Donald Trump is a loudmouth who has never spent a day in public office. And that is why his supporters want him to be president.

The controversial billionaire’s rise in polls regarding the Republican field has been met by the chattering classes with a sense of shock and disgust. Trump has been tabloid fodder for decades, for a colorful personal life, a propensity for outlandish statements and, of course, his hair.

But as Republican candidates back away from him over his remarks about Mexico and immigrants, and corporate partners cut business ties, Trump has rocketed in the polls. The very qualities that earn the former host of The Celebrity Apprentice the scorn of media and political elites cause many everyday voters to embrace him.

This week, nearly 200 people gathered around a backyard pool in Bedford, New Hampshire, a leafy and well-to-do suburb of Manchester. They were there to hear Trump deliver an hour of stream-of-consciousness remarks on subjects ranging from highway guardrails to immigration reform. To them, Trump wasn’t a blowhard or a borderline racist. He was a potential savior.

To those present, Trump’s biggest asset was his business experience, which has seen him build a property and business empire – and never personally declare bankruptcy – and write a longtime bestseller, Trump: the Art of the Deal.

Fred Doucette, a first-term state representative from Salem, told the Guardian: “I have faith in this man and his business mind. And that’s the way the country needs to be run, as a business.”

In particular, Doucette thought Trump’s business knowhow would give him an advantage negotiating trade deals.

“I have more faith in his people negotiating a deal with China than I do with some of the politicians that are worried about their next election cycle – as well as in stopping illegal immigration,” Doucette said.

On another key Trump issue, in Doucette’s opinion, “we need true immigration reform, period, and who can build a wall better than Donald Trump?”

Doucette said he had long held an interest in Trump. Once the businessman announced his candidacy, he said, “I said: ‘I’m all in – you’ve got a soldier in Fred Doucette.’”

Others also cited Trump’s business experience.

“He’s a smart businessman and that’s what we need,” said Barb Grennon of Manchester, New Hampshire. Jimmy Kyriakoutsakos, also of Manchester, touted Trump as “just a superior businessman” and noted he had liked The Celebrity Apprentice star for years, “as a person and a celebrity”.

John Heikel, a car mechanic and former state representative, said no one could be a better chief executive “of the United States corporation”.

He asked: “What better CEO do we have than someone who has amassed a fortune in a business structure like he has?”

But for many others, the attraction to Trump wasn’t just that he was a businessman. It was that he was not even a politician.

James Connolly, a young and sideburned volunteer from North Andover, Massachusetts, said: “He’s not a politician, so I don’t really expect him to be making empty promises.”

His sentiments were echoed by Heikel, who said: “My criteria this time is someone who is not a career politician and maybe not even an attorney.”

To Heikel, the fact that Trump “is the only candidate that hasn’t run for a federal office or any other office” was one of his big assets.

I talk to a lot of people. He’s saying things they wish they could say but they can’t because it’s not PC Fred Doucette

The attendee with the most pronounced distaste for politicians was Grennon, who went so far as to say: “I’ve had it with politicians.” She added: “If he isn’t the nominee, this will be the first time in my life that I won’t vote.”

Supporters brushed off Trump’s tendency to make controversial comments, including the costly contention that undocumented immigrants crossing the border between the US and Mexico were “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

To state representative Stephen Stepanek, a veteran New Hampshire Republican activist, Trump “says things that most people want to say but are afraid to say”. Stepanek added that Trump was “the type of person who will call it the way it is and he’s not going to pander to make comments to please this constituency and that constituency.

“He’s going to call it the way it is,” he repeated.

Doucette agreed. He said: “In the feedback I get, and I talk to a lot of people, he’s saying things that they wish they could say but they can’t because it’s not PC to say that. Maybe he should have chosen his words differently, maybe he shouldn’t have.

“The truth is we’re getting illegals in this country, drugs are flowing over that border and we need to slam it closed.”

Perhaps the most passionate Trump supporter was Sean Van Anglen, a 22-year-old whose parents were hosting the event. Van Anglen, a golfer who hosts a YouTube show about cigars, was a self-described “lifelong admirer of Mr Trump” who said he had “been pushing for him to run since 2010”.

As Van Anglen recounted it, his interest in Trump caused conflict with his fifth-grade teacher.

“They wanted me to read the other books in the curriculum,” he said. “Meanwhile, I was reading [Trump’s] books.”

Van Anglen’s adoration left him “the odd man out”, he said. “I was always the kid who came in with a couple of Trump books in hand. I was always reading them in English class and my book reports were on certain chapters of those books.”

Van Anglen was able to cite chapter and verse from Trump’s oeuvre, to illustrate the real estate mogul’s fitness for the White House. The 22-year-old said those wavering about supporting Trump’s candidacy should read his most recent book, which is entitled Think Big and Kick Ass. That book showed, he said, that Trump was “someone who thinks big and gets results. He just doesn’t talk. He just doesn’t make statements.”

The 22-year-old was prepared for every possible argument. To Van Anglen, even Trump’s repeated brushes with bankruptcy were assets.

“You’ll see other people say, well, he’s been bankrupt four times,” he said. “That may be true but he’s gotten out of it every single time.”

In fact it is companies linked to Trump that have declared corporate bankruptcy, not Trump himself. Nonetheless, Van Anglen said: “This country’s bankrupt. Who better than to have someone that’s been through that experience?”

Donald Trump and Miss Connecticut USA, Erin Brady, pose in 2013. TV network Univision dropped its coverage of the Miss USA coverage over remarks made by Trump about immigration. Photograph: Jeff Bottari/AP

Trump is likely to receive even more scrutiny in coming days. The Hillary Clinton campaign is expected to go after him, and urge Republican presidential candidates to condemn his comments. However, most already have, including the frontrunner, Jeb Bush – long a particular object of Trump’s scorn.

On Saturday, the former Florida governor told reporters: “I don’t think [Trump] represents the Republican Party. His views are way out of the mainstream.”

It is likely this helps Trump far more than it hurts him. The billionaire has long seemed to feed off any press attention, especially bad press. Almost like the pink slime in Ghostbusters II, he gains strength from negativity, which feeds into his ongoing narrative about media bias.

There are few reporters that Trump is not willing to bash. On the stump on Tuesday, the billionaire called NBC’s Chuck Todd “a real loser” and claimed that CNN didn’t like him because “I want this country to be great and they don’t know about greatness.”

Through this adversarial relationship with the press, the Park Avenue billionaire has become a populist voice of the masses. In Bedford, Robert Olson, an older bespectacled man who was wearing a Trump t-shirt, told the Guardian he was backing the billionaire for one simple reason:

“Because he makes sense.”