toronto mural.JPG
Donald Trump's strongly pro-military, patriotic rhetoric resonated in places like Toronto, Ohio, where this mural adorns a brick building on one of the Jefferson County village's main drags.
(Andrew J. Tobias, cleveland.com)
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- Pro-Donald Trump sentiment is common in Jefferson County, a blue-collar area that straddles Appalachia and the Rust Belt industrial Midwest.
"I think the guy has some great ideas," said Cindi Parrish, a 59-year-old Trump voter from Wintersville. "I think he's the change we need."
But conversations with residents there often reveal more nuanced opinions about Trump, suggesting he doesn't have a blank check in the area, which backed him by a two-to-one margin over Democrat Hillary Clinton, if he doesn't eventually deliver results.
Ohio Matters is a series examining important national issues through the eyes of people living across the state.
One representative view comes from Justin Pratt, a 37-year-old Steubenville resident who holds a sales job in Pittsburgh, roughly a 45-minute drive east.
He said Jefferson County holds traditional views that revere the U.S. military. He said Trump's patriotic, pro-military rhetoric resonated with him in a way that say, ex-President Barack Obama never did.
"At the end of the day, he ran on a platform that makes you feel good about him," said Pratt, who voted for Trump in November. "But now that he's in office, he sort of scares me. Things seem to be escalating quickly."
We asked five Jefferson County voters to grade Trump on his first 100 days in office and explain their reasoning. Here's what they said.
Cindi Parrish
Lives in: Wintersville
Grade: C (but a B+ on foreign policy)
Cindi Parrish, a 59-year-old Trump voter from Wintersville
Parrish, 59, is a registered Democrat and enthusiastic Trump supporter. If her grade seems low, it's because she sees plenty of room for Trump to grow.
"He's struggling," she said. "But it's not his fault. I think the Democrats are giving him a lot of trouble.'
The first thing she praises about Trump's presidency is his decision in early April to bomb a Syrian airbase in retaliation for the U.S. government's conclusion that embattled President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons against his own people. She said the measure sent a powerful message.
"I think he stands up for America. He's not just all talk. He backs up what he says with action," she said.
She said Congress "needs to be shaken up," and supports term limits. But to the extent that she has apprehensions about Trump's presidency, she said it's because of the people he's surrounded himself with. She likes Vice President Mike Pence, but isn't sure about say, Press Secretary Sean Spicer. ("I'm not sure he should be on the front lines," she says.)
"I think he could have surrounded himself with people who could have guided him a little better," she said. "But that's why we elected him. We didn't want politics as usual."
Larry Moore
Lives in: Richmond
Grade: A
Larry Moore, a 65-year-old Trump voter from Richmond
Moore, 65, is a politically conservative retired steelworker. That is to say, he's exactly the kind of voter one would imagine Trump would appeal to.
Asked about Trump, Moore rattled off some of the president's early moves - rolling back EPA regulations on coal waste, issuing incentives to the Carrier plant in Indiana, moving to build a wall on the southern U.S. border and appointing Justice Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court -- as reasons for his support.
"If they could just take care of the healthcare issue. But that's only if the Republican Party would stop fighting itself," he said.
He continues: "If he didn't have the establishment fighting him every day, he'd get even more done. But politicians don't always do what they say they were going to do, and he has. So I'd give him an A."
Like Parrish, Moore also supported Trump's decision to launch airstrikes against Syria.
"I guess the world knows now that they don't have a pushover in office anymore," he said.
Justin Pratt, a 37-year-old Trump voter from Steubenville
Justin Pratt
Lives in: Steubenville
Grade: C/C+
Pratt, 37, is an independent voter who backed Trump over his promises to support the military, and to block illegal immigrants and terrorists from entering the United States.
"I voted for him because he was the closest you could get to a third-party candidate," he said. "A vote for Hillary would have been the same old, same old."
But, he said Trump's handling of Syria and North Korea have startled him. He also said he is concerned over reports that the Trump administration has ceased making White House visitor logs public.
How can Trump improve?
"He ran on a certain platform. And to me it seems like he's straying," Pratt said. "And that makes him more just like another politician. But if he gets back to that, he could show everybody who doubts him, everybody who mocks him that he is capable of being a noteworthy, productive president."
Scott Everly
Lives in: Toronto
Grade: C-
Scott Everly, a 66-year-old Clinton voter from Toronto
Everly, 66, is a retired power plant maintenance worker and Marine Corps veteran who voted for Clinton. While he thinks Trump has some "good ideas," he doesn't think much of his business acumen or grasp of world affairs. He also expects that an ongoing FBI investigation into connections between the Russian government and Trump's campaign associations will continue to expand, and serve as a pall over Trump's presidency.
"I think people around here are looking for change," said Everly, who lives on a house boat on the Ohio River. "But they backed the wrong horse."
Everly said if Trump wants to turn things around, he will have to modify his approach to dealing on Capitol Hill.
"He's not been able to pull together a coalition in Congress. Not just with Republicans, you have to be willing to work across the aisle," he said. "But nothing's getting done. And if that doesn't change, there's going to be a big change in 2018, because nobody's working."
He added: "When it comes to elections, it's not 'Who am I voting for?" It's 'Who's getting fired?'"
Merica Petrella, a 64-year-old Trump voter from Steubenville
Merica Petrella
Lives in: Steubenville
Grade: B
Petrella, a 64-year-old housewife whose husband is a retired steelworker, said she likes that Trump has issued executive orders targeted at assisting the coal and steel industries.
These include reversing former President Obama's climate change initiatives, overturning a rule, which detractors argue are unnecessarily burdensome, meant to protect streams and waterways from coal mines waste, and directing the Commerce Department to explore imposing tariffs on imported steel.
But that doesn't mean Trump has been perfect in her eyes.
"I was hoping he would do better on getting rid of Obamacare," Petrella said.
Petrella also said she is skeptical of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who as chairman of International Steel Group in 2004 oversaw the purchase of a bankrupt steel mill in Weirton, West Virginia.
"I don't know, I don't always have faith in them [Ross] doing the right thing," she said. "I was just curious about that. But who knows. Maybe he is listening to ordinary people."
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This article has been corrected to reflect that Cindi Parrish lives in Wintersville, not Steubenville.