The potential big deal was that Tlaib was now being defined by the moment. Democrats complained she was jumping to conclusions about the president before the conclusion of the special counsel’s investigation. Conservative media derided her as a “foul-mouthed Islamic congresswoman,” and a Florida lawmaker suggested she might bomb the Capitol. Her words have led to even more scrutiny, including her opponents seizing on her stance to divest from Israel and suggesting that she is an anti-Semite.

“Couldn’t she just have been like Michelle Obama?” asked Terrill Sewantek, 65, whose son lives down the street from Mongrain. Chris Sewantek, 35, told her that Tlaib was of a different generation that could not simply “go high” if she felt the president had sunk too low.

“She is responding to the way Trump acts, to show that he cannot bully her,” he said. “I might not necessarily swear like that, but he uses colorful language. It’s nice to have someone check him. I think when we see him go away, the brashness being used to oppose him will go away, too.”