Since January 20, 2025, the swearing in date of President Donald J. Trump, I along with many have been watching what he and his young administration is doing. Less than two weeks have passed since that date and the man is moving forward with the MAGA agenda that he campaigned on.
Promises made. promises kept.
About four days ago I began an unofficial man on the street poll asking friends, colleagues, family, etcetera about Trump's performance since he has been in office. I have received some interesting comments and observations that I would like to share here.
Overview: Women in general have expressed excitement that Trump is moving forward on what he promised. To the lady, they all thought though he was moving too fast on that agenda. I could not get a response from them as to what is "too fast' and when I pushed a bit the ladies shut down and changed the subject. In general it was a positive "let's wait and see".
The men on the other hand were more vocal and opinionated then the ladies. The consensus ranged from, Trump shutting down and threatening to shut down some departments, it would hurt their business and their communities. Specifically, FEMA and Department of Education (DOE). Both departments contribute a lot of taxpayer monies to the local communities via grants. As examples, FEMA monies for fire equipment and DOE similarly provides monies for local schools.
The men on the other end of the spectrum thought that Trump wasn't moving fast enough. When I pointed out that he had only been in office less than 14-days the blame shifted from Trump to the Senate. Specifically, men & women Senators who are preventing an up or down vote on each Cabinet Nomination quickly. I pointed out that in 2017 it took 43-days for all of Trumps Cabinet to be approved, so in theory we are slightly ahead of the precedent set 9-years ago. One of the men commented, "well it only took 12-days for Obama's Cabinet members to be approved'. I looked this up and he was right.
One thing that I found interesting was as the men complained about the speed of which the Cabinet was being approved by the Senate, none of them blamed the Democrats or Republicans for the slow approval process. Interesting.
General Comments:> The men liked the shock & awe approach as it was keeping his opposition and the Mainstream Media (MSM) rocked back on their collective heels. Again, as already stated, the ladies thought he may be moving too fast.
> Both men & women commented that they were hoping that all the J6ers would have been released by now. There are some like Jeremy Brown who never entered the Capitol that day, is still in prison. One of the ladies expressed a desire for retribution for the politicians, prison guards, courts, and prison wardens that in her mind, exceeded their authority. The men all felt similar however, used a bit stronger language when expressing their retribution hopes.
> When prodded, nobody shared with me that they would report an illegal alien to ICE. I pushed them a bit on this, the women for the most part were apprehensive doing this. The men just couldn't be bothered.
> One of the comments that the women spoke positively about was that they are all seeing Everyday Low Prices (EDLP) starting to drop on basic items. Specifically, some canned items, flour, butter, bread, etc. and deeper sale discounts on beef and pork. The men spoke of the softening of prices on fuel both for vehicles and home heating. Both men & women commented on the higher prices for chicken and eggs though. Most of the men thought it was a conspiracy with the USDA using the Avion Flu as the excuse.
> The consensus was that all of Trump's Cabinet nominations were in the ballpark and the Senate was slowing down the up or down voting process.
> Both loved the fact that Trump was holding press conferences almost daily. One of the ladies commented that, "sunlight is a great disinfectant" and hoped it would minimize conspiracy theories.
> The ladies were glad that TikTok was still working, and Facebook was going to stop censoring their posts. The men leaned towards not caring about social media although two of them mentioned that they had joined X primarily to receive UpToDate news.
> Most of the men liked that Trump was showing strength globally by railing on Mexico & Canada, taking back the Panama Canal, and looking into the opportunity of picking up Greenland. With that written, nobody men or women, wanted the USA to be involved in any foreign wars. I heard, "end the policing the world with U.S. troops" mantra, over and over again.
> None of the men wanted to be part of NATO and almost all of them wanted the United Nations to be kicked out of the country. I pushed them a bit on this, and the consensus was that the EU and the UN had suckled at the U.S. teat long enough.
> Everyone expressed a concern that there would be another round of "mostly peaceful protests". Several of the women had purchased handguns and were carrying them in their purses. Two of the ladies had purchased 20-gauge shotguns for home defense. Most of the men were carrying and expressed caution to anybody who screwed with their family or friends. Two of the men shared with me that they now carry long guns in their vehicles. Both the men & women wanted to be able to use their defensive tools across state lines. The ladies were the most vocal with this point.
> When I brought up Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) everyone was in unison on this point. They hated it. The women seemed to be most vocal on this topic. They wanted their children to be judged on merit not the pigmentation of their skin or sex. The men just laughed and thought, "what a waste of time". One of the men who owns a machine shop told me, "I don't give a crap if you are black, white, green polka dotted, male, or female. If you can do the job, you get hired".
> Lastly, everyone commented that they were enjoying the news again. I asked them where they got their news from, and it was interesting. They get their weather from local news channels and local, state, national, and global news from the internet. Not MSM sources. Some examples were, NewsMax, OAN, pod casts that lean towards news not opinion, and word of mouth. If someone mentions something, they do an internet search on the news item. NOBODY mentioned the MSM like, ABC, CBS, NBC, or cable like, MSNBC, CNN, or FOX for that matter. Interesting.
In conclusion:Although this was not a scientific poll, it was interesting for sure. The level of optimism was high with everyone. From the left leaning middle of the road folks to the conservatives. To a degree everyone was happy that Trump won. Nobody was disappointed that Vice President Harris lost.
The Sample:I spoke to about a dozen & a half folks over a 4-day period, through yesterday. It was about 50/50 men to women. I not only spoke to friends but strangers too. While there were a few minorities in the sample, most were white. The minorities seemed to be more engaged and focused on how this new administration will help their communities. All in all, they were happy with the process but had a "wait and see" attitude. The whites seemed to focus on how this administration would help them and leaned towards retribution for how "they" were perceived by the left, e.g. deplorables, garbage, etc.
My Comments:As you read the Bible you realize that what we are seeing today in national politics, is the time immemorial swings of the pendulum. This of course has happened countless time before. In essence, the "massive bob" in a vacuum will swing equally from the left to the right and back again. It would be great if we all could work towards minimizing the "amplitude" so the "bob's trajectory" remains close to the "equilibrium position". Large amplitude swings bring revolution to the streets which none of us want. With prayer and staying engaged we can minimize those swings.
What are you hearing? Do a unscientific poll yourself too and share here.
73 & God Bless
JohnyMac
