‘He is almost fireproof’: Irish-American Trump voters say his critics miss why he is supported

Donald Trump last week became the first US president to be indicted with a federal offence, but Irish Americans who voted for him in the past say they may well do so again.

The 45th US president pleaded not guilty to 37 felony counts relating to his alleged mishandling of classified documents relating to files held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Trump is already facing a separate criminal trial in New York next year arising from allegations that he paid hush money to an adult film star before the 2016 presidential election. On top of that, in May a jury in a civil trial accepted Trump sexually abused and defamed a magazine columnist, E Jean Carroll, and many believe he is responsible for inciting the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Yet, some Irish Americans who voted for him and with whom The Irish Times have kept in contact since 2016, believe the US justice system is as much on trial as the former president.

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Aileen Deeter, Kansas

Aileen Deeter, who is from Dublin but lives in Shawnee, Kansas, has been in the USA since 1991 and in 2016 told The Irish Times she voted for Trump on economic grounds.

“Why not have a businessman in the White House?” she said at the time.

By 2018, she said she wished she had ignored both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and should probably have scribbled in the name of Clinton’s Democratic rival Bernie Sanders on her ballot.

This week the 56-year-old said Trump’s indictment had not altered the views of those who support him, and that she would vote for him again.

Deeter referred to Hillary Clinton’s difficulties arising from using a personal email for work, saying: “Hilary wasn’t indicted. If they go after him [Trump], they should go after them all.”

Deeter said civil society in the US was deeply split and under great stress with the weakening of traditional values. Conservative Christians especially felt “persecuted,” she said.

“It is not just the great American empire under attack; it is happening everywhere, in your country too,” she said.

Deeter says she was “sick of” and “disgusted” at what she considers the persecution of Christian values.

“Donald Trump respects our values. He loves America; he genuinely loves his country,” she said.

Denis Hickie, Philadelphia

Denis Hickie, from Co Kerry, has been in the US for more than 35 years. A floating voter, the 66-year-old, who lives in Philadelphia, said he voted for Trump because “he might get more people back to work”.

That view holds firm following Trump’s indictment and says many people believe the US justice system “is on trial too”.

Hickie believes people who question Trump’s suitability for office are missing the point.

“I spoke to a car salesman when my car was being serviced and he said he will vote for Trump again, because if Trump wins he will sell more Porsches,” he said.

If Trump was to reduce regulation in the construction industry, “you will get carpenters, electricians and plumbers getting more work, and they will go for that”, he said.

Hickie is critical of Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and level of support for Ukraine. But he returns to the issue of the US economy and says he may well vote for Trump again.

Derry Connolly, San Diego

Derry Connolly, who is from Leap, in west Cork, moved to the United States in 1977 and became a citizen in 1985. The 67-year-old lives in San Diego, California.

In 2016 Connolly said he always voted Republican since he first cast a ballot in the US in 1988.

This week, he said: “My reading of the tea leaves is that confidence in the Biden administration, the justice system, and big media continues to plummet. The Trump indictment is completely political. I have lost all respect for and interest in our political system — it is totally corrupt.”

Connolly claimed that the current debate was “loaded with lies and half-truths from all across the political spectrum on the whole host of issues that confront us today, from Covid to Ukraine to inflation and the economy”.

Brendan Hurley, Florida

Brendan Hurley, who is originally from Rochestown, Cork, said he voted for Trump “with my nose held” in 2016 because he would “do a better job for my customers”. He owns a software company and a car dealership in Florida.

Mr Hurley said Mr Trump had been “absolutely careless” with the documents he kept.

“I would go as far as to say he had an absolute disregard for the request to give them back,” he said.

But the controversy is not affecting support for Mr Trump in Florida where he appeared in court this week.

“I don’t think it will change people’s minds. It is the same skulduggery that they all get up to in politics. It is a disgrace,” he said.

Mr Hurley believes that another candidate will ultimately be nominated to lead the Republican presidential ticket at the next election in 2024.

“My gut feeling is that it is not going to be Trump. The party will get somebody else. It is the same with the Democrats. They don’t want Biden. They are just afraid of Kamala [Harris, the US vice president] who is incompetent and incapable.”

“I will vote and I will vote conservative. I just hope I don’t have to hold my nose again,” he said, referring to the 2024 election.

The controversies surrounding Trump, in his view, have not damaged him among his supporters.

“It is extraordinary but he is almost fireproof; the more you try to set him on fire, the less likely you are to succeed,” he said.

Mr Hurley does not necessarily blame Trump for the January 6th riots on Capitol Hill but acknowledges that they “shouldn’t have happened.”

Trump, he believes, could have been far more vocal to prevent them; “he didn’t discourage it,” he said.

If Trump’s re-election ambitions are derailed, Hurley will look for a similar candidate.

“I will vote for a conservative; I just hope somebody else comes along. It is unfortunate the US political system is binary, it is not good that you have to be in lockstep with one or the other,” he said.

“I struggle with the personality of the person. I couldn’t have him as a friend because his values are questionable.”