CNN
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President Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday night was well-received by those who backed him against Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, but alienated Democratic voters who oppose his agenda, a CNN focus group in the Philadelphia suburbs found.
Speaking to CNN’s Boris Sanchez, a group of Bucks County voters weighed in on Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress – after he last year became the first Republican to win the political battleground in a presidential race since 1988 with his 291-vote victory out of about 400,000 cast.
Carolyn Debuque, a retired Air National Guard officer from Quakertown, said Trump’s speech was “very positive.”
Debuque, a Republican who voted for Trump, said the tariffs the president slapped on imports from China, Canada and Mexico this week “should have been done a long time ago.”
“I think now we’re taking back things that never should have been given away,” she said.
Democrats, though, were sharply critical of Trump’s speech.
“There wasn’t very much that was positive to me about the speech,” said Dr. Imogene Taylor-Kelly, a Democrat and Harris voter from Doylestown. “It’s more of a divisive method, that he tries to pit usf against each other, whether it’s racially or economically or where we live.”
Sheri Ratner, a nonprofit organization’s program director from Langhorne and a Democrat who voted for Harris, said she doesn’t believe Trump understands that the tariffs he implemented this week might spur inflation.
Ratner also said Trump should have spent more time on the economic concerns Americans are facing – including food, housing and utility costs.
“It’s worse now than ever,” she said.
One thing all eight participants agreed on: None liked Trump blaming former President Joe Biden for the high price of eggs.
One noted the outbreak of deadly avian flu that has affected hen-laying eggs since 2022, and said neither president was to blame for it. “It wasn’t Trump’s fault. It wasn’t that Biden had some crazy policy against eggs,” she said.
Joe Donahue, a customer service worker from Churchville who is a Republican and voted for Trump, said there was “definitely a lot of unity that he was preaching” during the speech.
However, he said Trump should do more to work with Democrats – who Trump chided repeatedly during his speech, as several of the party’s attendees held critical signs or walked out as the president spoke.
There “definitely needs to be more of a willingness by the president to do some reaching across the aisle,” Donahue said.
