Sky Views: Americans praying Donald Trump gamble pays off
Thursday 19 January 2017 05:03, UK
Hannah Thomas-Peter, New York Correspondent
The era of Trump is almost upon us.
Around the world, there is a collective sense of suspense.
Which norm or convention will be the first to explode?
Will he start a trade war with China? Lift sanctions on Russia? Abandon NATO? Reinstate torture? Deport illegal immigrants?
Will he build the wall? Scrap Obamacare? Ban journalists from the White House?
The sheer range of potential actions and outcomes is dizzying.
Aiming, possibly a bit simplistically, to test the mood of the nation, I travelled to Michigan.
It was one of the states that flipped from blue to red in November, shocking everyone, and clearing Trump's path to the White House.
Will he build the wall? Scrap Obamacare? Ban journalists from the White House? The sheer range of potential actions and outcomes is dizzying.
So, given the theatrics of his unorthodox transition period, and historically low approval ratings, how do the voters who played such a crucial role in Trump's victory feel about the man they chose to lead their country?
I started in the utilitarian sports hall where he held the final rally of his insurgent campaign.
Conveniently enough, the Grand Rapids Deltaplex Arena was hosting a beer and live music festival.
This area voted for Trump.
Auto worker Mark Bos told me he had expected the President-elect to "calm down a bit on Twitter," but was now worried about having voted for someone who "doesn't seem to be able to think before he acts".
Buyer's remorse? "Maybe a little, yeah, but I'm willing to give him a chance."
Trump supporters Noel Averill and Betty Van Patten discussed Trump's ability to "look at things differently".
"We've been fed a pack of lies by the media," Betty said.
"This is not a racist, divided country, this is a normal country full of normal people and we just want to get on with our lives."
Melissa Pickard said that Trump would "ride his wave" and that even if it all went wrong, "it's just four years".
Further east in the city of Flint, where they favoured Hillary Clinton by a small margin, voters were also sanguine, if a little more sceptical.
Michael Hickock mused about not being able to understand whether the president-elect meant what he said.
His wife Sharlene wondered whether Trump's "thin skin" and impulsive behaviour might make him trigger happy with the nuclear buttons.
Still, she reasoned, if he can deliver what he promised on jobs, then all the worries will go away.
Alyson Bader said she wasn't one to "just sit in fear", and that somewhere in Trump's presidency there would be an opportunity to heal as a country and progress.
Even at the El Bethel Baptist Church outside Detroit, there was a striking willingness among its African-American worshippers to believe that something good might spring from Trump's exploitation of the racial fault lines that divide this country.
Church pastor Reverend Lawrence Glass said: "All he has to do is talk with, not at us. A dialogue not a monologue … he can do it, he can be a good president."
It struck me as a tremendously forgiving, optimistic position as this vast, diverse nation prepares to step into the unknown.
Trump has promised to be a president for all Americans.
They don't have long to find out if he means it.
Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Paste BN editors and correspondents, published every morning.
Previously on Sky Views: Sam Kiley: Brexit a reckless race into the unknown