woman holding up a poster with the words “Hillary for Prison,” even though Hillary Clinton was defeated months ago.


“I think he needs this. Everyday he hears hatred and negativity each time he turns on the TV,” said Tammy Allen, a self-employed independent distributor in Melbourne who was in the rally crowd with three friends holding “Women For Trump” signs. “He’s been ridiculed and put down. I mean everybody is against him. So he needs to see those Americans that support him, that love him,” she added.


“We’re the wind beneath his wings.’”


High school student Jacob Wyskoski turned 18 last year, and cast his first-ever vote in November, for Trump.


“We used to be the strongest, the biggest, the most powerful nation in all of the world. We need that back,” he said, echoing a common refrain among voters old enough to recall the US power that ended the Cold War. — AFP


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