a day ago
As thousands protest at State House, has SC's approval of Trump shifted at all?
Several thousand protesters descended on the South Carolina State House Saturday to oppose President Donald Trump.
'My concern is the constitution,' said Martha Barnette, 69, who stood alongside her brother holding a sign that read, 'Save our Democracy! No Kings!,' on one side and 'June 14th, Barack Obama Appreciation Day! No Kings,' on the other.
'We are a country of laws where federal overreach is currently rampant. I mean, good Lord, where do you start?' Barnette said. 'We don't want a king, this is America. We got away from kings to have freedom. Things (in this government) have just gone crazy.'
Saturday's demonstration at the State House was one of many 'No Kings' protests in South Carolina and around the nation that coincided with a military parade in Washington, D.C., to mark the Army's 250th birthday. It also fell on Trump's 79th birthday.
Other demonstrations held at the State House this year have drawn hundreds upset by the Trump administration's actions on immigration and other issues. Which raises the question of whether those numbers represent any waning enthusiasm for the president in a state that voted for Trump by 18 percentage points seven months ago.
Winthrop University has conducted three statewide polls of South Carolina voters since Trump assumed office on Jan. 20. In February, April and May, Trump's approval among all voters has been consistently around 45%. The disapproval rate was at 40% and rose to 45% and 43% in the next two months, respectively. But that's largely because the percentage answering 'don't know' fell from 16% to 11% to 9%.
'That may not be the same after the protests' in California, said Scott Huffmon, director of the Winthrop Poll. 'There's a clear difference over [Kilmar Abrego] Garcia being brought back, but that's really the only strong immigration story that's bubbled up to public attention.'
Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who previously lived in Maryland after entering the country without documentation. He and several other immigrants the Trump administration accused of gang ties were deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador under an emergency war powers act that courts later blocked. A judge ordered that the U.S. 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. because his deportation violated a previous court order that found Abrego Garcia was likely to face persecution if he was returned to El Salvador, and the Supreme Court later upheld the decision.
Trump initially insisted he was unable to remove Abrego Garcia from Salvadoran custody, but earlier this month Abrego Garcia was brought back to the U.S. to face charges of human smuggling.
On Saturday at the State House, state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, addressed the crowd.
'No more, enough is enough,' Johnson, D-Richland, chanted several times at the outset of his remarks.
In what he called 'an attack' on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies in South Carolina, Johnson said he challenged his colleagues on the House floor.
'I had to tell them, what are you afraid of?' Johnson said. 'Are you afraid of the diversity part? Are you afraid of the equity part or in the inclusion part. Nobody told you that you can't be proud of being white. Nobody told you can't be proud of you being European. Nobody told you can't be proud of being Jewish. Nobody told you we could not be proud of being Black. '
The protests are also taking place with the backdrop of Trump's deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to demonstrations against immigration raids in the city, a move that was resisted by local officials who fear it could increase tensions and the potential for violence.
'When you see something you need to take a stance for, don't let anybody get in the way of standing up for what you believe in, despite the possibility of retaliation,' Hakeem Hayard, 27, of Columbia said at the State House rally Saturday. 'I firmly believe that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything, and in this day and age, where information can be easily misused, solidarity is better than separation. So, unity is the goal here for me today.'
Some protesters of Latin descent were reluctant to share their names, including a 21-year-old who is the first in his family born in America. He said close relatives have been summoned to immigration court.
'I have loved ones close to me that have already been called into immigration court and told the government is trying to get rid of your visa and are trying to take you away,' the man said. 'My family is lucky to have their own lawyers. A lot of people don't have that help. A lot of people, find themselves detained by ICE after their immigration hearing in court.'
The May Winthrop poll showed that 44% of South Carolinians said Trump should comply with court orders to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. 33% said he should not, and 23% were unsure.
'We shouldn't assume that all of the respondents knew the particulars of the Abrego Garcia case,' Huffmon noted when releasing the poll results. 'If they didn't, this becomes more of a referendum on whether the Trump administration should be bound by court orders when it comes to immigration.'
The same poll shows that 45% of South Carolinians disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy, while 43% approve. But Trump is much stronger on immigration, with 50% approving of his handling of the issue and 40% disapproving.
'The people who constantly follow the news forget that the average person doesn't pay attention closely until something like the protests erupt, and then they see it as coming out of nowhere,' Huffmon said. 'It's possible that people who like the idea of Trump deporting folks have a problem with using the National Guard and military against U.S. citizens. That could produce a shift among those moderately supporting Trump.'
Greg Brewer, an engineer and self-described 'limited government fiscal conservative' living in Lexington, used to live in California and moved back to South Carolina amid the strict lockdown requirements imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
'California in general is completely mismanaged, with its debt, its catastrophes,' Brewer said. 'The vegetation isn't managed, which is why they have these wildfires. I think there's nothing impressive about Gavin Newsom, he's a disaster.'
'Trump got elected because of concerns about sovereignty and border protection,' he said. 'That's what he campaigned on, and he's delivering on it.'
But another Lexington conservative had a different reaction to the week's news. Anne Marie Green, the former chair of the Lexington 1 school board, posted on Facebook that she was surprised to be heading to the protest herself.
'As a Christian, a lifelong Republican, and someone who grew up on the principled, conservative leadership of Ronald Reagan and Governor Carroll Campbell, I never imagined I would attend a protest,' Green wrote. 'I'll be standing with others at the No Kings protest to affirm something simple but vital: In America, we don't worship politicians. We hold them accountable. Our leaders are servants, not kings.'
State Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, believes that at least some people who voted for Trump are reconsidering, citing Arab American voters in Michigan who abandoned the Democrats over the Biden administration's approach to the war in Gaza, or Cuban Americans who have seen the revocation of immigrants' protected status under Trump.
'Republican businessmen see their 401(k)s plummet, and then when a court rules he did something illegal, the stock market goes up,' he said. 'Even the business community feels like they did not get what they pay for.'
