

Trump's New Hampshire struggle: Voters feeling 'Trumpgret'

August 15, 2019 - 7:17 am

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — When Chad Johansen voted for Donald Trump in 2016, he hoped he was picking someone who could help small-business owners compete with bigger companies. But that hasn't happened, and now the 26-year-old owner of NH iPhone Repair feels what he calls "Trumpgret."

The Republican president has done little to address health care issues for a small employer, he said, and the Manchester man remains on edge about how Trump's tariffs could affect his business, which employs fewer than 10 people. Beyond that, he said, unrelenting news about bigotry and racism in the Trump administration is "a turnoff."

"The president's supposed to be the face of the United States of America," said Johansen, who voted for Democrat Barack Obama in 2012. "And supposed to make everyone be proud to be an American and stand up for everyone who is an American. And I don't feel that President Trump's doing that. I feel like it's chaos."

That sentiment is concerning for Trump as he travels to New Hampshire on Thursday for a reelection rally. The state, which he lost by about 2,700 votes in 2016, is doing well economically, at least when using broad measures. But beneath the top-line data are clear signs that the prosperity is being unevenly shared, and when the tumult of the Trump presidency is added to the mix, the state's flinty voters may not be receptive to his appeals.

Trouble in the bond market on Wednesday raised fresh concerns about a recession on the horizon.


How New Hampshire receives the president on Thursday will offer a fresh test of whether people will give credit to Trump for the state's economy, base their decision on social issues or make their vote a referendum on the president's character.

"I'm not sure any great tax policy that Trump has envisioned or created has helped it," said Tom Rath, a longtime Republican National Convention delegate and former New Hampshire attorney general who backed Republican John Kasich for president in 2016. "I think the climate is good. We're flourishing in large part because Massachusetts is flourishing."






"(Trump) doesn't have an economic strategy that's designed to win New Hampshire," Lacy said. "But also one that's not going to necessarily lose New Hampshire."


David Bates, a 26-year-old construction worker, said there has been "remarkable growth under President Trump." And when it comes to that growth, Trump should "at least partially, definitely," get credit.


"Trump isn't somebody I'd want to marry to my sister or my mother," said Burrows, who originally supported Republican Ben Carson in 2016. "However, that's not what I want him in office for."


"I don't see where he's helped me," Gary West, a 71-year-old retired steel fabricator who now works as a school bus driver. "Maybe the guy that's got a million dollars he's helped. But I don't feel like he's helped me at all."

For all the credit to go to Trump "doesn't make any sense," said Amanda Gunter, a 34-year-old New Hampshire Democrat, who worries that the economy she describes as "doing well" could help Trump win another term in White House.




"The economy and jobs are always important," Shaheen said. "But people can't feel secure about the future of their families, even though they have a good job, if they're worried about whether they're going to have health care when they need it."

Gino Brogna, a 57-year-old chef manager, described himself as a Republican "by nature," though he isn't "solely stuck to it." He didn't like Democrat Hillary Clinton and recalls feeling as though his 2016 vote for Trump was "something that was necessary."

It doesn't feel necessary for him again.

"I don't think that he's true to his word on a lot of things," Brogna said of Trump. "I wouldn't vote for him again. That's not going to happen."


AP Economics Writer Josh Boak and AP Polling Editor Emily Swanson contributed to this report.

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