Combative Trump declares 'America is back'. Here's what his voters made of it

By Julia Harte, Daniel Trotta and Brad Brooks

U.S. President Donald Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday received high marks from a group of voters who backed the president in November's election, saying in interviews they supported his promises to cut taxes, reshape the government and crack down on immigration.

From diehard supporters of Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement to voters who consider themselves more centrist, the following eight people represent a cross-section of the Americans who helped re-elect Trump. Shortly after the 99-minute address ended, they shared their reactions with Reuters.

Each one graded Trump's speech and answered a few questions about it. Following are their remarks, edited and condensed for clarity:

Antonio Aponte, 36, is a nurse originally from Puerto Rico who works for the Veterans Administration in Wyoming, but is currently deployed in Jordan with the state's National Guard. He voted for Trump because he wanted to see government spending cut and any wasted funds re-purposed.

Question: What grade do you give the president's address?

Answer: A-

Q: What did you like about it?

A: The whole mass deportation effort resonates with me because you have a lot of Hispanics who were born here, who were naturalized legally, and then all these illegal immigrants give the rest of us a bad name. I liked the $5 million for citizenship program because you can't just close the border completely, but you can't just flood it with anybody who wants to come in.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: I'm an isolationist, so I'm not particularly fond of the plan to get Greenland. Is it really worth putting soldiers' boots on the ground to get either another commonwealth or a new state? Let's fix ourselves first and then spread the wealth.

Q: What changes did he announce or promise that will impact your everyday life?

A: His changes to the military will impact me, not necessarily directly, but definitely our administrative support will be affected because of all the people who are going to take the buyout and leave their jobs. Will it be bad? Probably not, because they're trying to end a lot of waste, fraud and abuse.

**

Will Brown, 20, is a student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who wants to pursue a career in finance. He volunteered for Trump's campaign, and said his main reason for supporting Trump was wanting to see prices go down. He also wants to see immigration reduced. Trump's recent comments on resettling Gaza were one of the few matters about which Brown disapproves, but he said they might be a bargaining tactic.

Q: What grade do you give the president's address?

A: B+

Q: What did you like about it?

A: I like how he made some jokes today, which are always good. The fact he covered the economy as a whole and his tariffs as a whole is a plus, and that he covered both wars, the Israeli war and the Ukraine Russo war.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: It ran long.

Q: What changes did he announce or promise that will impact your everyday life?

A: If he ends the Ukrainian war, we'd see a lot less refugees. That would be a small if not negligible effect on my life but for a lot of people in Europe and Ukraine that would have a big effect on their lives.

**

Lesa Sandberg, 57, runs an accounting business, rents several properties, and works for former Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz's political action committee in Utah. A longtime supporter of Trump, she's excited for him to extend a small business tax credit from his first term. She does question some things Trump has done, such as whether his effort to end birthright citizenship is constitutional.

Q: What grade do you give the president's address?

A: A+ It was jam packed full of everything he's been doing.

Q: What did you like about it?

A: The whole attitude of Americanism, patriotism, the excellence of America and moving us back in that direction and being unapologetic for moving us in that direction. I liked that he gave us a clear plan of the direction we're going and what he's trying to accomplish.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: I didn't like the disrespect from the Democrats. It made me sad to think that this is how divided our country is. A lot of what President Trump talked about shouldn't be partisan issues.

Q: What changes did he announce or promise that will impact your everyday life?

A: Everything he spoke about the economy will affect me directly - the tax cuts will affect me directly. Also, not taxing Social Security - my parents are living on Social Security and I don't think they should pay tax on it.

**

Herman Sims, 66, is a night operations manager for a trucking company in Dallas, Texas. He's happy to see the Trump administration's efforts to end what he considers wasteful spending by U.S. government agencies. He's hopeful that Trump will be able to implement tougher border restrictions.

Q: What grade do you give the president's address?

A: B+. There were a couple of things I don't know if the president was factually correct on or not. For instance, he blamed the high price of eggs on President (Joe) Biden. I don't know if that's true or not.

Q: What did you like about it?

A: I really enjoyed the beginning and how he asked the Democrats to at least clap with him for one night, to have unity for the country. He had a great line about crossings at the border being at a low last month, how the Democrats insisted that we needed new legislation to fix the problem and that it turns out we just needed a new president.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: I wish the president had talked more about the tariffs - I wish he had gone into more detail about how they will work. Also, he mentioned that we're going to put a flag on Mars. I wish he had talked in more detail about the economy, and not waste money by going to Mars.

Q: What changes did he announce or promise that will impact your everyday life?

A: I don't think he mentioned anything that is going to affect me at all.

**

Chad Hill, 49, is a controlling supervisor at a nuclear power plant near his home in Ohio. He hopes Trump brings down grocery costs and energy prices. As a father of three, he wants to see the U.S. Education Department shut down, because he believes states should control their own education systems. Hill is also counting on Trump to end the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas wars.

Q: Grade for the speech?

A: B+

Q: What did you like about it?

A: I specifically like when he interweaves the stories of Americans into the speech and he has them there and discusses why exactly they're there and how that pertains to what he's doing or what he wants to do.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: It may have gone on too long. That bit on Social Security went on a bit too long, and the crazy overseas programs. Three or four examples would have been good.

Q: What changes did he announce or promise that will impact your everyday life?

A: No taxes on tips, overtime or Social Security - that would definitely assist me. Overtime is about 20% of my pay.

**

Loretta Torres, 37, is a stay-at-home mom of three boys who lives near Houston, Texas. Her main reason for voting Trump was because she wants to see a "big boost" in the economy, and because she likes his persona and felt the United States needed a leader who was going to make the country look strong.

Q: Grade for the speech?

A: A+

Q: What did you like about it?

A: At the beginning it was really strong. Then towards the middle he was getting emotional and it made me emotional. Toward the end, he wrapped it all up.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: I don't think I can say there was anything I didn't like.

Q: What changes did he announce or promise that will impact your everyday life?

A: Torres cited the renaming of the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, not far from her Houston-area home, after Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl who was killed in June. Two undocumented Venezuelans have been charged with the crime. "I will definitely make a visit to that area just to witness the renaming in the honor of her in her life."

**

Michael Klemm, 53, lives in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he owns a restaurant and several online retail businesses. He voted for Trump out of disgust with what he called the government's "reckless spending, fraud, and abuse over the last 40 years." Klemm, who is also a day trader, is slightly concerned by the negative effect that Trump's tariffs have had on the market.

Q: Grade for the speech?

A: B+

Q: What did you like about it?

A: I like to see us getting back to patriotism. I like the announcement about the Golden Dome defense system, I like to hear that our tax money is going to be used for our protection. I like to hear, 'Let's get rid of people that are here illegally and causing the people in this country pain.'

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: I would have liked more clarity on exactly why we're putting these tariffs on other countries. He kind of brushed over the fact that other countries tariff us. Also, as someone with investments that are correlated with the cryptocurrency industry, I would have loved to hear him talk about the strategic crypto investments that he's talked about recently, because that moves markets.

Q: What changes did he announce or promise that will impact your everyday life?

A: Hearing about all these investments that are going to pay off for the American people. If you grow the GDP, that makes more money for our government. So there's your tax cuts right there.

**

Juan Rivera, 25, is a self-employed social media marketer near San Diego, California. A Latino man, he voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024. He hopes the president reduces inflation and gas prices, and is tough on crime and immigration. These are personal issues to Rivera because he has been assaulted in high-crime areas near his home that serve as "drop-off" zones for migrants.

Q: Grade for the speech?

A: A+

Q: What did you like about it?

A: The messaging about bringing back jobs, cutting the cost of energy, making sure taxpayer dollars are spent well, especially with the new initiatives under DOGE.

Q: What didn't you like about it?

A: I didn't like the Democrats protesting everything. There were a lot of points where I think that they should have celebrated the accomplishments he was talking about.

Q: What changes did he announce or promise that will impact your everyday life?

A: I'm hopeful about seeing a lot of these policies come into place and bring down the cost of living, the cost of energy, the cost of gasoline. Especially the no tax on tips. That's definitely something that affects a couple of members of my family.