Trump voters have buyer's remorse in North Carolina focus group

Wearing her "Adorable Deplorable" tee, Deanne Payn, center, with Sheila Ponce, left, take part in a pro-President Donald Trump rally in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Saturday, March 25, 2017. The women are retired Sheriff deputies. A scuffle later broke out between pro-Trump supporters and counter-protesters. (Mindy Schauer/The Orange County Register via AP) less Wearing her "Adorable Deplorable" tee, Deanne Payn, center, with Sheila Ponce, left, take part in a pro-President Donald Trump rally in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Saturday, March 25, 2017. The women are ... more Photo: Mindy Schauer, Associated Press Photo: Mindy Schauer, Associated Press Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Trump voters have buyer's remorse in North Carolina focus group 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Republican women who voted for President Donald Trump in North Carolina said during a focus group Wednesday night that they are embarrassed by and exasperated with him.

Annie Anthony, 56, voted for Trump last year because she opposes abortion and did not like how Hillary Clinton handled Benghazi. Now she fears that Trump is marching us toward war with North Korea. She describes the first 10 months of his presidency as "chaotic, stressful and an uphill battle."

"While I thought his ideas appealed to me, since he's been in there he's embarrassed me by his behavior," said Anthony, a divorced college graduate who runs a local nonprofit volunteer center and drives for Uber to make ends meet. "He behaves so unpresidential. The words he uses. The tweeting. I mean, he dresses nice. And Melania is looking good. When he was away (in Asia), he was great at being a president. He's the showman. But here at home, I can't imagine how they let him build a country club - let alone be in one. Because adults don't behave that way. I've been surprised that a billionaire would behave the way he has . . .

"I don't have a problem with him tweeting," she continued. "I follow him because I want to see what he's saying myself and not have someone interpret it for me. But I think that his language is unprofessional. He uses words like 'sad' and 'bad.' That's first grade language. We're an intelligent population who elected you. Represent us!"

Anthony, a registered Republican, remains hopeful that Congress will soon pass tax cuts, but she's nervous that they'll take away the deduction for charitable donations. She's also worried that, if her health insurance rates continue to go up, she won't be able to afford to go see the doctor any more. (She makes less than $50,000 a year.)

Looking ahead to the midterms, she offered an ominous warning for the GOP: "I think the swamp is still full. I might be voting to drain that swamp some more."

Veteran pollster Peter Hart organized the two-hour-and-15-minute session in Wilmington for Emory University. Five independents, four Republicans and three Democrats participated. The Washington Post was invited to observe.

Coinciding with Trump's 300th day in office, the wide-ranging conversation with a cross section of voters in a swing state illuminated why Trump's job approval rating nationally is at 37 percent in Gallup's daily tracking poll. In the history of polling, no president has ever had a 57 percent disapproval rating at this stage of his presidency.

When Hart asked for one word or phrase to describe Trump, the group initially erupted in laughter. Only two of 12 said something positive ("bold" and "fights back"). The others called him incompetent, a baffling fool, childlike, a loose cannon, an immature narcissist and ignorant.

Emily Bell, a 32-year-old occupational therapist who voted for Trump, described him as rude and stressful. "I feel like he told people that he had all these big ideas and big plans, and it just seems to kind of roll to something else. It's like nothing is ever accomplished," said Bell, who is married and has a postgraduate degree. "I'm going to stay optimistic, but I lean more toward being independent. Really it will come down (in 2020) to who I can trust more."

Melissa Hight, a 62-year-old married retiree who has a postgraduate degree and voted for Trump, used the word "antagonistic" to describe him. "I had high hopes, but he just goes about things in a way that gets everybody's back up against the wall," she lamented. "He doesn't facilitate working together. He comes out with these grandiose ideas, and there's no follow through. It's a lot of talk. . . . He hasn't acted presidential at all. The tweets bother me. They may be enlightening to some people. I'm not a tweeter. But to me, firing off these tweets is just childish. . . . He should be above that. . . . I will call a spade a spade because I'm a conservative more than a Republican."

Only one of the 12 participants emerged as an unapologetic defender of the president. Cynthia Layton, a 64-year-old nurse, said she loves Trump's tweets. "I like him because he talks like my neighbor talks to me," she explained. "I don't need an elitist person talking down to me. The media does not give an honest opinion. That's why I turned off cable 10 years ago. I read my sites. I listen to his tweets. . . . That's how I hear from him. The media doesn't tell you what's going on, so you have to find out what's going on on your own. . . . To me, I think his tweets are simply what he honestly feels because he uses white and black language and doesn't give you all these flowery descriptions about everything. I appreciate that he's direct and tells it like it is."

Hart is a Democrat, but he plays it very straight when he moderates these focus groups and never tries to tip the scales. The sessions he convened before the presidential election always wound up underscoring Hillary Clinton's weaknesses, for instance.

Trump carried North Carolina by four pointslast year. With 15 electoral votes, the Tar Heel State was a hotly contested battleground and will be again in 2020. Barack Obama won here in 2008, and Mitt Romney picked it off in 2012.

The economy and health care were the issues that everyone cared about most. Seven of the 12 participants said they think Trump is doing a good job on the economy; 10 said he's not doing a good job at addressing racial tensions.

Asked to name their top concerns, no one mentioned Russian interference or the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who got reelected last year, is leading one of the inquiries into Moscow's meddling as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Hart had a lightning round in which he asked everyone to say the first word that came to mind when they heard a politician's name.

All 12 used a negative word to describe Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell. Two said spineless. Others said sleazy, insecure, incompetent and narcissistic.

About half the group hadn't heard about Roy Moore. Those who were familiar with the Alabama story called him troubled, a scumbag and disgusting. The sole exception was Layton, who called him a scapegoat.

The room remained quite downbeat aboutClinton. Participants described her as annoying, crooked, a thief, outmatched, troubled, despicable and a sore loser.

Interestingly, Joe Biden received widespread praise as savvy, smart, nice and level-headed.

The focus group really underscored the extent to which the deep unease that propelled Trump's victory a year ago has only gotten worse. Asked for one word to describe the state of America today, the answers were chaotic, tornado, backwards, troubled, disrupted, fearful, anxious and embarrassing. Only Layton used a positive word: "Improving."

Hart prompted everyone to name the last president who they think united the country. For the most part, the Democrats said Obama and the Republicans said Reagan. Someone picked John F. Kennedy. No one named George W. Bush or Bill Clinton.

Then he told everyone to imagine that that they have a magic wand and could take a positive quality from a former president and transfer it over to Trump. What would it be? The answers included Reagan's sense of humor, JFK's grace under pressure, Abraham Lincoln's ability to bring the country back together and Obama's professionalism.

The 2020 election is not for three years, which is an eternity in politics. There were some signs that Trump has not completely depleted the reservoir of goodwill among the folks who voted for him.

Michael Leimone, 41, cooks pizzas at a chain restaurant and backed Trump last year. Asked to describe how the presidency has gone, he used the words "whirlwind" and "vacant." "He's not been there when you needed him to be there," he said. "After Charlottesville and (the hurricanes), he was out doing other stuff."

Leimone - who is married, has kids at home and didn't go to college - added later that he still thinks Trump is probably doing a better job than Clinton would have. "We kind of knew what we were getting with him," he said. "He's kind of a loose cannon - I don't like that - but what we've had for years and years - not just Obama, but leading up to that - they weren't getting the job done in terms of leading the country. So he's still better than the alternative of a career politician."

He said he remains optimistic. "I expected a lot out of him . . . but nobody can do it all," said Leimone. "He has a harder road because everyone hates him, not just the Democrats. He still has a lot of time to prove himself."

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The Washington Post's Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve.