美国国家公共电台 NPR For Some Trump Loyalists, It's Personality Over Policy

For Some Trump 1 Loyalists, It's Personality Over Policy 

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All right, if you think of one issue at the heart of Donald Trump's campaign, immigration might well be what comes to mind. For Trump supporters, as well as for his detractors, this is the animating 3 issue. So when the Republican nominee 4 seemed to change his position, suggesting he'd be willing to soften 5 his calls to deport 6 people in the country illegally, you could imagine this upsetting his supporters. But NPR's Sarah McCammon reports that many of them seem unconcerned about his policy shifts.

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE 7: Over the weekend, Trump supporters streamed in and out of a new campaign office opening up in the battleground state of Nevada. Outside, Las-Vegas-based musician Steven Boz performed a ballad 8 to the real estate developer.

STEVEN BOZ: (Singing) Ride into the sunset, Trump nation.

MCCAMMON: Boz has flowing, blond hair and performs in front of a white tour bus draped in an American flag. He says his admiration 9 for Trump is simple.

BOZ: I love his attitude, and I can relate to it. It's, like, say what's real and get on with it and stop pussyfooting around, people.

MCCAMMON: Boz says illegal immigration is a problem, but as far as policy, he trusts Trump to figure that out.

BOZ: Whatever he wants to do, I'll back him. That's all I can say. It's tough.

MCCAMMON: Inside, supporters pose for a group photo before signing up for door knocking and phone banking 10 trouble.

BOZ: One the count of three, say Trump, all right? One, two, three.

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Trump.

MCCAMMON: Wearing a Make-America-Great-Again hat, Judy Callahan says she's supported the real estate developer from the beginning.

JUDY CALLAHAN: I just love him. I love every second of him.

MCCAMMON: At 69, Callahan is about to retire from her job as a hospice cook and spend her time volunteering for the campaign. It doesn't bother her that Trump's policies on issues like immigration sometimes seem unclear.

CALLAHAN: I listen to half of what Trump says, and then I move on, because you have to get people's attention.

MONTY KIEFER: He's a negotiator. He takes a position to start a negotiation 11.

MCCAMMON: Monty Kiefer, a 75-year-old retiree, says Trump has been consistent about the most important thing - getting rid of what he calls the bad people. Last week, Trump told Fox News he could work with people who were here illegally and have not committed crimes. That sounded a lot like a path to legalization, a position Trump had previously 12 criticized as weak. But Kiefer isn't concerned.

KIEFER: Remember, he wrote the book "The Art Of The Deal."

MCCAMMON: For John Delaberta, a retired 13 businessman who also came to sign up to volunteer, what to do about immigration just isn't that complicated.

JOHN DELABERTA: I'm a little older than you, and I have a lot more common sense that I was taught as a young child growing up in America. And common sense and practical solutions seem to work most of the time.

MCCAMMON: That solution, he says, is to build a wall with Mexico. This weekend in Iowa, Trump returned to a hard-line position, telling supporters that on day one, he'd use existing laws to deport what he called hundreds and thousands of criminals who were in the country illegally. But deporting 14 large numbers of people could be a tough sell to general-election voters, and Trump has yet to outline exactly how he'd go about it. Still, for the candidate who once told a crowd he could shoot somebody and not lose voters, the details may not matter. Judy Callahan, the hospice cook we met earlier, agrees.

CALLAHAN: He could shoot someone on Broadway, and I would still vote for him.

MCCAMMON: You don't really mean he could shoot someone and you'd still vote for him.

CALLAHAN: Well, maybe if he just - if he just wounded him. We'll just let him wound him (laughter). No, what I'm trying to say to you is the people that are here today, they're going to vote for Trump. I don't care what he does.

MCCAMMON: On immigration, Callahan's greatest wish is for Trump to build a wall with Mexico. But even if he couldn't get that done, Callahan says she'd probably still vote for Trump again. Sarah McCammon, NPR News, Las Vegas.