Joyce Kenney is even more satisfied with Donald Trump today than when she voted for him in 2024.
“I would gladly vote for him anytime,” said the 74-year-old retiree from Prescott Valley, Arizona.
As Trump enters the second year of his presidency, Kenney hopes to continue his crusade against government waste and fraud, cut costs for senior citizens and deport more criminal immigrants — but also make it easier for law-abiding immigrants, even those who entered illegally, to stay in the United States.
“He needs to find a softer approach to illegal immigrants, not just look at everything in black and white, because there are a lot of gray areas in everything,” she said. “We need to show a lot more humanity to people who are not Americans.”
As Trump faces nationwide protests against his immigration policies, growing complaints about the cost of living and tensions with countries from Denmark to Colombia, Kenney and 19 other Trump voters spoke to Reuters about what they want him to accomplish in the year ahead.
Almost all have praised his performance in his first year in office. They have supported policies that polls show have upset many Americans - increased immigration controls in American cities, tariffs on trading partners, deep cuts to the federal administration and the capture of the president of Venezuela.
Speaking to Reuters, some Trump voters say they have nothing serious to complain about the president so far, while a smaller group openly expresses dissatisfaction with his performance so far. However, the majority takes a nuanced position: they have objections, but none of the interviewees say they regret voting for Trump.
“I wish he would focus a lot more on America,” Robert Billups, 34, an unemployed accountant from Washington state, told Reuters. He said he voted for Trump expecting cheaper healthcare and more transparent spending of public money, but he admits he hasn’t seen significant progress in those areas yet. However, he added that Trump “was probably still the best option” in the 2024 election.
In contrast, Steve Egan, 65, a promotional products distributor in Tampa, Florida, gave Trump a “failing grade,” citing tariffs, contempt for judges and officials he disagrees with, and what he called “gun-rattling” in talk of taking over Greenland and other countries. “My main hope for 2026 is that Trump stays in his lane and doesn’t cause a constitutional crisis,” Egan told Reuters.
Although he says he generally doesn't vote for Democrats, Egan adds: "If a Democrat comes along whose story makes more sense than what Trump is saying right now, I would probably vote for him."
The most common demand from voters Reuters spoke to concerns immigration - specifically, a clearer path to legal status for immigrants who are already working and contributing to the US economy.
Juan Rivera, 26, a content creator from the San Diego area and a Latino activist within the California Republican Party, said he was “a little disappointed” that Trump did not prioritize immigration reform. “The Latino voters, the Asian-American voters who voted for the president — they voted because they wanted to see immigration reform,” Rivera told Reuters. “I don’t think all Republicans understand that the president wouldn’t have won without those voters.”
Brandon Neumeister, 36, a Pennsylvania prison officer and former National Guardsman, has a similar view. “If they’ve been here a long time, if they’ve worked, if they’ve not gotten into trouble, those are the people we want,” he told Reuters, adding that the administration should offer “a simpler and more streamlined way for them to get citizenship,” instead of deportation.
Lesa Sandberg, 58, of St. George, Utah, who runs an accounting business and works for a Republican political action committee, said she supports Trump's border security measures but would like to see the same intensity when it comes to legalizing the status of those who are not criminals. "I would like to see as much attention paid to allowing people to be here legally as to deporting criminals," she told Reuters.
Sandberg told Reuters that she was “pleased” and “full of hope” after last year’s tax cuts and deregulation, but that she was concerned about the growth of the military budget and the fact that she did not see clear savings after the cuts in the state administration. “The priority should be to finally balance the damn budget and stop the growth of the debt,” she said.
Terry Alberta, 65, a pilot from Michigan, said that in his area, “the economy is looking great,” but he expected more in terms of combating the waste of public money. “I thought with DOGE we were really going to put a stop to that, but now you’re just taking a big package of money from one group and giving it to another,” Alberta told Reuters. “I don’t see the deficit really coming down.”
He added that he was tired of Trump's need to constantly attack critics. "Stop inciting people who disagree with you. Just calm down a little," he said.
In Georgia, David Ferguson, 54, a mechanical engineer and sales manager at an industrial company, told Reuters he supports Trump’s tariffs and efforts to bring manufacturing back to the United States, though he acknowledges that the president has “a certain arrogance that can sometimes be too much.” “But,” Ferguson adds, “it works for what he’s trying to do.”
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