Eleven months ago, Pennsylvania voters gave Donald Trump a resounding win in their presidential primary, which was key to his nomination. And in November, the Keystone State narrowly made Trump the first Republican presidential nominee since 1988 to be awarded its electoral votes — pivotal to his election.
This weekend, Pennsylvania conservative activists made clear to Newsmax that they are delighted with his performance in the White House.
This was the consensus at the annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Harrisburg March 31-April 1. Started in 1989, the PLC is the largest conclave of Keystone State conservatives of all stripes. This year, PLC organizers estimated the number of participants was roughly 750 — their highest-ever gathering in a non-presidential election year.
“My view is the president has been in office for two months, and it took Barack Obama eight years to totally screw up the country,” Lowman Henry, president of the conservative Lincoln Institute, told us.
Henry, who was Pennsylvania chairman of Ted Cruz’s presidential bid last year, added that “it's going to take Donald Trump longer than two months to fix it. We need to give the guy time to get the job done.”
State Sen. Scott Wagner of York, widely considered the front-running Republican contender for governor in 2018, agreed.
“He’s doing fine,” said Wagner. “His attitude is, ‘I’ve got a tough job to do, I’m trying to do it, and I don’t care what the press thinks.’”
Small business owner Wagner said he was particularly happy with Trump’s “reigning in the Environmental Protection Agency, rolling back regulations, and lifting the [Keystone XL] Pipeline moratorium.”
Lancaster County businessman and past U.S. House hopeful Chet Bieler told us he was “'80 percent' pleased with Trump. So long as he follows the guidelines set out by the [conservative] Heritage Foundation on policy and judicial appointments, as he did with [Supreme Court nominee] Neil Gorsuch, he’ll do fine.”
If there was any criticism of Trump, it centered around controversial comments the president has made speaking off the cuff and on twitter.
“He needs to think before he tweets,” Mercersburg attorney Erich Hawbaker told me.
State Sen. John Eichelberger of Western Pennsylvania agreed. As he put it, “I like him, but I sure wish he could phrase things in a different tone, and especially do so in his tweets.”
Eichelberger, considered the favorite to succeed Rep. Bill Shuster if the veteran GOP lawmaker retires next year, said that “if Trump just sounds a bit more statesmanlike, he will take issues and policy in a new direction.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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