For a decade now, the coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania has been Trump country, a stretch of postindustrial cities inhabited by disillusioned former Democrats who embody what the president calls “my base.”
On Tuesday night, when Mr. Trump delivers the first true State of the Union address of his second term, this base is by and large still standing behind their president. But beneath the apparent satisfaction among the president’s most committed voters lie signs of trouble — for his policy agenda and his political party.
In more than a dozen interviews, Trump voters in the area said they generally supported his approach to immigration, foreign policy and trade, forgiving some chaos as the necessary byproduct of vigorous action.
Mr. Trump was beginning to move the economy in the right direction, said Tom Ciampi, 67, who lives in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. It hasn’t been perfect, allowed Mr. Ciampi, whose father was a staunch union Democrat and who was a Democrat himself until about 10 years ago. But people needed to have patience.
“What I’m expecting to hear is he’s going to recap what he’s done,” Mr. Ciampi said of the State of the Union address, saying he believed Democrats would attack Mr. Trump no matter what he said. He added: “I’ll be honest with you, if I get bored, I’ll change the channel.”
Other Trump supporters said they wouldn’t be listening at all; they trust him and don’t need to.
Still, in Luzerne County, in the heart of the coal region, cracks are showing in the broad coalition that gave Mr. Trump a popular vote victory in 2024. Some young voters, Latinos and other recent additions to the Trump coalition are beginning to sour on him.
And contentment with Mr. Trump doesn’t translate into active support for the Republican Party. Some Republicans fear that his base voters, convinced that Mr. Trump needs no one’s help to carry out his America First agenda, are exhibiting a dangerous complacency at a time when the president’s opponents — Democrats, independents and a growing number of disgruntled Republicans — are fired up.
In local elections last November, Democrats in Luzerne roared back, flipping control of the county council and racking up surprise victories in several municipal and school board races.
Republicans in the county “probably got fat and happy because Trump is in there,” said Walter Griffith, who lost his seat as county controller, giving possible reasons his fellow Republicans did not show up at the polls. “But the other side of it is that the Democrats went out and they got all their people to vote.”
Ten years ago, in 2016, Mr. Trump won Luzerne County by the largest margin of any presidential candidate in more than forty years. He won even more handily in 2024.
Over that stretch, Republicans won one local race after another and at one point held all but one seat on the county council. The U.S. House seat that includes Luzerne County had been held by a six-term Democratic incumbent; it flipped to a Republican, Rob Bresnahan Jr., in 2024, as did a neighboring House district.
On the eve of the 2024 election, the number of registered Republicans in Luzerne County surpassed the number of registered Democrats for the first time.
“Growing up around here, you couldn’t find a Republican if your life depended on it,” Mr. Ciampi said. But more recently he had come to see the Democrats as closed-minded, and had grown frustrated as they talked of increasing taxes even as businesses in the region, including one he used to work for, closed up or moved abroad.
Frustration about the economy was a top issue driving votes in this part of the state, an October 2024 New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena University poll found.
And in interviews this week, many locals expressed concern that prices, including for things like groceries, remained high. Some also felt betrayed by what they saw as broken promises.
“He’s not helping families with kids who are struggling,” said Cheyenne Weston, a 26-year-old mother of two who lives in neighboring Carbon County and voted for Mr. Trump in 2024. “And while we shouldn’t have people here illegally, especially criminals, the way you conduct that endeavor should be conducive to supporting life rather than taking it.”
She said she approved of Mr. Trump’s anti-abortion stance, even if she had some reservations about him. Now she said she even hesitates to say he values human life.
“I don’t feel like he’s pro-life in any other way,” Ms. Weston said.
Among Latinos in Luzerne, the buyer’s remorse might be more intense, and more widespread, said Miguel Perdomo, 57, who owns a Dominican restaurant in Wilkes-Barre, where about a third of the population is Latino.
In 2024, Mr. Perdomo said, five of his siblings and many of his customers were excited to vote for Mr. Trump. “They talked about the economy. ‘When Trump comes, everything’s going to change,’” he recalled over coffee at his restaurant.
As Mr. Trump’s second term unfolded, he said, the mood about the economy did not improve. Tariffs made it hard for many local businesses. Immigration raids made things even harder, as Latino customers — citizens or not — stayed home, fearful of being stopped by federal immigration agents.
“He promised a lot of stuff, and he isn’t doing even half of what he promised,” Mr. Perdomo said of the president. “That’s why people come back and say, ‘I made a mistake.’”
For many voters, feelings about Mr. Trump are not tied to specific policies but a more general sense about the state of the country these days. For his core supporters, a powerful faith in the president persists.
“Trump has been doing exactly what he said he would do. He made promises and he’s keeping them,” said James Bosscher, 73, a retired cancer surgeon in Throop, Pa. “He’s actually trying to help this country.”
But beyond the base, discontent may be rising. Denise Williams, one of four Democrats to flip county council seats in November, said that when she was knocking on doors, the most common sentiment she heard was a concern about “how divisive things have gotten.”
“I think a lot of people are just really weary of it,” she said.
Trump supporters lamented that divisiveness, too, but mostly blamed the Democrats for driving it. Indeed, even as polls show Mr. Trump with consistently low approval ratings, he still enjoys strong support with his base nationally. Nearly 90 percent of Republicans approve of his job performance, in the latest Quinnipiac University poll.
In interviews, some Trump voters, even those who were less fully committed to the president, made a similar argument: He was at least superior to the alternative.
“Anything was better than Biden-Harris-Obama,” said Damian Slick, 50, a retired veteran living in Carbondale who said he supported Mr. Trump, even if the president was not his first choice. He has since been happy with the president’s approach to immigration, and he said he believes that Mr. Trump “wants America first.”
But in the 2024 election, Mr. Slick said, he did not believe he had much of a choice.
“I didn’t want the country to be any further left,” he said.
Campbell Robertson reports for The Times on Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
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