President Donald Trump supporters rally in Georgetown

On a small stage in a Georgetown park festooned with flags and booming with patriotic music, President Donald Trump's supporters spoke their minds and didn't care who heard.

It was Saturday morning, and they were there for the Sussex County Republican Committee's "Support Our President" rally.

They came out swinging.

"He's doing the best job he can do. He's got the Republicans working against him. He's got the Democrats working against him," said rallygoer Bob Skonier of Bethany Beach. "He's basically on his own, but he's going to succeed no matter what they do."

Here, the president got the praise and the ones his supporters call adversaries — the media, both major parties, foreign nations, illegal immigrants and antifa — got only jabs.

The man who chaired Trump's campaign in Delaware was the first to take the stage, and he promised the audience they'd been heard.

"We got the attention of the White House. They know what's going on in Delaware," said Sussex County Councilman Rob Arlett. "President Trump knows what's going on in the great state of Delaware because our elected officials forgot."

Sussex County proved Trump's Delaware stronghold during the contentious 2016 presidential race, in which the mogul's blunt speaking endeared him to a part of the First State that long felt left out of the political equation.

The president lost Delaware in the election by claiming only 41.7 percent of the total vote, but he won both Sussex and Kent. Now that he's won the White House, his diehard fans see criticisms only as a pile-on and sour grapes.

"The opposition to our president tells us just how deeply rooted the enemies of our free society has become. We now have a man in the White House determined to stop this assault and to drain the swamp," said Sussex GOP Vice Chairman Don Petitmermet, reading from a letter sent to the rally by state Sen. Bryant Richardson.

The rally came at a time when Trump's still young presidency is being shaken by FBI inquiries, fallout from his response to a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, and fights he's picked with leaders of both parties.

The president's approval ratings are low. FiveThirtyEight and Gallup most recently reported polling that shows 38 percent of Americans approve and 56 percent disapprove of the president's performance.

More: CDC intervention plan for Wilmington teen violence lacks political will

But at the Georgetown rally, speakers stood on a red-white-and-blue stage flanked by flying flags and exclaimed their approval. Rallygoers waved their own signs and flags proudly, and they chimed in with shouts of support throughout the speeches.

There were more than 100 of them altogether, a turnout that surely earned the smiles gracing the faces of cardboard cut-outs of the president and his wife as they presided over the rally near a large inflatable elephant.

"They're just people asking to make America great again. That's what I want," said rallygoer Dan Tidwell. "I don't think this country is on track. It's got a bit of a mess right now. I'd like to see some of those things straightened out, I really would."

Supporters said they're as besieged as their president, and so the event was as much a pep rally for them as it was for Trump. They praised the president to the hilt.

His appointment of conservatives to the Cabinet and the U.S. Supreme Court, his recent decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, falling unemployment, ending executive orders — if the president did it, odds are it satisfied them.

"Trump just had everything right on. After I listened to him in all the primaries, I just started to really trust him," said Marian Swett, a rallygoer from the Milford area.

Swett is one of the country's Republicans who believes even her own party establishment has gone adrift from its moorings. Trump's presidential campaign changed the minds — and voter registrations — of many like her.

"The reason why we're having this rally is because some of the people that registered as Republicans who were Democrats and independents felt as though we were not supporting the president, and thus weren't supporting their decision to become Republicans," said Sussex GOP Chairman Billy Carroll.

More: Hurricane Irma: Authorities beg Florida Keys residents to evacuate in few remaining hours

At the rally, a man walked through the crowd with a sign that read: "Say no to anti-semitism and racism." His decision to protest in silence was broken only by friendly chats with rallygoers, who firmly agreed with that message.

But across the street on private property, three people waved their own messages to passing cars. There was no love for the president on that side of the road.

"They need to be able to justify their support, and I don't think there's any reason they can support him," said Georgetown resident Charles Mead-e. "He is the worst president that we have ever had."

On that street Saturday, though, Mead-e's opinion was the minority.

"I believe in Trump," said rallygoer Joan Carmine. "I just think he's doing an outstanding job, and I would like to be a part of it."

Contact Adam Duvernay at aduvernay@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2785. Follow on Twitter @DuvinDE.