Yes, they think President Trump‘s lying about Stormy Daniels. And no, they really do not care.
Americans who voted for the president say they don’t believe his denial of the adult film star’s claim that she had a 2006 affair with Trump, the same year that Melania Trump gave birth to their son Barron. But that hasn’t tempered their sky-high support for the president. Neither has the Russia investigation into possible collusion tied to Trump, which they see as an increasingly transparent charade that’s wasting tax dollars and distracting from his agenda.
That’s according to the USA TODAY Trump Voter Panel, a free-floating focus group of 25 people nationwide who cast ballots for the president and now weigh in on the his performance every few months.
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At 16 months into his presidency, many call December’s sweeping tax overhaul his biggest achievement. About as many peg the GOP’s failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act as Trump’s biggest defeat, a prime example of the bipartisan opposition they believe has so far hamstrung his presidency.
The legal maelstroms tied to Russia and the alleged affair don’t help, they say.
“I’m not in the man’s pants. I don’t know what he did when he pulled them down,” Monty Chandler, a disabled veteran from Church Point, La., says of Daniel’s claims. “The only evidence is her, the hush money. We’re human. We all sin. And he tried to cover it up.”
He’s equally dismissive of the Russia-related allegations, echoing Trump’s descriptor of the investigation as a “witch hunt.”
Trump enjoys an approval of 90% among Chandler and others on the panel, made up of respondents to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll in December 2016. That’s yet to waver through six check-ins — a stability that, if reflected in supporters nationwide, suggests a political security for a president remaking the GOP in his own image.
Already, Republicans running for re-election largely refuse to criticize Trump, and supporters on the panel have seemed to dig in as the man they backed faces legal challenges on seemingly every side.
“Once you’re a believer and supporter, you stay with who you believe is going to do everything correct,” says JoAnne Musial of Canadensis, Penn. “He’s going through hell, I’ll tell you that: I know of no other human in office who could go through what he’s going through.”
Others aren’t so sure.
“I’m certainly trying to approve, but he’s making it increasingly difficult,” says Pat Jolliff of Rochester, Ind. “I’m still hanging on with him, but it’s getting frustrating.”
When it comes to Daniels, who filed a defamation lawsuit Monday against Trump, men largely expressed a lack of shock. Trump, an affair? Par for course.
“We know he’s no angel, and he didn’t become a multi-billionaire because he’s a nice guy,’ says John Moon of Kamas, Utah. “I got over the shock of presidential affairs after Kennedy and Clinton.”
Fifteen of the respondents say they think Trump had a tryst with Daniels, with three saying he did not and three still unsure. Four did not respond. Of the panel’s seven women, six belive Trump stepped out on his wife, with several chalking it up to “boys will be boys” behavior.
“That’s what powerful men do,” says Deidra Brady in Broadway, N.C.
“This is typical behavior of a lot of men in powerful positions,” says Margie Chandler of Old Monroe, Mo.
“I hate to say this, but it’s a male thing,” laments Patricia Shomion of Mount Gilead, Ohio. “I think he’s mostly lying to himself, that he can’t bring himself out to say, ‘Well, I did, but it’s gone.'”
And while most believe Trump had an affair over 10 years ago, virtually none find that relevant to his presidency: Just one claimed the scandal had put a dent in their support.
They’re equally dismissive of the investigation by Robert Mueller, the special counsel examining Russian interference, possible Kremlin collusion with Trump’s campaign and possible obstruction of justice by Trump himself. Nineteen called the probe mostly partisan. The same amount think no collusion occured at all.
“Given the resources and time put into the investigation, it is time to conclude and report out,” says Barney Carter, a medical device account manager from St. Marys, Ga. “The longer it goes on and the further it drifts from anything to do with Russia, the more it shows itself as a political attack on President Trump.”
“Once more, he’s a businessman,” says Musial. “You think he’s not going to have talked to Russians? Come on. Did he collude? No. Won’t believe it for a moment.”
Just two say the Russia scandal has hampered their support, including Duane Gray, a truck driver from Boise and the only panelist who thinks some collusion took place.
“If there wasn’t something to look after, he wouldn’t be so defensive — firing people, replacing them and still landing in trouble,” Gray says. “That makes me question the whole situation … It’s just strange.”
A third of respondents praised the tax overhaul as Trump’s biggest achievement in an open-ended question. But voters proved more vocal about what they saw as holding him back from more accomplishments, specifically the unwillingness of Democrats and certain Republicans to rally around the man these voters helped put into power.
“The President’s biggest achievement so far would have to be survival,” says Daniel Kohn, a retiree in Corpus Christi, Texas. “Beyond that I would say of course the tax cut package that is a big blessing to millions of folks — just like me and you.”
Rick Dammer, an an IT manager in Zephyrhills, Fla., says Republicans “won’t rally around him like they should a Republican president because he is an outsider. It’s hampered him from getting certain things done he wanted to, but I expected that when he was elected anyways.”
Keely Vazquez, a small-business owner in St. Paul, Minn., doesn’t see Trump’s gridlock improving: “The old guard won’t go along as they should, and that is going to be a problem with the midterm elections looming so soon.”
A third called Trump’s congressional opposition the biggest disappointment of his presidency, with slightly less citing his inability to steward a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
“He is probably most disappointed by the failure to move with any health care legislation,” says Anne-Marie Smith, a computer analyst in Monsey, N.Y. “I am most disappointed with the constant distractions caused by the media war. “
Still, even beset with historically low approval ratings, multiple scandals and opposition from both parties, most respondents — 16, or 76% — say history will ultimately judge Trump’s presidency as good or even great. Two think he’ll be remembered as fair, and two as failed.
“History’s view of President Trump will be as bifurcated as today’s current view of him,” Carter says. “There is very little chance that he will be memorialized positively through core historians, but I’m okay with that.”
