For Trump's core supporters, 'there will never be another President Trump'

Kim Trajkovski, a middle-aged mom living in Macomb Township, knew the moment she saw Donald Trump ride the escalator down into the lobby of his New York City tower in June 2015 to announce his run for the presidency that he was different, and, to her way of thinking, in a good way.

She told her husband, "That man's going to win. He laughed at me."

Five years later, the husband is gone. But Trajkovski, a 57-year-old purchasing employee for a manufacturing supplier in Troy, remains an ardent supporter of the president. A staunch opponent of abortion -- though she's not overtly religious -- and a firm believer in supporting law enforcement and the military, with one son in the Marines and another who also served in the Corps, she says Trump, as president, has never let her down.

"I think he's a wonderful person, a wonderful man," she said. "I believe if this country doesn't vote him in this time, we're lost. There will never be another President Trump."

She is far from the only Michigan voter who feels this way. Even as the president has continued to come under sharp criticism -- most recently for a debate performance in which he declined to unilaterally denounce white supremacist groups and his handling, both personal and professional, of the coronavirus pandemic, after testing positive himself -- his supporters have remained adamantly loyal.

What's clear from talking to Trump supporters is that, among a core base of about 40% of the electorate in Michigan, there are some similarities, such as a belief in small government, a strong military, respect for "law and order." There is also among them a lagging level of concern about COVID, which has resulted in 217,000 deaths in the U.S. since March, and what can be done about its spread.

Polls showing Trump trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden nationally and in most battleground states, including Michigan, are false, they say. Media reports citing criticism of him are rejected as being proof of bias. Reporters, they say, have unfairly ignored questions about Biden's vice presidency and corruption in Ukraine, where his son was on the board of an energy company -- even though there remains no evidence of corruption on Biden's part. They turn aside suggestions that Biden, in pushing for a Ukrainian prosecutor to be removed, was adhering to the policy of the U.S. and its allies, though that was clearly the case.

It's not to say that there aren't things that occasionally irk some of them about the president, particularly the way he uses social media to hit his enemies.

"There are a lot of times when he really just needs to shut up," said 26-year-old Brett Kabot in Rochester Hills, who thinks Trump could scale back on the insults and the hyperbole.

But on balance, supporters feel like Trump has more than lived up to the promises he made in the 2016 campaign, arguing he has strengthened the nation's defenses and, at least up to the time when COVID-19 hit, managed a roaring economy, despite indications some sectors were already slowing down. Democrats, they say, want bigger government and are pushing an agenda that will raise taxes and slow the economy, if not embrace some form of socialism.

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If anything, however, it's Trump's way of delivering a message, so different from that associated with most political figures, that resonates, suggesting to them a no-nonsense toughness, business savvy, and, yes, an ego many of them consider irrepressible.

"He's arrogant and he has his opinions and he voices them," said 75-year-old Robert Wozniak, of White Lake. "I don't want to be controlled by someone in Paris...You guys in the press, you're terrible. All you do is try to force agendas. No one trusts you guys."

It's that ego that will overcome the polls and the Democrats this year, they say. As many of them predicted, Trump overcame his brief bout with COVID and restarted his campaign with in-person events in Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa. On Saturday, he was set to appear in Muskegon, in west Michigan.

"He doesn't like to lose," Trajkovski said. "People say he's got a big ego. His ego won't let him lose -- he'll work as hard as he needs to because his ego won't let him lose."

A consistent base of support

Famously, Trump overcame polling deficits in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to narrowly win those states in 2016, breaking through the Democrats' "blue wall" in the Midwest and beating Hillary Clinton. While most of those polls weren't nearly as far off as is often claimed by Trump and his allies, it's unquestioned that Trump's tough talk of throwing out trade deals -- many embraced by Republicans through the years -- and cracking down on immigrants coming into the country resonated in working-class Michigan.

It wasn't just a matter of Clinton losing Democratic support. Trump's total vote in Michigan was higher than any Republican since President George W. Bush in 2004.

But since taking office, Trump has struggled nationally and in Michigan to increase support: According to the RealClearPolitics.com average of polls on the president's job approval rating, the percentage of people disapproving of his performance has, since early in his term, been larger than that of those who approve of him. It's much the same in Michigan, where a recent Free Press poll showed 57% giving him a negative rating and 41% a positive one.

That percentage of positive attitudes toward the president largely mirrors the level of support he has received in head-to-head polls with Biden this year, the most current one showing Biden leading 48%-39% in Michigan. If that doesn't change -- and it has showed no sign of changing -- it's hard to see Trump repeating his victory in Michigan.

"I just don't think it's in the cards," said Bernie Porn, the pollster for EPIC-MRA of Lansing, which did the poll for the Free Press and its outstate partners.

But that surprise victory in 2016 fuels skepticism, some warranted, in the polls. It's especially strong among his supporters, some of whom say Trump could again be poised to outperform the polls, picking up voters who aren't necessarily showing up in random samples.

"I'm getting a lot of pessimism from my Biden friends in Michigan and I'm getting a lot of optimism from my Trump friends in Michigan," said Ryan Secord, a 34-year-old group health insurance salesman in Indiana who grew up in Northville and Milford and went to Michigan State University.

Not scared of the virus

Nothing has shaken up this year's election as much as the coronavirus pandemic; polls, including those in Michigan, have suggested that measures to control the spread have been popular and necessary, while Trump's reaction -- initially downplaying the seriousness publicly -- have not scored well among many voters.

That's not the case with the president's supporters.

Tori Sanderson, a 31-year-old single mom in Livonia, takes her and her son's health seriously , so seriously, in fact, she said she drives an hour away from their home to do their grocery shopping in a store that doesn't require they wear masks.

"In this household, we are not scared of coronavirus," she said.

A believer in wholesome foods, chemical-free cleaning supplies and not taking antibiotics "unless absolutely required," Sanderson, a customs compliance analyst who voted twice for President Barack Obama, is a firm believer in developing a stronger immune system through being exposed to germs, even COVID. While she says she'd take different steps if there were someone older and perhaps more vulnerable in her immediate family circle -- and doesn't question anyone else's decision to wear or not wear a mask and practice social distancing -- she won't do it for herself or her son unless required.

And while Trump has suggested a vaccine could be available soon, she said she wouldn't take one even if it were. "Absolutely not," she said. "It's being so fast-tracked... the consequences of that vaccine are not going to be known for years to come."

Such sentiments about COVID overall, and the idea that Americans should embrace the idea of "herd immunity" -- a concept criticized by many health experts that suggests the virus won't be overcome until enough people get it that it stops spreading -- was voiced by many Trump supporters the Free Press spoke with.

"I don't think that masks and social distancing are the end-all, be-all of it," said Justin Porth, a 39-year-old realtor in Dearborn Heights, who said, politically speaking, "individual rights and individual responsibilities are a big thing to me."

"I think (herd immunity) works," he said. "Something I've been saying for a long time is that bottled water is dangerous because tap water builds your immune system. You have to build your immune system and herd immunity is the thing."

No one the Free Press spoke to among Trump's supporters directly criticized the president for telling people, after he returned to the White House from three days in the hospital with the virus himself, not to be afraid of the virus, a move some critics said could lead to a greater number of cases and deaths if people let down their guard.

Most Republican members of the state's congressional delegation refused to answer questions from the Free Press about whether that statement was appropriate or not, with just one, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, saying wearing a mask is "personal responsibility" in the current climate. Several Republicans running for congressional seats agreed that mask-wearing is smart, though none directly criticized the president.

One, Eric Esshaki, a registered nurse and lawyer in Birmingham who is running against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Rochester Hills, said there is blame on both sides. "The choice is not panic and fear or nothing," he said. "This is a deadly disease and all the game playing by politicians in both parties has not helped. Our nation has not dealt with this pandemic like adults."

But among many of Trump's supporters there is a belief that aggressive efforts to slow the spread could delay a reopening of schools and the economy -- which a recent Free Press poll found to be the top issue on the minds of 23% of those surveyed, higher than any other issue, with the public health crisis posed by COVID No. 2 at 21%.

"You can't stop a virus," Porth continued, saying he thinks Trump -- whom he also supports because of his tough trade policies -- has handled COVID about as well as he could, given the circumstances. "It's somehow going to get everywhere."

'Not a politician'

Beyond party designation, there are few specific markers for the typical Trump supporter. As with elsewhere in the country, college-educated voters and women, especially women of color, have gravitated more toward the Democratic Party; white voters without college degrees, especially men, have trended more Republican and toward the president.

Recent polls have shown that, if any other concerns identify the typical Trump voter, it is opposition to abortion rights and concern about the need to reopen schools and the economy.

In 2016, in some areas that had long trended Democratic, like in and around Bay County, Trump got a boost from disaffected industrial workers who saw in him a Republican who rejected that party's globalist vision for an America-first brand of capitalism. In many ways he sounded like a Democrat, but without the trappings of a social liberalism that called for gun control and health care mandates.

His promise to "Build the Wall" on the southern border worked among those who considered cheaper labor from immigrants a threat to American workers.

"It was a big change," said Randy Badgerow, chairman of the Bay County Republicans, reacting to how Trump flipped the long-Democratic county in 2016. "He was not a politician. I think that's what people are tired of -- career politicians."

His timing was fortuitous, too, with the economy finally revving up after the fallout from the recession of 2008-9. In the first three years of his first term, before COVID hit, Trump saw nonfarm jobs grow by 4.7% nationally and by 2.4% in Michigan -- though those were smaller than during Obama's second term in both cases. And while Trump's promises to surge manufacturing jobs in Michigan and elsewhere have not come true, despite his protestations to the contrary, his supporters seem unconcerned.

Meanwhile the stock market as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased significantly under Trump pre-COVID, as it also did during Obama's second term.

That said, Trump's supporters in Michigan see the steps he has taken to cut taxes for corporations and most Americans and reduce regulations as a key driver of the economy, which they argue, as he does, only slowed to the point it has because of the virus. For instance, Robert Joseph, a 53-year-old independent accountant in Bloomfield Township, said he didn't vote for president in 2016 but will this year -- for Trump.

"I've seen a lot of benefit for my clients," he said.

Secord said, "I went from making $40,000 to over $200,000 today... I'm doing 100% better than I was four years ago and it's the direct result of the president and his tax plans."

Most were also in agreement that the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which made health care on the individual market more widely available, was a mistake. Sanderson, who had worked in a pizzeria before taking the job she has now, said she was forced to pay exorbitantly for insurance she didn't believe she needed under the individual mandate, which is no longer in force.

While the Trump administration has moved to get rid of Obamacare without a replacement in place -- a move that would result, at least temporarily, in insurers potentially being allowed to charge recipients more to cover preexisting conditions, if not drop that coverage altogether -- that seems to be of little concern to Trump supporters, many of whom don't see a role for government in providing, or requiring, health care for everyone.

"Trump is trying to eliminate it, which I'm all for," said Kabot. "It's a horrible health system for those who have an income above poverty."

Michael Malkowski, a 43-year-old electrical engineer who is married and has two kids and lives in St. Clair Shores, said he voted twice for Obama but voted for Trump in '16 and will do so again this year. "I did think we needed some kind of health care reform but... Obamacare, I think it went too far."

"It shouldn't force everybody to have insurance. That should be (a person's) choice... The fines... that wasn't right in my opinion," she said, adding that he considers himself an independent but one who generally believes "in a smaller government over a larger one."

Trump's independence, and energy, is key

Jon Allen, a 33-year-old restaurant manager in Sterling Heights, said he has seen a lot to like about Trump in the last four years, including his handling of the pandemic, saying that if he downplayed the risk, maybe that was called for, given the public response. "People still bought up all the toilet paper and freaked out... I can only imagine the chaos that would have happened at Costcos across the country (if he hadn't)."

Allen, who considers himself a moderate voter, has another reason for supporting the president, however. Since the beginning of August, on more than two dozen occasions, he said, he has seen unidentified objects flying over his home. He said that while he doesn't know what they are, he believes in UFOs and that the U.S. government is keeping secrets about their existence.

"I told you I was going to sound crazy," he said.

But Allen notes correctly that no less a source than former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has also said the government is holding back information on unidentified flying objects. To Allen, who says as many as 200 people in southeastern Michigan have seen the objects, Trump might be the president suspicious enough of government -- and independent enough -- to force information to be released.

Last week, Trump told Fox News he would take a "good, strong look" at whether UFOs exist.

More than anything else, it seems Trump's core of supporters are motivated by a belief that he is a fighter who refuses to go along with the pack, even if it hurts him. And they argue vociferously that he's not getting the cooperation, or the credit, he deserves.

"Can you imagine what he would have done if he had the support of everyone in the Congress?" asked Trajkovski.

Has Trump been treated badly by Democrats and the media? "Absolutely," said Porth, who acknowledged that the president's habit of hurling insults and invective on Twitter can get out of hand. But, he said, "I can't remember there being so much resentment and hate for any politician... I think he's had a lot to deal with. Granted, his behavior is not normal for a politician, but that's a good thing."

"No one hated on the guy before he decided to go into politics. Everybody loved Donald Trump, right?" he said.

With the election rapidly approaching, many of the Trump supporters the Free Press spoke with said they, like many Democrats, worry about how the balloting and the count will be conducted. But while Democrats say they are worried about voter intimidation and ensuring that votes are counted, the president's supporters reiterate the same concerns he has about possible voter fraud and corruption in mail-in balloting, even though there is little evidence of it.

And there have been reports of some limited problems.

"From what I've seen, the mail-in (balloting) doesn't seem to be as good as has been touted," said Malkowski, noting reports of incorrect ballots being sent out in some places, including Michigan. "But there is still time to improve that and get it corrected... That’s never a good thing (when ballots are going out wrong)."

Ultimately, Trump's supporters see in him someone who, while he may sometimes be caustic, or rude, has a program they believe is best for the future of the country and the personal traits, far different than traditional politicians, to bring it off.

"It's refreshing because I always know what the man thinks," Secord said. "The other side of the coin is that turns some people off. The reality is people need to focus on the mission, not the man."

"I’ve got a 74-year-old man who’s got three times the gas in his tank than I do at 34," he continued. "That tells me a lot."

Contact Todd Spangler at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: For Trump's core supporters, 'there will never be another President Trump'

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