[ad_1]
In 2016, Pennsylvania Republicans caught troubled steel workers and won. Trump’s promised economic miracle did not materialize. But in Johnstown, the voters cling to him.
By Stefan Niemann, ARD Studio Washington
“For the first time we have more voters registered here for Republicans than Democrats!” Says Tony Castiglione proudly. Expect Donald Trump to win again, in this district and in the rest of the country. The 70-year-old stands in front of the largely disused steel mill where he worked for decades. The heart of the American steel industry once beat here in Johnstown in the US state of Pennsylvania. Then came the crisis. Mismanagement and dumped prices from foreign competitors caused the decline. Discouraged, many of the former steel workers turned their backs on the Democrats.
Castiglione also felt abandoned. That was the opportunity for Trump. As a brazen outsider, he courted America’s forgotten workers in the 2016 election campaign. With success: Castiglione also defected to the Republicans, initially in doubt, as he told us at the time. At first, the presidential candidate seemed too loud, shrill, and obsessive. But in his constituency, Trump won more than twice as many votes as Hillary Clinton, surprisingly also won Pennsylvania and conquered the White House.
Trump is the best for America, says Castiglione
And today? How do voters here in America’s rust belt view their president? Castiglione is very satisfied. Even if unemployment in the city has returned to around 14 percent due to the corona pandemic, and although Johnstown factory smokestacks are no longer smoking as before. No one expected Trump to bring America’s steel industry to its prime. After all: tariffs on steel imports from abroad are a start.
The president must stay in command and stay the course for a second term, Castiglione says. Trump is the best for America. He doesn’t think of challenger Joe Biden – he’s controlled by the radical socialist wing of the Democratic Party. A professional politician who has accomplished nothing noteworthy either as a senator or as an Obama vice president.
Rossi installed a Trump tourist attraction
Leslie Rossi sees it that way too. The mother of eight is a passionate Republican: she defends Trump against any criticism. Lying Democrats and notoriously left-wing mainstream liberal media would treat the president extremely disrespectfully and unfairly, he says.
Rossi wants to counter it. West of Johnstown, he has turned an empty house into a tourist attraction with a giant figure of the president and Trump campaign items. Souvenirs are free, but at Rossi you can also register for the Republican electoral roll.
His impression: Trump will be even more popular in this part of Pennsylvania in 2020 than four years ago. Their job has become easier because people here see that Trump is there for them, Rossi says. A president for the common people who, unlike the “arrogant” Barack Obama, does not say “nonsense” to the citizens.
A Lone Democrat Among Trump Supporters
With his beautiful Harley Davidson and his wife Rebecca in the back seat, Castiglione goes to a motorcycle rally outside of Johnstown. Dozens of cyclists raise money for a firefighter suffering from cancer. Almost everyone here voted for Trump in 2016.
“He is the first president to keep his word and keep his electoral promises!” Enthuses Matthew Dolges. The automaker is convinced: Trump would have brought America an economic miracle if the damn corona pandemic hadn’t intervened. Like its president, Matthew only talks about the “China virus”. And like Trump, he finds the mask requirement, distance, and quarantine rules extremely exaggerated. Those who are healthy have nothing to fear, they cannot shut down the entire country. Or hide in the basement for weeks as Biden, Trump’s cowardly challenger. All cyclists consider the 77-year-old Democrat powerless and lacking in ideas.
Only Castiglione is a bit more careful in his choice of words than the others. Either because he voted democratically for decades, or because he fears his wife. Because Rebecca is the only dissident from Harley’s motorcycle group. She does not hide her dislike of Trump: the president despises women and boasts of sexual harassment. The teacher says it is an embarrassment to the whole country.
She doesn’t like arguing about it with her husband anymore. About six weeks before the election, Tony and Rebecca stress that you have to learn to live with differences of opinion: in the Castiglione house, in Johnstown and in the rest of the United States.
