The first 100 days of President Trump’s second term have been a whirlwind of action, with the imposition of steep tariffs worldwide, the detention of immigrants and deep cuts to the federal work force.
The New York Times has been talking with a group of voters who all cast their ballots in last November’s election with some trepidation. While they had expressed a range of hopes and concerns about the new administration, they have now seen enough to make some early judgments at the close of the first 100 days. (A recent Times/Siena College poll also found that majorities of voters, even many who approve of the job Mr. Trump is doing, view his first few months as “chaotic” and “scary.”)
‘I don’t regret voting for him.’
Jaime Escobar Jr., 46, from Roma, Texas
transcript
Trump’s 100 first days have been kind of a mixed bag. I think for the most part, it’s been positive. And I still feel that I’ve made the right decision voting for Trump. As mayor of my small city here in Roma, Texas, I am concerned about the tariffs. We’ve recently developed a 300-plus-acre industrial park development for imports. The import of produce and other commodities. So we are concerned about how that’s going to affect our development. And we’ve gotten several investors to come in and look at our, this development wanting to invest. But some of them have actually told us, we’re very interested in developing in your city, however, because of the tariffs, we’re going to take a pause and see how things play out the next two, three, four months.
As mayor of the small border town of Roma, Jaime Escobar Jr. was accustomed to assessing whether strategies were working. At this point, Mr. Escobar remained mostly optimistic, but he was still wary.
“I’m not saying I’m 100 percent happy with everything, but for the most part, I feel that Trump is tackling the issues that the American voters thought were important,” he said, referring to immigration and the economy. “I don’t regret voting for him.”