Missouri - Many of President Donald Trump's core
political supporters had a simple message on Sunday for the
fiercest opponents of his immigration ban: Calm down.
The relaxed reaction among the kind of voters who drove
Trump's historic upset victory - working- and middle-class
residents of Midwest and the South - provided a striking
contrast to the uproar that has gripped major coastal cities,
where thousands of protesters flocked to airports where
immigrants had been detained.
In the St. Louis suburb of Manchester, Missouri, 72-year-old
Jo Ann Tieken characterised the president as bringing reason
into an overheated debate.
"Somebody has to stand up, be the grown up and see what we
can do better to check on people coming in," she said. "I'm all
for everybody to stop and take a breath Just give it a
chance."
By executive order on Friday, Trump banned immigration from
seven Muslim-majority countries - Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya,
Somalia, Sudan and Yemen - and temporarily halted the entry of
refugees.
In the electoral strongholds for Trump, residents seemed
nonplussed about the uproar flashing across their television
screens. They shrugged off concerns about botched execution,
damage to foreign relations and legal challenges across the
country.
In New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities,
Trump's action set off an outpouring of anger.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from
California, evoked an image of the Statue of Liberty weeping.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York teared up
himself on camera as he seethed over the "mean-spirited and
un-American" immigration ban.
Veterans in government agencies, including the Homeland
Security and State departments, blasted Trump's team for what
they called slipshod planning and scant interagency
communication, criticism the White House rejected.
At airports, security officials also struggled to
consistently enforce vague rules.
But allegations of operational or administrative blunders
may do little to dampen enthusiasm for a president who rose to
power on a populist and protectionist platform, political
analysts said.
Louise Ingram, a 69-year-old retiree from Troy, Alabama,
said she forgave the new administration a few "glitches," such
as widespread confusion over treatment of green card holders, as
it moved to protect US citizens from attacks.
"I'm not opposed to immigrants," she said. "I just want to
make sure they are safe to come in."
A senior Trump administration official said political
considerations had little to do with the executive orders. They
rather represent a reaction to the 2015 mass shooting in San
Bernardino, California; the Boston Marathon bombing; and
multiple attacks by radicalized groups in Europe.
"The reality is that the situation that exists today in
parts of France, Germany and parts of Belgium is not a situation
that we want replicated inside the United States," one official
told Reuters.
Candace Wheater, a 60-year-old retired school cafeteria
worker from Spring Lake, Michigan, also referenced the attacks
in Brussels and Paris.
"Look at what's happening in Europe," she said. "I don't
dare travel there, out of fear."
Steve Hirsch, 63, from Manassas, Virginia, drove to
Washington's Dulles airport on Sunday to pick somebody up,
rather than to protest as hundreds of others did.
He said he supported Trump's order. "A country is not a
country if it doesn't have borders," he added.
He lauded Trump's actions as a calculated step toward the
larger goal of tightening border security.
"He probably went as far as he thought he could," Hirsch
said. "You can't ban everybody in the world, but I think it's
prudent considering the conditions in certain places in the
world."
Trent Lott, a former Senate Republican leader from
Mississippi who is now a lawyer in Washington, DC, said the
orders made sense to "working-class Americans in the real
world."
"Out in the rest of the country, people are excited to see
the president moving forward with securing the border," he said.
University of Virginia political science professor Larry
Sabato agreed that the weekend protests over the executive
orders would not hurt Trump politically.
"His base is as firm as ever," he said. "What he's lost in
the very early polls is the Republicans who were never Trumpers
and ended up voting for Trump."
Trump opponents have succeeded in winning some early court
decisions that could undermine the practical impact of his
executive orders, but Sabato said his base would perceive those
as attacks from liberal elites.
Trump could eventually lose support if he fails to keep
promises important to regions that supported him, such as
delivering jobs to the so-called Rust Belt, the Midwestern
states dotted by dying factory towns.
Whatever Trump ultimately accomplishes, his election has
ushered in a new extreme of political polarization to an already
deeply divided country.
"I just have not found a single person who has any
neutrality at all about Donald Trump," Sabato said.
In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 40-year-old teacher Trista Carles
said she had been ordered to keep her views about Trump out of
the classroom.
"We were told to be Switzerland," she said. "We're not
allowed to take any sides or views."
She has her own opinions, of course, and said she
appreciated that Trump, in his blunt way, gave voice to them
"with no sugar-coating."
"I think it's just too easy to get into our country and stay
illegally," she said. "I feel like he is going to - to the best
of his abilities - make a lot of things he said happen."