Franklin County people rate Trump's first year as president
Franklin County went big for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election; more than 70 percent of county voters helped put the real-estate developer and former reality-TV star in the Oval Office. The county's 76-percent voter turnout was the highest in a quarter-century.
It has been quite a year since Trump was officially sworn in to office. How do local people think he has done so far?
We sought to find out, asking a variety of people to share their thoughts on Trump's first year as president.
We asked each person the same four questions, some by email, some by phone (their preference). Our first question: What grade - A through F - would you give Trump so far?
More:Nicknames, Tweets and Progress: Our first year in the President Trump era
More:These Franklin County residents would not change their votes for president
Of the nine people we talked to, just under half gave Trump an A: Hazel Sweeney, 37, Waynesboro; Michael Dick, 27, Doylesburg; Dwight Weidman, 66, Chambersburg; and Justin Henry, 19, Chambersburg.
Two people - Anne Boggs, 41, Greencastle, and Susan Orndorff, 67, Fayetteville - gave him an F.
Of the others, Jonathan Pretlow, 40, Chambersburg, gave a D-; Kevin Pryor, 29, Waynesboro, gave him a B; and Ronald Keener, 78, Chambersburg, gave him a D, specifically adding “as in dumb.”
Check out their other responses below. Some have been edited for length or clarity.
What do you think is his biggest accomplishment?
Pretlow: "The divisiveness." He continued, "If you look like him, and he considers you one of him, then you're fine. He's almost talking from a majority standpoint, but America is the great melting pot and you have majorities and minorities and we should be able to find a commonplace. I think our president lacks empathy and compassion in his decision-making, and that's a huge problem."
Pryor: The tax plan and recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel. "That stirred a lot of people up, but it was the correct thing to do. I know President Obama definitely wouldn't have done that, that's for sure."
Orndorff: None.
Sweeney: "Just about everything he's done - the borders going up, the immigration being cut down, (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syrian) being taken out. Some of his speeches haven't been my favorite, but I don't know that we'll ever get perfect in there."
Dick: Tax cuts and the health care bill.
Weidman: "I think his greatest accomplishment, and I’ll probably break with most people, is putting Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. If you look some of selections by some of the so-called conservative presidents, their nominees weren’t so conservative. I’m thinking Chief Justice John Roberts. It is is a long-lasting achievement that will affect the court for decades."
Keener: “I appreciate that he’s turning the nation into more of a conservative viewpoint. It not really the nation it’s the government – the courts and the regulatory area and the administrative state. He’s made some difference about the culture.”
Henry: “Middle class Americans have been in need of this tax reform for some time now. I don’t think (Ted Cruz) could have gotten the Trump agenda done, or anyone else for that matter.”
Boggs: "Fooling average Americans into believing he is helping them, by twisting facts and telling outright lies. That is tied with him financially benefiting personally from his public office (by directing policies that he profits from, using his own businesses as meeting places for official business, marketing and generating income to himself, forcing tax dollars spent at his own properties, etc) which is corrupt and unethical."
Do you think he has failed at anything?
Pretlow: "I think he has failed in bringing all of America together.
"We live in a democracy, and I think in a democracy somewhere we should have some meeting ground of understanding. With him, I don't think - even when he's wrong, he doesn't have the ability to say, 'I am sorry. I want to change course. I apologize for my action.' I honestly think for him, he thinks that's a sign of weakness ... but actually that's strength, because that shows to the other party that I'm willing to listen and not just generalize on a lot of different things.
"I think one of the things that I would love for my president to (have) is at least have a moral compass ... it's easy to be the bully, it's hard to be the person in power to listens to somebody that has nothing to give you."
Pryor: "Nothing really that I've seen. I mean, it's only his first year, but the economy seems pretty good. I don't know if that trickled down from the end of the Obama administration, but unemployment's at a really low level, and the stock market's really high. It is what it is."
Orndorff: "One of the good things that he talked about in the campaign was infrastructure change in the country. He hasn't done anything on that. I think the immigration issue is still up in the air, I don't think he's done anything on that, I don't know how that's going to turn out at this point."
Sweeney: "Not really. I was kind of hoping he'd do a little bit more as far as the economy for the middle and lower class, but everything takes time. He'd have to go back (a few hundred) years to get everything right the first time."
Dick: "His constant tweets on Twitter is his only fail. Trump and his administration has conquered the many obstacles that the Democrat party keeps throwing at him. The current talk of the government budget is the next big obstacle; the Democrats aren’t going to approve due to the lack of funding for the DACA group."
Weidman: "His biggest failure is being not tough enough on the mainstream media. I think when you have someone like CNN’s Jim Acosta, when someone is that disrespectable and biased, I think Trump needs to revoke the credentials. There are reporters in that room who have an agenda and that agenda is to make the president look bad."
Keener: “He’s failing in human conduct. How do you say it anymore? Deportment, how he treats other people. His conduct would be an F. Right from the beginning he treated people badly. How we treat people matters. There’s a level of decency we expect from each other, especially when you’re running for public office. I wouldn’t give him a bye on this.”
Henry: “No nothing at all, rather than not focusing his key political agenda at first, but he’s getting to that this year. I do keep up with his Twitter account, but I don’t pay much mind to his tweets. Plus, it’s his account, and yes, he may be president, but does that mean he lost his freedom of speech?"
Boggs: "He has failed at being a President. He is not a leader, he is a con man, betraying our country for his own personal gain and due to his fear of Putin - a dictator who has interfered in our democracy with the quiet support of Trump. He is also not very intelligent and bases his policy stances off whatever he thinks will get him cheers from his base, instead of doing what is best for the considerable majority of Americans, who do not support his views."
Knowing what you know now, would you have voted the same way in the 2016 election?
Pretlow: Voted independent, and still would. "There were a lot of things that I didn't like about Hillary Clinton. Most people think you either got to go for her, or him. If you don't vote for either one of these two people, if you don't like what they're spewing, than that's just a wasted vote. For the life of me, I don't understand that. If you give me two bad choices, why should I vote for the lesser of the bad. It's still bad at the end of the day. I think that we should put more of the emphasis on maybe somebody that's not affiliated with either party."
Pryor: He is not registered to vote, but has supported Trump from the beginning and still does. "I'm a fan from what he's done so far, that's for sure."
Orndorff: "I voted for Hillary Clinton. I would not vote for Donald Trump. I would vote for whoever was running against him."
Sweeney: Would "absolutely" vote for Trump again.
Dick: Would still vote for Trump.
Weidman: Would still vote for Trump. "I knew what I was voting for, and I would do it again happily. I was so happy the morning of Nov. 9. I had so many Republican friends who had to eat crow."
Kenner: “I didn’t vote for him or Hillary (Clinton). He just confirmed for me that I made the right decision.”
Henry: “Unfortunately I was too young by 8 days to vote, but I was all for Trump since I heard he was running in the 2016 presidential election when I was in the 8th grade. I wouldn’t change the outcome of the election even if I could.”
Boggs: No. I voted for Clinton. I would have voted for anyone but Trump, who was so obviously unqualified for the role. I would rather have had ANY of the other Republicans that were in the primaries before the Russian-owned shill who thinks he is hosting a daily reality show and is simply focused on his "ratings".
Editor's note: This story contains only the views of the people in it; Public Opinion did not check facts or add context. However, below are links to stories about some of the major topics addressed.
Trump announces Israel's U.S. embassy will move to Jerusalem
Tax reform: Here's how it matters to you
Neil Gorsuch takes seat on Supreme Court
Trump administration takes DACA issue to Supreme Court
No end in sight for Russia probes