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President Trump is one year into his second term at a moment when many scholars and historians and a growing number of voters say Trump has wielded power in ways that are shaking the foundations of American democracy. We wanted to hear how some of Trump's core supporters view his performance so far, so we sent NPR's Brian Mann on a road trip through conservative counties in the eastern U.S.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: It is a messy, gray, snowy winter morning, and I'm heading first on this trip to Elkton, Maryland, a little town that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. The goal today, through what really is Trump country, is to talk to people, to ask how they feel about how this is going.
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MANN: The town's Main Street is mostly empty, but I find Ann Marie Hamilton working in an office and arts nonprofit. She loves President Trump.
ANN MARIE HAMILTON: I want to be proud of him, and I was the first time he was in office.
MANN: Right away, I hear this deep, personal loyalty, but also uncertainty. For Hamilton, the big question in Trump's second term is affordability, grocery prices and her electric bill.
HAMILTON: Prices are high enough that it stings like crazy. Like, you know, he ran his campaign, and we're all like, yay. And yay didn't happen yet.
MANN: I ask if Hamilton sees any Democratic leaders offering better ideas, and she shakes her head. She tells me the Democratic brand is dead.
HAMILTON: Yeah, broken. Nothing's resonating.
AUTOMATED VOICE: Seven twenty-seven east.
MANN: My next stop is Milford, a little town in Pike County, a place so conservative some locals call it Trump County, Pennsylvania. Like my other stops, Milford is mostly rural and overwhelmingly white. There's a nasty snowstorm, so the downtown is empty, but I find a little diner, where one of the waitresses, Tina Howell, tells me she thinks Trump is great, but she thinks he's focusing too much overseas.
TINA HOWELL: He needs to start worrying about America first.
MANN: What about the question of affordability? Have you started to feel any real improvement there?
HOWELL: No. Nothing. I think it's getting tighter, actually, for people. Around here it is, in this town.
MANN: So some real criticism. But Howell, too, says the Democratic Party isn't offering her choices. She can't name a single Democrat she likes or trusts. It's important to say my approach on this road trip isn't scientific. I'm spending time with random Trump voters in conservative towns. A poll released yesterday by YouGov and The Economist found 1 in 4 Republican voters think the country is on the wrong track under Trump. And I hear some of those doubts. But broadly, people tell me they're comfortable with Trump's use of federal power, including his controversial crackdown on immigrants.
My final stop is Whitehall in Washington County, New York, where two-thirds of voters backed Trump in the last election. I meet Frank Juckett, a former Marine, outside the American Legion Hall. He says Trump is an improvement over the Democrats and Joe Biden.
FRANK JUCKETT: Better than what we had.
MANN: OK. So report card - what's your grade?
JUCKETT: A B+.
MANN: Pretty much so far, so good.
JUCKETT: So far.
MANN: While we talk, Juckett echoes many criticisms of Trump, saying he, too, wants the president focused on domestic issues and the economy, not things like Greenland and Venezuela. Juckett tells me he sees Trump as a bully. At one point, he compares Trump's style to that of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
JUCKETT: If they're really good and crooked, things get done. And if they're not, they get stepped on.
MANN: So the fact that he's kind of a rough character, that's a good thing.
JUCKETT: Yes, I think so.
MANN: So here's the takeaway. After this first year, many people in Trump's base talk about him critically. I hear skepticism, questions, even some harsh judgments of Trump's character. Several people tell me they want less chaos, less drama. But I also hear deep distrust of the Democrats, and every Trump voter I talked to while in these conservative rural counties say they're willing to give him more time to make their lives better.
Brian Mann, NPR News in Whitehall, New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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