If you’re not impressed with Donald Trump’s presidency so far, you’re not alone. Gallup’s latest polling says just 39 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s performance, compared to 56 percent who don't. But in certain places — even right here in deep-blue Massachusetts — they have a very different take.
Last November, the town of Saugus was the closest community to Boston to vote for Donald Trump. His margin was pretty big: Trump got 51 percent of the vote there, compared to Hillary Clinton’s 45.
Recently, I stopped by the Iron Town Diner at the height of the lunchtime rush to ask Trump voters how they feel about his performance so far.
The short answer? They feel pretty good.
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"I’m not saying he’s perfect — nobody’s perfect — but I believe he truly wants to make America better," Saugus resident Donna DeVito told me. "That's my opinion."
"Am I going to get in trouble?" she quipped. "Am I going to go to jail?"
DeVito is specially impressed by Trump's efforts to ban travel from several primarily Muslim countries.
"It has nothing to do with Muslims," she said. "It has to do with the safety of America."
Also getting DeVito’s stamp of approval: Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court — and what she describes as a major shift in tone from his predecessor.
"You know, when President Obama was in, he was always apologizing for America," she said. "We’ve done a lot of good, too — I mean, compared to Third World countries and what have you."
As you might expect, DeVito also believes the media isn’t giving Trump a fair shake. As she puts it, "They're not giving the man a chance."
Army vet Nick Altieri is equally bullish on the president. He said Trump is doing a “great job," and that he’s especially impressed by Trump’s work ethic.
"Right away, even before he was sworn in, he went to work try to get jobs for this country, and that is a wonderful, wonderful thing," Altieri said. "He’s a workhorse, that’s the way I see it."
And if Saugus is any indication, Trump die-hards won’t blame the president if the effort to replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, doesn’t work out. When Saugus resident Walter Stephenson told me his insurance premiums could rise around 200 percent, I asked him if he holds Trump at all responsible for that possibility.
"No," he replied. "I think Congress has not got their act together."
Affection for Trump in Saugus is not universal, however. On the patio at Kane’s Donuts, Thomas Smith tells me that entire families are divided by politics right now — including his own.
"Half of my family — I’ve got a big family — half of my family is for Trump," he says. "Same thing with my wife. She’s lived in Saugus her whole life, she’s got a big family, half of them are for Trump. ... It’s kind of got [so that] in the family, you can’t even talk."
Smith voted for Hillary Clinton. He described Trump as “crazy” and "a liar," and predicted he’ll be out of the White House before his term is up.
Asked why so many of his neighbors voted the way they did, Smith seemed genuinely pained.
"Saugus was always Democrat, as far as I knew," he said. "I think [Trump] promised everybody everything."
There's another political category here in Saugus: the reluctant Trump voter who’s not ready to pass judgment just yet.
"I like the idea of job creation," said Bob Long, who moderated Saugus's town meeting for 18 years. "I have a son-in-law who’s a machinist. I have a grandson, the oldest one, who’s a machinist. ... You want these jobs! People feel good when they get up and go to work."
But Long also worked at MIT for three and a half decades. He said he’s worried about the effect Trump’s budget could have on the innovation economy in Cambridge and beyond.
"You go over to Kendall Square, and you see that tremendous buildup over there of biomedical and research ... and you see it also developing on the other side of Boston, in the [Seaport]," Long says. "You see that, and now you hear talk about cutting NIH money?"
And, Long added, he'd love to see Trump stop tweeting.
Back at the Iron Town Diner, Donna DeVito said she'd be okay with a bit less presidential tweeting, too. But she also said that Trump’s critics ought to back off.
"A lot of times I wish he didn't tweet, you know, things that people take offense to," she said. "But on the other hand, it seems to me that all of the things he tries to do, people seem to pick apart, especially the media.
"If he does something wrong, that’s one thing. But give him a chance to lead the country. If falls apart, it can’t be any worse than it’s been."
