Thank God for Trump — that is the sentiment of Robert “Bob” Pettinato, an 85-year-old former Lackawanna County commissioner and retired lifelong Scrantonian.
President Donald Trump is in the news daily regarding a multitude of scenarios du jour, including federal funding cuts, freezes and delays reportedly threatening the future of Medicaid and Medicare, elimination of the Department of Education, rising tariffs, even fears of a looming recession as the U.S. stock market experienced the largest two-day loss ever in early April, among other administrative changes.
According to a national Reuters/Ipsos survey from April 7, just over two in five Americans approve of how Trump is doing, with 61% believing we are headed into a recession. And 82% of Americans complained about the price of groceries, with only 37% reporting feeling comfortable with their economic situation, down 14% since November.
And there’s more: A national poll out of Emerson College found 55% of voters anticipate a world war within the next five years, with 41% of voters calling Trump’s handling of foreign policy poor, with 15%, 18% and 26% calling it fair, good and excellent, respectively. Forty-eight percent feel Trump is putting America first, with 41% disagreeing and 10% unsure.
Yet, among Trump’s Northeast Pennsylvania voting bloc, Republicans remain staunchly unflappable.
“I think at this point, most people are waiting to see if it’ll affect them or not,” said Dan Naylor, chair of the Lackawanna County Republican Party, referring to cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. “I do know that the president has said right along that there’s going to be no cuts to Medicaid or Medicare, so the belief on the Republican side is, there’s not going to be any cuts there.”
Naylor believes Northeast Pennsylvanians should take a pause before getting upset.
“I think that there’s false narratives that are being put out there, and that’s instigating some fear within people,” Naylor explained.
Naylor feels confident in the president’s actions.
“I do believe he’s been doing a good job, because he’s doing what he said he was going to do, get some things done,” Naylor said, citing work at the border, restructuring the economy and getting it “headed in the right direction,” and controlling tariffs on milk products flowing into and out of Canada. “With the amount of debt that we had and the amount that would be maturing within the next couple of months, there are some things that I think needed to be done to help us make sure that we could get the Treasury bills refinanced.”
The U.S. Treasury data website reports the federal government is currently $36.21 trillion in debt.
Karen Clifford, the co-chair of the Lackawanna Republican Party, says she’s behind the president.
“We voted for change, and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we’re not disgruntled, we’re not talking badly,” Clifford said.
With 60,000 federal jobs cut and another 200,000 on the chopping block, Clifford believes it’s warranted.
“When something happens, when someone is fired, we think, they must have leaked something,” she said, speaking for her Republican conversational group she refers to as the “think tank.” The group, consisting of about a dozen people from the area, including “doctors, lawyers, a physician’s wife,” and at least two members in their 80s, prays daily and makes efforts to stay acutely aware of the president’s actions, she said.
“We don’t have bags over our heads,” Clifford said. “It’s not like we voted and then moved away. We watch every day, we watch what’s going on.”
Clifford says she understands the fear and concern that may be top of mind for some Northeast Pennsylvanians.
“I know it’s hard, I know it’s tough. There’s some tough, tough things happening,” she said. “But I’m staying the course.”
Pettinato made his view of the president’s performance very clear.
“I can sum it up in one sentence: He’s the best president in my lifetime,” he said. “He’s the first real leader that I’ve seen in the White House. He has an agenda and he pursues it. And he’s got skills that I’ve not seen any other president since Ronald Reagan have.”
Pettinato is confident in Trump’s cutting and slashing.
“He’s totally on the right track on whatever he’s cutting in Washington. I’d say it’s about time,” Pettinato said. “I think he’s brilliant.”
Pettinato understands why some voters may be perturbed by Trump’s style.
“There’s hesitation out there because he’s on new frontiers,” Pettinato said. “But his gut is as informed as anybody who’s held that job.”
Pettinato said there’s probably nothing that Trump could do that would change how he feels about him, and said controversies about the president stem from “bare-faced lies.”
“I believe in Trump’s ability; I believe he loves America more than every other president before him has,” he said. “And he’s the guy who’s standing up for what made this country great.”
Mark Dennebaum, 44, a videographer and a self-professed “hardcore liberal until 2020,” said in taking on the “potentially insurmountable” challenge of righting the country’s financial issues, Trump is “just doing what the Democrats wanted to do in the late ’90s and early 2000s, but never got it done.”
“I think that there’s been a lot of problems for a lot of years, and to try to fix those things is going to take time, and I also think not everybody’s going to like the changes,” Dennebaum said. “When the house is on fire, you gotta try to put it out. You might not be successful, but at least you tried.”
He has observed that some people seem concerned.
“My friends and family aren’t panicking,” Dennebaum said, referring to Republicans in his personal circle. “I think there’s quite a few people panicking unnecessarily. There’s people who say things like, ‘this is terrible.’ ”
Dennebaum said that what is going on with the stock market is not comparable to the Great Depression, and said people are “gravitating to fear,” which he blamed on the algorithms that boost negative news into social media feeds.
“Most of the Republicans that I’ve talked to, especially the ones with investment, their point of view is, ‘I’m gonna wait it out,’ ” Dennebaum said. “They’re not panicking.”
Robin Medeiros, a past regional director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Republican Women, and the National Association of Realtors federal political coordinator for U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, is confident in the president.
“I think he’s doing an amazing job. And that’s what I’m hearing,” Medeiros said. “We had a committee meeting … in Lackawanna County, and everybody is thrilled by what he’s doing.”
She explained that she understands that some folks may have differing opinions.
“They call them growing pains,” Medeiros said. “Not everybody is going to like that, but we have to do something.”
She added that her support of Trump flows over to Elon Musk, as well, the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency.
“He’s out there finding more fraud within our systems, everything, and it’s going to save taxpayers billions, not just millions but billions of dollars,” she said.
She blamed the problems America is dealing with now on past presidents, and suggested anyone in doubt “hold on.”
“The only thing I can tell people is … hold on while they straighten out this whole mess,” Medeiros said. “Just hang tough, it’ll straighten out. And we’ll be in a better place afterward, let me tell you.”