Thread: Trump’s base turns on him

Trump’s base turns on him

Steve Bannon’s downgrade is just one of many complaints. ‘We expect him to keep his word, and right now he’s not keeping his word,’ says one campaign supporter.

By Alex Isenstadt and Madeline Conway
04/13/17 02:21 PM EDT

The swiftness and abruptness of Trump’s shift from bomb-throwing populist outsider to a more mainstream brand of Republican has taken the president’s stalwarts by surprise.

Donald Trump’s true believers are losing the faith.

As Trump struggles to keep his campaign promises and flirts with political moderation, his most steadfast supporters — from veteran advisers to anti-immigration activists to the volunteers who dropped their jobs to help elect him — are increasingly dismayed by the direction of his presidency.

Their complaints range from Trump’s embrace of an interventionist foreign policy to his less hawkish tone on China to, most recently, his marginalization of his nationalist chief strategist, Steve Bannon. But the crux of their disillusionment, interviews with nearly two dozen Trump loyalists reveal, is a belief that Trump the candidate bears little resemblance to Trump the president. He’s failing, in their view, to deliver on his promise of a transformative “America First” agenda driven by hard-edged populism.

"Donald Trump dropped an emotional anchor. He captured how Americans feel," said Tania Vojvodic, a fervent Trump supporter who founded one of his first campaign volunteer networks. "We expect him to keep his word, and right now he's not keeping his word."

Earlier this week, Vojvodic launched a Facebook group called, “The concerned support base of President Trump,” which quickly drew several dozen sign-ups. She also changed the banner on her Facebook page to a picture of Bannon accompanied by the declaration: “Mr. President: I stand with Steve Bannon.”

"I'm not so infatuated with Trump that I can't see the facts," she said. "People's belief, their trust in him, it’s declining."

The swiftness and abruptness of Trump’s shift from bomb-throwing populist outsider to a more mainstream brand of Republican has taken the president’s stalwarts by surprise.

“It was like, here’s the chance to do something different. And that’s why people’s hopes are dashed,” said Lee Stranahan, who, as a former writer at Breitbart News, once worked with Bannon. “There was always the question of, ‘Did he really believe this stuff?’ Apparently, the answer is, ‘Not as much as you’d like.’”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The deflation of Trump’s base threatens to further weaken a president who’s already seen his public support drop to historic lows. Frustration among the president’s allies has intensified in recent days, with many expressing worry that Bannon, the intellectual pillar of the nationalist movement that catapulted Trump to the presidency, is being pushed out.

As Bannon’s influence wanes, on the rise is a small group of Wall Street-connected advisers whose politically moderate and globalist views are anathema to the populist cause.

The palace intrigue intensified this week after Trump refused to say he still had confidence in Bannon and downplayed the former Breitbart chairman's role in his campaign victory. And it’s feeding suspicions that the president is changing his priorities.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), one of the president’s most vocal backers on Capitol Hill, said he’s been disheartened by the chief strategist’s isolation.

"A lot of us look at Steve Bannon as the voice of conservatism in the White House," said King, who has known Bannon for years.

The displeasure over Bannon’s reduced status has trickled down to Trump’s grass-roots army of volunteers. Among those unsettled is Shane Bouvet, a 24-year-old campaign volunteer and blue-collar single father from Illinois who became something of a hero in the Trump movement. On the eve of the inauguration, Trump, who had read about how Bouvet trekked across the country by car so he could watch the swearing-in, gave him a check for $10,000.

Bouvet later said the gift saved the life of his father, who was battling cancer and needed the money to cover medical costs.

That day, Bouvet also was introduced to Bannon. The two spoke briefly, and Bouvet came to identify with the adviser who, like him, represented a “forgotten America” that Trump had appealed to with his blue-collar pitch. He said in an interview that he still supports the president, but is troubled by reports that Bannon is on the outs and that senior adviser Jared Kushner, a New York City real estate scion, is accumulating influence.

“I love our president,” he added. “I would tell him, follow his heart instead of whispers in his ears.”

On his South Florida-based radio show, Trump backer John Cardillo has begun to hear from listeners who are disillusioned with the rising influence of moderate staffers like Kushner and Gary Cohn, the Goldman Sachs executive-turned-Trump economic adviser.

For Cardillo, too, it’s been a letdown. During the 2016 Republican primary, he was attracted to Trump because of his insurgent streak. As a former New York City police officer, Cardillo identified with the candidate's blue-collar style. He fell hard and got aboard the Trump train early, backing the insurgent candidate over home-state favorite Marco Rubio.

Trump voters “felt like they were voting for an anti-establishment candidate — and they're terrified, they're losing faith," Cardillo said. "They're saying, ‘Why does he have these people around him?’"

The gripes go beyond Bannon’s apparent downgrade. Many of Trump’s most stalwart supporters, including radio show hosts Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham, called last week’s bombing of Syria a betrayal of Trump’s pledge to be an “America First” commander in chief who would avoid unnecessary conflicts overseas.

“People are concerned because it’s such a morass over there,” said Howie Carr, an influential Boston radio show host and vocal Trump backer. “I don’t think any of my listeners have any great stomach for overthrowing Assad, as odious as he is.”

Concerns about Trump’s foreign policy approach intensified on Wednesday when he backed away from his oft-repeated campaign line that NATO is “obsolete.” Instead, during an appearance with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump called the organization a “great alliance.”

Howie Carr, an influential Boston radio show host and a vocal Trump backer, said he’s been mostly satisfied with the president’s tenure so far. But he said he and his listeners weren’t on board with the Syria bombing and warned against a U.S.-led push to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“People are concerned because it’s such a morass over there,” Carr said. “I don’t think any of my listeners have any great stomach for overthrowing Assad, as odious as he is.”

Other Trump boosters worry that he’s ditching his economic agenda. They wonder why he backed off his vow to label
China a currency manipulator, and are chagrined by his reversal on his position to eliminate the Export-Import Bank.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer took issue with the premise that Trump's switch on labeling China a currency manipulator amounted to abandoning a campaign promise.

"The president's tough talk ... on a variety of subjects was to get results for the American people. That's what he has pledged to do, to get more jobs here, to grow more manufacturing, to keep our country safe," Spicer told reporters. "At the end of the day, this is always about developing a better situation for the American people, and I think he's done that."

"What is their product?" asked Larry Kudlow, a veteran economist who advised Trump’s campaign. "It doesn't make any sense to me. I'm not giving up hope. But it's looking very shaky to me."

Still others are concerned about Trump’s lack of progress on reforming the tax code.

Larry Kudlow, a veteran economist who advised Trump’s campaign, expressed dismay that the president hadn’t yet released a tax plan. He said he was beginning to wonder whether the president is about to walk back his pledge to cut taxes.

"What is their product?" Kudlow asked. "It doesn't make any sense to me. I'm not giving up hope. But it's looking very shaky to me."

Conservative economist Stephen Moore, who also advised the Trump campaign, said he’s reached out to the White House about the lack of a tax package.

“They're all over the map," he said. "I don't know if they're listening or not."

Then there’s immigration, the issue that catapulted Trump to front-runner status. Activists are increasingly alarmed that the president has yet to follow through on his pledge to rescind protections for undocumented parents and children put in place under former President Barack Obama.

Brenda Sparks, an “angel mom” whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant, appeared onstage with Trump at an August campaign event in Phoenix. She said he promised her that he would overturn the program known Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in short order.

"I still support Trump but I'm going to hold his feet to the fire," said Brenda Sparks, an “angel mom” whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant and who appeared onstage with Trump at a campaign event in Phoenix. "He has not lived up to that promise." | Getty

While Sparks said she didn't think it would be done immediately, "I had expected it before now."

"I still support Trump, but I'm going to hold his feet to the fire," she said. "He has not lived up to that promise."

Michelle Dallacroce, an anti-immigration activist, is more pointed. Immigration is "why we voted for Donald Trump," she said. "This could be the most elaborate reality show. I'm wondering, was this all an illusion for us, using our movement so he could get in there?"

Trump is hardly the first president to get crosswise with his supporters. After running on a promise to infuse Washington with change, Barack Obama faced sharp accusations from backers that he was moving too slowly to change the culture of the capitol. Governing, Obama learned, is a lot different than campaigning.

Not all of the president’s backers are disappointed. They point to his successful nomination of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and his rollback of environmental regulations as early wins.

"There's always going to be things that aren't perfect, but it's exciting," said Ed Martin, a conservative leader in Missouri.

But as Trump evolves, some of his loyalists are beginning to compare him to another Republican who lost the support of the party’s base: Arnold Schwarzenegger. After being elected California governor in 2003, the former movie star took on entrenched Democratic interests, lost badly, then tacked sharply to the left.

This week, some Trump die-hards passed around a column by conservative commentator Kurt Schlichter headlined: “Trump Can’t Let His Real or His Fake Friends Turn Him into Schwarzenegger Part 2.”

Schlichter, in an interview, said conservatives are fundamentally distrustful of Republican politicians who had often misled them. He urged the president to take some immediate actions, however small, to put his supporters at ease.

“You’ve got to understand the base. It’s like dating a girl whose father cheated on her mother. She’s always going to be suspicious,” he said. “He’s got to constantly provide wins because he’s got an emotionally damaged base that’s been abused.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-on-him-237200

Brenda Sparks, an “angel mom” whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant, appeared onstage with Trump at an August campaign event in Phoenix. She said he promised her that he would overturn the program known Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in short order.

"I still support Trump but I'm going to hold his feet to the fire," said Brenda Sparks, an “angel mom” whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant and who appeared onstage with Trump at a campaign event in Phoenix. "He has not lived up to that promise."

I share several of these folks concerns, especially President Trump's failure to end DACA as promised. I see Trump's failure to keep his promise on DACA as the potential opening of Pandora's box. Keeping his promise on DACA shouldn't be that complicated because it is something that is within his complete control to do. In my view each broken promise makes the next one that much easier to break.

Please keep your promise, Mr. President, end DACA now!

The media always has to put out sensational news. I get tired of it. How do we know the upshot of this is "political moderation?"

The media narrative of "broken promises", "flip-flops"and "reversed positions" is just that, all media and opposition narrative to turn an uncareful and ungrateful base against him, to try to drive him down in the polls, to weaken his authority and thus his ability to work with Congress to get anything important done.

I don't think Congress is going to come through with the money for the wall or additional border patrol and ICE agents, at least not in the supplemental. So even the additional personnel is down the road. Congress isn't going to come through on Obamacare repeal/replace and they aren't going to ultimately come through with a tax reform plan that will have any meat on the bones. This discourages our business and industry that our country needs to create good jobs, discourages the stock market which is the source of capital for the companies to expand and income for Americans both through direct earnings and retirement incomes to supplement their incomes.

Stock market fell another 138 points yesterday, it's down in the 20,400's, and has lost over 700 points since the Freedom Caucus blew the healthcare vote in the House 3 weeks ago.

ALIPAC Poll: Our endorsement of Trump & His Promise to End DACA
(Please review articles and post your 5 survey answers at this link...)
https://www.alipac.us/f8/alipac-poll...d-daca-346058/

I didn’t vote for Jared and Ivanka: Trump voter upset over family influence

Originally Posted by Judy

The media narrative of "broken promises", "flip-flops"and "reversed positions" is just that, all media and opposition narrative to turn an uncareful and ungrateful base against him, to try to drive him down in the polls, to weaken his authority and thus his ability to work with Congress to get anything important done.

I don't think Congress is going to come through with the money for the wall or additional border patrol and ICE agents, at least not in the supplemental. So even the additional personnel is down the road. Congress isn't going to come through on Obamacare repeal/replace and they aren't going to ultimately come through with a tax reform plan that will have any meat on the bones. This discourages our business and industry that our country needs to create good jobs, discourages the stock market which is the source of capital for the companies to expand and income for Americans both through direct earnings and retirement incomes to supplement their incomes.

Stock market fell another 138 points yesterday, it's down in the 20,400's, and has lost over 700 points since the Freedom Caucus blew the healthcare vote in the House 3 weeks ago.

I agree that the media is always quick to demoralize the people who put him to office. The difference between his sudden reversals on NATO and Russia and his immigration policy, for example, is that the media also condemns his immigration policy. It is not doing that with his reversal on NATO and Russia, it heartily approves of the bombing of Syria and the accompanying displays of hostility towards Russia.

I think Trump's DACA problems with his supporters is weaker than the compelling evidence from the media and his opposition that something has changed dramatically in US handling of illegal immigration.

But this thing with the Russians is pretty dramatic to me, dramatic enough to suggest that his immigration promises will break down similarly. I am ready to justify my vote for him exclusively on the fact that we don't have to worry about Cruz in the White House for four years, but he may have another shot in 2020, a chilling thought.

Trump didn't have a sudden reversal on NATO. This NATO thing has been going on for almost 2 years, during the campaign. The two issues Trump had with NATO, have been solved by NATO. He wanted a counter-terrorism unit and a focus on that, they now have one or are busily putting one together, and the money thing, which as it turns out involves less than $1 billion total budget for NATO, all the countries contribute to that, no one owes any money there to anyone, the issue was their own defense spending which they've promised to correct by 2024, some sooner, some later. So Trump got what he wanted on NATO, that's why to him at least, it's all good now.

Trump hasn't changed his position on Russia. You'll see. Stay tuned.

I believe that America should improve relations with Russia. Remember the Crimea vote? MSNBC, and the rest reported the facts, then the next day Obama said he would never believe the election was fail and binding (sounds like the democrats now claiming Trump didn't win) and like obedient servants they are, the mainstream media sided with Obama. Ukraine problems go back many years to after WWII and Stalin moved the Western border of Russia some miles into the Ukraine, making many ethnic Slavs Ukraine residents. The Russians have been treated terribly and finally had enough. It would be compared to if we moved our southern border further south and Mexico abused the Americans. We would probably intervene support the Americans. Also, the rightful leader of Ukraine was ousted and a Ukraine oligarth took power. Oligarths became rich when the Soviet union fell in 1990. They borrowed money from American banks and bought up factories, land, oil and everything else belonging to the Russian people for just pennies on the dollar. They murdered anyone who tried to go against them and became billionaires overnight. An example is oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who did this to obtain Yukos oil, only he refused to pay taxes on his income and went to jail. Putin came to power and has worked since to counter the abuse and turn Russia around, making the country proud and powerful again. The problem though is Obama still lived in the cold war mentality, as do many American political leaders today and labeled Russia an enemy of America. Many American companies have invested in Russia and Obama sanctions have turned the people against our country so they lost money. President Trump needs to meet with Putin and improve relations for the good of both countries and the world. The enemy of the West is ISIS and Islamic Terror, not Russia.

Oh, I so totally and 100% agree with every word, WilliamHack! Thank you for the nice and to me, accurate post. The anti-Russia scam is a hoax of monumental proportion and Trump has figured out a way to bust it wide open. Stay tuned.