The Ever-Trumpers: Revisiting his backers from 2016, we find they still like him

Anyone either hoping or fearing that the stumbles of Trump’s young administration have shaken the faith of his core backers will find little support here. There is certainly disappointment, especially around Trump’s inability to deliver on his signature promise to get rid of Obamacare, but in almost identical words they blame someone else for it, specifically congressional Republicans. (Cruz: “Why didn’t they have a plan?” Neal: “I don’t like that we still have rogue Republicans that are just not supporting.” Frisbie: “Why haven’t they been working for the last eight years planning on what they’d do if they got control again? They should have had a plan.”)

But among these confirmed Trump supporters, slashing environmental regulations in the name of bringing back the coal industry is popular, and his tough talk on immigration is just what they wanted to hear. (Frisbie: “When I think of sanctuary cities, I think they need to cut them off at the knees.” Schmidt: “This is about keeping us safe, and I support that.”)

Schmidt, whose young son was wearing a button saying “Bomb the s*** out of ISIS” when she was interviewed last year, was equally enthusiastic about Trump’s bellicose stance against terrorism, citing the use of the 10-ton MOAB bomb against an ISIS complex in Afghanistan. (“Progress! This is a wake-up call to people that [Trump] isn’t messing around, that he is moving forward and he’s doing what he can to keep America safe.”) But that was one of the few actions that engendered some unease. Vance wasn’t pleased to see so many former generals in Trump’s cabinet. (“The military always thinks there’s a military solution to these problems. … I don’t want to see us going down a rabbit hole, dropping big MOAB bombs every week over in Afghanistan.”) And Frisbie, while supporting Trump’s missile attack on Syria as a way for America to show it means business in that part of the world, worried about getting embroiled in another endless Mideast war — at least insofar as it might affect her grandson, who is interested in applying to become a Navy SEAL.