Wall Street Journal
By Rebecca Ballhaus
August 25, 2015
Donald Trump‘s most ardent supporters have made up their minds, and there’s nothing he can do to make them stop supporting him.
In
a two-hour-long focus group session here Monday night, hosted by GOP
pollster Frank Luntz, a group of Trump backers were asked to watch video
clips of some of Mr. Trump’s
less presidential moments.
There was the time that Mr. Trump began wrestling fellow billionaire Vince McMahon. “Funny,” participants said.
When he called comedian Rosie O’Donnell “fat” and “ugly,” and suggested she go to rehab. “She attacked him first.”
Even
when he criticized Arizona Sen. John McCain‘s time as a prisoner of war
in Vietnam, saying he prefers “people who weren’t captured.”
“I
don’t think he was necessarily trying to insult him,” said Kristie, 44.
(Participants’ last names were withheld by the focus group organizers.)
To
be sure, the majority of the group’s 29 participants said they reacted
negatively to Mr. Trump’s comments about Mr. McCain, which were widely
condemned by both parties.
But of every controversial utterance by Mr. Trump that was aired for
the group—including lines like, “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps
I’d be dating her” and “You dropped to your knees? That must be a pretty
picture”—the McCain remark was the only one
participants appeared to find even remotely unsettling.
Even
when reminded that Mr. Trump has over the years shifted his views on
several key issues, including health care and immigration, and that he
has supported his fair
share of Democrats, his backers could not be deterred.
“In the last 15 years, how many times have you guys changed your minds about something?” Brent, 32, asked the room.
“Nothing
disqualifies Trump,” Mr. Luntz told reporters after the session
concluded. Participants liked Mr. Trump with an intensity he was
unaccustomed to seeing in focus
groups about presidential candidates, he said.
The
focus group included 17 women and 12 men, ages 32 to 71, who were paid
$100 each to attend. A plurality graduated college and earned an income
of more than $100,000.
The majority—23—were white; three were black and three were Hispanic.
All participants live in the Northern Virginia area.
In
a focus group Mr. Luntz conducted after the first GOP debate earlier
this month, 14 of 23 participants said they liked Mr. Trump before the
debate. After, just three
said they liked him, and many cited his refusal to endorse the eventual
Republican nominee and his general demeanor as the reason for their
shift.
In
Virginia, at the core of many participants’ support for Mr. Trump
appears to be a desire to stick it to the Republican Party
establishment. “We’ve got to teach them
a lesson,” says Rhiannon, 66 years old. “They treat us like crap … They
do nothing and then they expect us to vote again.”
They
plan to stay behind Mr. Trump, whether he runs as a Republican or not.
Asked whom they would vote for if Texas Sen. Ted Cruz—also popular among
the party’s most conservative
wing—were the GOP nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
the Democratic nominee, and Mr. Trump running as an independent, 21 of
the 29 participants chose Mr. Trump. If the GOP nomination were won by
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush or Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker—all in the top tier of the
field—19 said they would still choose Mr. Trump running as an
independent.
Perhaps
the most unexpected Trump supporter in the room was Elizabeth, 48, an
American citizen born in Mexico who moved to the U.S. many years ago and
applied for citizenship.
Mr. Luntz himself is surprised when he finds out she’s an enthusiastic
Trump supporter. (Some members of the group were more on the fence than
others.) The room cheers at his discovery.
When
Elizabeth first heard Mr. Trump’s widely criticized remarks about
illegal immigration, in which he referred to Mexicans as “rapists,” she
says she went out and bought
a Donald Trump piñata. Now, she says, she doesn’t know what to do with
it. She no longer wants to smash it.
Elizabeth
says she has come around to Mr. Trump’s message because she realizes it
is not aimed at her. “I did everything right,” she says, though she
notes it took “years”
to become a citizen because the government lost her documents. “I
believe that he’s a patriot,” she adds. “He loves America. He said let’s
make America great again.”
The
pro-Trump sets concerns range from the typical—national security, debt,
border security—to the less so. Nine of the 29 say they question
President Barack Obama’s U.S.
citizenship. At least 16 think Mr. Obama doesn’t love America.
Carissa, 33 and a mother of two, says children are being raised to be weak. “Everyone gets a trophy,” she complains.
Others
are perturbed at how the Civil War is being taught in classrooms.
“They’re only told one side of the story,” says Suzanne, 44, that it’s
“about slavery, period.”
As
the session concludes, Mr. Luntz asks participants whether they feel
better or worse about their candidate. Jennifer, 42 and the owner of a
luxury pet care boutique,
had said at the start of the session that she had some concerns about
Mr. Trump’s remarks about women.
Two
hours later, that unease appears to have been alleviated. “Part of my
concern is whoever the candidate we have to be more unifying,” she says.
“I’m walking out tonight
thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, he might be that unifying candidate.’”
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