They voted for him in 2016, 2020 and will not hesitate for a second before slipping a third “Donald Trump” ballot into the ballot box in 2024.
Words from voters, met by AFP in Iowa — the first state to vote in the Republican primaries in January — and who support the former president staunchly, despite his four indictments.
Delbert Banowetz, a former farmer from this Midwestern state, does not hide his fascination with the Republican candidate, whom he has already visited numerous times at campaign events.
“He’s a great guy,” said the former dairy farmer, who was already in place at the front of the line, five hours before Donald Trump’s arrival in the small town of Maquoketa.
“I want to be as close to him as possible,” he says, asserting that he is very sensitive to the billionaire’s willingly provocative style.
Which does not prevent him from being “worried” about the legal troubles of Donald Trump, notably indicted for his electoral pressure and his management of confidential documents.
“He has to be careful, he can sometimes make hasty decisions…” murmurs the nonagenarian in the blue beret, before slipping into a smile: “As for me, he has never lied to me.”
When Adam Miller, who grows corn and beans in the area, saw Donald Trump’s mugshot appear all over the internet, he says he was “heartbroken.”
“I don’t even understand what he’s being accused of,” whispers this tall, dark-haired man with glasses, his hands buried in the pockets of his jeans, at the entrance to the former president’s campaign meeting.
This father of nine children — five of them adopted — is particularly grateful for the ex-leader’s record on abortion: Donald Trump appointed three conservative judges to the Supreme Court who left the states the possibility of legislating on the issue. “Everything he does is great,” he says bluntly.
Donald Trump, in power from 2017 to 2021, “allowed us to get much more for our money,” adds Elaine Rooker, a member of the Republican Party since Nixon, while enjoying a slice of pizza.
“He ran the country like a business,” says this little woman with curly hair, a red “Make America Great Again” cap of the Republican candidate on her head.
The former president’s four indictments? They have not changed her perception of Donald Trump, quite the contrary: “I think that all of this was engineered so that the Democrats could stay in power,” asserts, without proof, the 71-year-old retiree.
“I knew they were probably going to try to target him and pinch him one way or another,” says Janie Fitzpatrick, who came to this shed on the border with Illinois with her mother, Brenda.
This 39-year-old beautician is all the more convinced that Donald Trump is unfairly targeted by the justice system, that his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden, “gives the impression that he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about.”
The physical and speech differences between the 80-year-old president and Donald Trump, only three years his junior, are, according to her, striking: the Republican “takes care of his skin, his hair, he keeps himself in shape” , lists this woman with long black hair. “So it looks like Biden is 90,” she blurted.
20/09/2023 21:04:08 – Maquoketa (United States) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
