President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office have been tumultuous, and some of his voters doubt that this was the presidency they hoped for.
CNN spoke with some Trump voters in Tucson, Arizona, and found many didn't think prices were dropping as fast as they'd hoped — and they're concerned his tariffs are only going to make things worse.
“I’m feeling good about a lot of the promises that he made on the campaign, but I am worried about a few things as well,” said Trump voter Tamara Varga, a lifelong Republican and small business owner. “I’m worried about Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security. He did say that he was not going to cut them. That he was just going to find waste and I really hope that he sticks to that.”
Varga, who participated in CNN’s “All Over the Map” project during the 2024 presidential campaign, said she no longer believes the 2020 election was rigged and would consider backing a Democrat. And while she disagrees with friends who call Trump a dictator, some of their complaints about the president ring true.
"Sometimes I agree,” Varga said, "and things better change or he’s going to lose me, even.”
Varga remains confident that Trump will keep his promise not to cut Social Security and Medicare, although she does worry sometimes. But she's already seeing the impact of Trump's tariffs on her business.
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“It is causing some disruption,” Varga said. “We make gift baskets, and I have noticed that the items we put in our gift baskets have gone up. If he doesn’t come through [on trade], though, he’s going to have a lot of people turning on him.”
Ray Flores is a restaurant owner and political independent who says he agrees with some Trump priorities, like cutting government spending and deporting undocumented immigrants who can be linked to crime. But he hasn't been pleased with how the president conducts himself.
"I’m a little bewildered about how they have gone about things,” Flores said. “It seems a bit haphazard.”
He scores the president's first 100 days a five out of 10, but said he's seen too much impulse and emotion.
“I don’t want to see it get worse, right?" Flores said. "I don’t want to have that aggressive, somewhat mean-spirited decision-making take root in everything we do. But I also don’t want to crash. So, for me — in the middle — I hope it gets better. … If we could end up at a seven it would be really nice.”
