National news reporter shocked to find Trump’s support growing outside D.C.
Since leaving office, the support for Donald Trump from his base is even stronger, a Politico reporter discovered after a trip outside the Beltway.
Evangelist Franklin Graham, a noted supporter of the former president, hopes Washington is paying attention.
“Here’s a Washington reporter who went to Wyoming and was surprised at the ‘huge disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country,'” Graham wrote on Facebook. “I think she is right. She shared the observation that former President Trump has actually gained—not lost—political clout since leaving office. When it comes to the impeachment, it does nothing for the American people, it only continues to fuel more disunity.
“I hope the leaders in Washington pay attention to this reporter, because the disconnect is there—it’s true all over the country, not just in Wyoming,” said Graham, the CEO and president of both Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
The reporter, Tara Palmeri, was at a rally last week led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., against Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who enraged her constituents by voting to impeach Trump. Cheney has been censured by a GOP committee in the state and already has a primary challenger for the 2022 election.
The reporter spoke with Wyoming voters about Trump.
“People don’t want to hear anything against Trump,” Palmeri said in an MSNBC interview. “Actually, the more he stays out of the media, the more that he becomes this martyr, this looming figure over the GOP.”
In fact, Trump is “way more popular” in Wyoming than Cheney, she said.
“I actually went out of my way to try to find someone who would defend [Cheney] and I really could not,” Palmeri said.
The reporter said the Trump base “is getting stronger, truly.”
“I think an impeachment [conviction] would make him even more powerful,” she said.