(AFP) – Like most Republican voters casting their vote Tuesday in Huntington Beach, California, Tom Jones is delighted at the thought that Donald Trump could soon be the party’s presidential nominee.
While Trump cannot mathematically seal victory, a sweep of the 15 US states and one territory voting on Super Tuesday would pretty much leave Nikki Haley out for the count.
“He’s transparent. He has a lot more integrity than she does,” says Jones, 61, a professional athlete.
Trump’s four criminal indictments, his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, hush money payments to a porn star and his hoarding of secret documents after leaving the White House… none of it is relevant.
“It’s all lawfare,” says Jones.
“I think the American people realize that the justice system has been weaponized, like a third world country, or a banana republic. And that’s not what our democracy is about.”
Huntingdon Beach, an hour south of Los Angeles, is a Republican stronghold in largely-Democratic California.
The city is part of Orange County, where conservative former President Richard Nixon was born.
US flags fly all year round on beachside pavilions, and in residential areas of the city they are sometimes accompanied by “Trump 2024” pennants.
– ‘Smart business guy’ –
In front of the polling station at the municipal library, the same subjects come up again and again: inflation, immigration, and the need to stop funding Ukraine’s war of self-defense against the Russian invasion.
For those casting their ballot Tuesday, Trump is the only man who can halt these ills, which they blame on President Joe Biden.
The legal obstacles in front of Trump are a fix, put there by his Democratic Party opponents who cannot stop him fair and square, they say.
“These charges or accusations are ridiculous,” says retired photographer Zeek Van Delray.
“Something like this hasn’t happened in like 250 years in our country.”
The 59-year-old firmly believes Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” and worries about the machines being used to count votes this year.
He is pleased that the Supreme Court this week overturned Colorado’s decision to boot Trump off the ballot over his role in the insurrection of January 6, 2021.
“That should be left to the voters, that’s what our country has run on,” he says.
Even less-fervent supporters brush off Trump’s legal woes.
Kristin Smith smiles as she talks about the “loopholes” that Trump was able to exploit to obtain favorable credit conditions — the source of the $355 million fine imposed by a civil judge in New York last month.
“He’s just a smart business guy, and you cannot fault him for that,” the 44-year-old marketing executive told AFP.
Accusations of infidelities, including with an adult film actress, aren’t material for Smith.
“Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, you name it, they’re all doing it,” she said.
“When men get to a certain level, they’re no longer interested in money. They’re interested in power. “I don’t like it at all, but in the end I want the smartest person running this country. I don’t care about anything else.”
But Trump’s role in the storming of the Capitol does give her pause.
If he is convicted in a criminal trial, she’s not sure how that would affect her vote.
“I don’t know what I would do,” she says. “I honestly don’t know.” – Romain FONSEGRIVES
© 2024 AFP
