Six Trump voters on why he won their support in 2024
June Carey says Trump would end welfare dependency
- Published
Donald Trump is set to make an historic return to power and is the first former president to be re-elected to the White House in more than 130 years.
Though a polarising figure, the majority of Americans in key swing states chose to vote for him, with many citing the economy and immigration as their chief concerns.
In advance of polling day, the BBC spoke to six of his supporters, who explained his enduring appeal.
‘You want to come to America? Earn it, like I did’
Luiz Oliveira, a small business owner in Nevada, moved to the US from Brazil in the 1980s but he’s not happy with the number of immigrants arriving through the southern border.
“How is this happening in America?” asked the 65-year-old. “All these people crossing, it’s an invasion.”
Mr Oliveira said the Biden administration “opened the border” and allowed it to happen, referring to the rise in border crossings after Biden came to power.
Encounters between migrants and US Customs and Border Patrol at the US-Mexico border hit a record high in December of 2023 but have fallen sharply since, to a four-year low.
He described how hard he had to work to get his citizenship, finally “earning” it in 2012. “For me to be a US citizen is a privilege, an honour. I love this country.”
Mr Oliveira was confident Trump would put an end to what he called a border crisis. “You want to come to America? Earn it, like I did.”
Trump has vowed to secure the border and deport anyone living in the US illegally.
'Trump puts the American economy first'
A new president will not be the biggest change in Ben Maurer’s life in the coming weeks.
The 38-year-old truck driver from Pennsylvania is expecting his second child just weeks after the election.
Mr Maurer, a lifelong Republican, was hopeful that November would mark the starting point of a more prosperous time for his family as Trump eyed his return to the White House.
Last year, his wife quit her job because the cost of childcare was higher than her income. Since then, Mr Maurer has been the sole provider for the family and his wife has stayed home with their eldest child as they await the new arrival.
This would not be the case, Mr Maurer believed, if Trump was president.
“I feel like [Trump] has a handle on making it about the American economy first and the American worker first,” he said.
Trump’s plan to preserve American jobs and to tackle inflation will mean a more affordable reality, he thought, because business costs would mean cheaper childcare.
Inflation soared post-Covid, as it did in many Western countries. Trump said he would increase drilling to lower energy costs.
‘The more he talks the more impressed I am’
Earlier in her career as an artist, June Carey had to supplement her income with welfare because of how difficult it was to be self-employed.
The 70-year-old from Chico, California, was able to get off welfare after less than five years and she thought Trump’s policies would provide that pathway for others.
“Being on welfare, I saw how it does not work,” she said. “It creates generations of people who never move on.”
She said it was essential that Americans were self-sufficient and not dependent on government programmes.
Today, she lives on $1,900 (£1,456) per month from social security. But with the price of food and gas rising under President Joe Biden, she said she could not cover minimum expenses and might need help again.
She wanted to see politicians create an economy that meant that Americans like her could afford the necessities, instead of spending money on “liberal policies”.
And that is where Ms Carey believed Trump would help.
“The former president runs this country like a business and the more he talks the more I am impressed,” she said.
‘With his grandkids, I see the softer side’
Brooke Riske was not always a Trump voter.
In 2016, unimpressed by Trump or Hillary Clinton, she voted for a third-party candidate. But the Covid-19 pandemic changed her mind.
“Our government has become too active in our lives,” said the 38-year-old educator from Virginia.
During the uncertainty of Covid, said Ms Riske, Trump was a steady presence. And he cared about the country and wanted to improve it, she said.
It was not just his policies she admired, it was also the person. Watching him in Instagram videos and podcast interviews, she said she liked what she saw and heard.
“The times where he’s interacting with his grandkids I see the softer side,” she said.
“He kept our country very peaceful for several years, I don’t think a person is capable of that unless they have diplomacy, humanness and kindness in them.”
Ms Riske said she knew that view was at odds with how some others saw Trump, but she didn't trust how the media portrayed him.
“I've just accepted him for who he is.”
‘The country is a giant business to be run’
Jeremy Stevens has long been disheartened by the two-party American political system but he said he felt hopeful again after Trump came onto the political scene.
He was shocked when instead of working against what he describes as an atypical, novice political candidate, the Republicans “allowed” Trump to take over the party.
The small business owner, 45, was convinced Trump’s proposal for an America-first industrial policy would provide Americans with economic security. “The country is a giant business to be run.”
Mr Stevens, who said he separated Trump's personality from policy, runs his own car sales and service centre in Maine where he has lived all his life.
High inflation has hit his own family and put a squeeze on his customers - some of whom have been forced to put off necessary car repairs.
“They’re struggling because they have to choose between putting food on the table or putting new wheels on the ground,” Mr Stevens said.
The Trump economy put America and Americans first, he said. “That’s what we want to go back to.”
Despite the US economy posting growth and employment figures that are the envy of other nations, many Americans like Mr Stevens felt the country was on the wrong track after years of high inflation.
But the sentiment was divided - 61% of Democrats and 13% of Republicans rate the economy as "good", a recent Ap-NORC poll found.
'He invokes fear in the rest of the world’
Amanda Sue Mathis spent nearly 10 years serving in the US Navy before she was forced to medically retire in 2018 because of her chronic illnesses.
Until 2016, the 34-year-old Michigan resident had never voted. Trump’s entry into politics changed that for her; his candidacy inspired her to cast her first-ever ballot in his favour.
When she thought about presidential candidates, she thought about who she would want to report to and who she would respect as commander in chief, she said.
“He or she is not going to be just my president but will decide where we were going, who we were fighting [as a country],” Ms Mathis said. To her, Trump was the obvious choice.
“[Trump] is strong, he is very steadfast and believe he invokes fear because nobody ever knows what he’s going to do,” Ms Mathis said.
“He invokes fear in the rest of the world, don’t mess with America, don’t mess with our allies."
Trump wants the US to disentangle itself from conflicts elsewhere in the world.
He has said he will end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours through a negotiated settlement with Russia, a move that Democrats say would embolden Vladimir Putin.
SIMPLE GUIDE: All you need to know about the vote
EXPLAINER: What Harris or Trump would do in power
GLOBAL: Vote weighs on minds of Ukraine's frontline soldiers
PATH TO 270: The states they need to win - and why
IN PICS: Different lives of Harris and Trump