Do California Trump Supporters Have Buyer's Remorse? Not So Far

President Donald Trump has flooded the first 100 days of his second term with a flurry of executive orders. His policies have included mass federal layoffs, sweeping tariffs, an overhaul of the country’s immigration system, the elimination of DEI initiatives and efforts to curb transgender rights.

Today, Trump’s approval among all California registered voters is 30% — lower than his 39% approval in 2017 — according to a recent poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.

Mark DiCamillo, the director of the IGS poll, said Trump’s ratings are historically low. “Usually, presidents start out with a high approval because they’re in a honeymoon period. That’s not the case with Trump in California,” he said.

However, many Californians remain enthusiastic about the direction of the country under Trump’s leadership. Among California Republicans, 75% approve of how the president is handling the job.

Asked how they feel about the president’s policies in his first three months, Trump voters across the state, from San Diego to Humboldt counties, told KQED they are “ecstatic,” “elated,” “thrilled” and “proud.”

Among the two dozen California Trump voters interviewed for this story, some were more cautious — even skeptical. Several expressed a desire for Trump to take more of a scalpel, rather than an ax, approach in his agenda.

The following six voters shared how the president’s policies have impacted their lives and communities in his first 100 days.

Shannon Kessler, 56, San Luis Obispo

“I’m really pleased with his policies and presidency. It’s what I was hoping for when I voted for him,” said Shannon Kessler, a mom to a now-graduated track and field athlete.

Kessler feels the country now has an administration that will stand up for girls. As a former student-athlete, she doesn’t think it’s fair for transgender athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.

In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a conversation with conservative activist Charlie Kirk, called transgender participation in women’s sports “deeply unfair.”

“I agree with him on that, but he has done nothing to change that,” Kessler, a real estate agent, said of Newsom’s comment. “He could set an example and take action to protect girls. He’s the father of girls.” She wants to see Newsom push Democratic legislators to support bills like one that would have banned transgender athletes from girls’ sports, locker rooms, bathrooms and dorms.

As a fifth-generation Californian, Kessler said she’s seen the state burden its residents with “extreme regulations” on housing and water rights. She’s glad to see Trump dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency and taking power away from “out-of-control three-letter agencies.”

Kessler is among the nearly 40% of Californians who voted for Trump. She said she’s resentful that Democratic leadership has vowed to fight the administration and doesn’t feel represented when she reads about Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta building up a war chest of taxpayer dollars to sue the Trump administration over policies like tariffs, dismantling federal agencies and withholding research grants.

“It offends me that they’re supposed to be my representatives,” she said. “That doesn’t represent me at all. Why do you want to fight with your government? Why don’t you just work with them?”

Emma Valdez Garrison, 19, Fresno

“As a woman who lives in California, we’ve created such a dangerous climate for young women,” said Emma Valdez Garrison, a 19-year-old political science major at California State University, Fresno. “Seeing a president and a man who’s standing up against the invasion of our country is something that I’m personally really excited to see.”

Garrison supports Trump’s push for colleges and universities to eliminate DEI in their hiring and admissions processes. “It brings back merit-based hiring and performance-based hiring,” she said.

Recently, a woman in Garrison’s sorority shared a trans visibility day post on the group’s social media page.

“For a long time, as a sorority, they’ve promoted ideas that are really woke and against what the majority of the girls in the house believe,” Garrison said. “A lot of girls felt like they couldn’t say anything because federally it was accepted.”

But after Trump was inaugurated, Garrison said she and other women in their sorority felt emboldened to speak out.

“We finally felt confident enough to say we’re against this as a sorority,” she said. “It’s no longer going to be something that we as a sorority post or celebrate.”

Garrison is also relieved to see Trump targeting undocumented immigrants and issuing mass deportations. Her grandmother immigrated to the United States from Mexico when she was 21.

“She did it the legal way. She did it the hard way. It cost her a lot of money. It cost her a lot of time,” Garrison said. “It was a big sacrifice for her to become a United States citizen.”

She said her grandmother feels it’s unfair when unauthorized immigrants receive certain benefits.

Ben Pino, 55, Los Angeles County

Ben Pino was a lifelong Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. However, after Trump’s first term, he noticed more money in his pocket and purchased a condo in 2019 that he said has nearly doubled in value.

“I was impressed because I’ve never seen someone take so much action in such a short amount of time and truly make a difference on my day-to-day living,” Pino said.

Pino voted for Trump in 2020 and again in 2024. He’s happy with the president’s policies so far this year, especially on immigration. Although he sympathizes with people coming to the U.S. in search of a better life, he thinks the Biden administration allowed too many people to enter the country illegally, leaving Trump no choice but to enforce mass deportations.

“My parents waited eight years to come here from Cuba,” Pino said. “They waited patiently until it was their turn, and they came with permission and they became naturalized citizens.”

But Pino does have one criticism of Trump: his rhetoric on transgender issues.

“He takes down the entire Republican Party that way by making us look like we’re maybe not kind to other people,” Pino said. His friend recently transitioned, and he worries that Trump is “creating a climate where [the transgender community] could be disrespected or maybe even treated unfairly or unkindly.”

Pino endorses Trump’s executive order barring transgender girls and women from competing in sports that align with their gender identity. However, he disagrees with his order recognizing only two sexes. “I don’t think that you should just throw them to the wolves and just ignore them now and pretend like they never existed,” Pino said.

He views Trump more as a reality show character than a polished politician. Although he agrees with the policies, he’s a bit horrified by Trump’s delivery.

“Even with the people that we’re deporting, I don’t want them deported because they’re different,” he said. “I want them to be deported because they came here illegally. So I just wish he’d lighten up on that stance there a little bit and not be so mean to them.”

Kim Durham, 68, Sacramento

“I am glad to see the corruptness exposed,” Kim Durham said, referring to the federal agencies scaled back or gutted by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

“I’m not saying [Musk’s] done a perfect job,” Durham said. She thinks DOGE will have to revisit some of their cuts and consider re-employing some workers. She believes the administration had to move quickly to make sufficient progress in four years. “Unfortunately, they’re going to have to let a lot of good people go, too, if we’re cutting back on the government.”

In response to Musk’s efforts to slash federal staffing and budgets, protestors have targeted the billionaire’s electric car company, vandalizing Tesla vehicles and charging stations and holding “Tesla Takedown” demonstrations across the country.

“I’m extremely disheartened to see the level of evil that’s being generated against Elon Musk [and] the Tesla dealerships,” Durham said.

She added that it’s one thing to boycott a company you don’t like and another thing to involve innocent people caught in the crosshairs. “I feel for every employee that works at any of those dealerships.”

Durham’s daughter and son-in-law are both police officers, and she’s concerned by how politicized the job has become. The “defund the police” movement, in her view, has discouraged people from entering the police academy and contributed to challenges in police recruitment and retention.

“Defund the police has done a lot of damage here,” she said. “A police officer ought to be able to do his or her job to protect the people, regardless. It shouldn’t be such a political thing.”

Having worked in the print and shipping industry for 25 years, Durham noted that her company purchases much of its paper and ink from overseas, including China.

As a result of Trump’s tariffs, currently up to 145% against China, Durham’s employer is looking to adapt by purchasing from different countries or offering customers digital marketing options.

But Durham’s not worried. In the short term, she anticipates the tariffs will harm the business and may even reduce her income. But in the long term, she hopes they will encourage timber industries and paper mills to reopen in America — providing more jobs and bolstering the economy.

“I think it’s gonna hurt for a bit,” Durham explained. “I’m willing to lose a little bit myself for the country that I’d like to see my little granddaughter here enjoy.”

Cindy Cremona, 65, San Diego County

Cindy Cremona approves of Trump’s plans to expand natural resource extraction, especially opening oil reserves to lower gas prices. However, she wants the administration to remain environmentally responsible. “You can be conservative and still care about the environment,” she said.

Cremona lives in Encinitas, a coastal North County beach city in San Diego, with her dogs, horse and a rescue frog in her backyard pond. She worries that overdevelopment in the region has destroyed wildlife corridors.

“I can’t let my dogs out in the yard alone anymore because bobcats and coyotes are jumping into yards and eating our pets,” she said. “They’re doing that because they’re being squeezed out of every last bit of open space in our residential communities. And that’s heartbreaking to me.”

As a recruiter for life science technology companies, Cremona is concerned about the pace of Trump’s federal overhaul, especially when it comes to National Institutes of Health funding cuts. She’s already noticed companies slowing down hiring as they wait to see how grant funding and layoffs play out.

While she supports the general idea of government audits and eliminating waste, Cremona takes issue with broad changes. “Sometimes it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it,” she said. “I would have preferred a more thoughtful scalpel approach.”

Still, Cremona expects Trump’s “shock and awe” approach will include some backpedaling. “There’s a lot of hysteria about what’s been cut and how it’s gonna hurt,” she said. “I just think it’s way too early to make a judgment.”

She sees Trump’s handling of government as his signature businessman approach that differs from most politicians. “As a businesswoman, I appreciate that and I relate to it,” she said. “I don’t always like his particular style, though.”

Cremona, who is currently shopping for a new car, is considering an American-made model because of Trump’s auto tariffs, despite typically buying foreign vehicles.

She believes Trump is using tariffs to reset the economy toward self-reliance. “I think this president, if anybody, can get China to bow down,” she said. “Because China is as much of a bully as [Trump is]. He’s not afraid of China.”

Even if the tariffs cause short-term pain, including the drop she’s noticed in her retirement savings, Cremona remains confident that they will ultimately bolster the economy.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” she said. “I’m excited, I like change. I think the country needed a little shakeup.”

Emerson Green, 25, El Dorado County

Emerson Green feels “a little let down” by Trump’s second term so far.

Although he initially supported Trump and Musk’s efforts to downsize the federal workforce, he “expected that a lot of that stuff would just hit a brick wall in the court system.”

“The hiring freezes were a little bit shocking,” Green said. His mom had applied for a job with the Internal Revenue Service — a job she was excited to secure for its good pay and benefits — and received an offer letter. However, when Trump issued an across-the-board government hiring freeze, her offer was rescinded.

“I just think that’s a really big sort of middle finger to the American working class,” he said.

Green agrees with Trump’s objective of eliminating fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government. He just wants a more nuanced approach, such as limited hiring freezes on certain branches of the IRS, where wasteful spending could be more clearly pinpointed. “A lot of these things did make sense at the time, but the way they’re being enforced just raises some eyebrows for me,” he said.

On Musk’s role in the administration, Green is ambivalent but dislikes that Musk touts the need for people to work 80-hour workweeks. “The thing that really grosses me out is how the Trump administration is sort of playing along with this dialogue of reducing people to just economic units,” he said.

Until a few weeks ago, Green worked at AutoZone, where he noticed that parts imported from China were already increasing in price. Before that, he ran his own headstone company and imported much of the granite from China and India. He supports Trump’s intent behind imposing tariffs to boost American manufacturing, but worries that the sweeping policies will hurt small businesses the most.

Ultimately, Green gives Trump credit for trying to address long-standing issues and doing what he promised on the campaign trail. “At the very least, what I can give kudos to Trump for is actually trying to do the things,” Green said.

Green said he “somewhat regrets” voting for Trump in November, but he still wouldn’t have voted for Kamala Harris.

“Knowing where things have ended up now, I probably either would’ve hesitantly voted for him or just abstained altogether,” Green said. “I think honestly, from a moral standpoint, I probably would have abstained.”

Has President Donald Trump’s second term affected your life or community? KQED is continuing our reporting on how Californians are experiencing the administration’s policies. Share your story using our form. You can also reach our politics team directly at politics@kqed.org.