Eight years ago, Peggy Hayes thought she saw something brilliant in Donald Trump, a politician who knew how to make the political system, the news media and the culture react to him.
She said at the time that he would be a strong father figure to a nation that felt “burdened by child-rearing responsibilities.”
Hayes, a 62-year-old personal trainer from a politically volatile part of Virginia, was an early supporter of Trump before he won the Republican nomination and was profiled by The Times about his then-burgeoning movement.
Hayes has been through a lot since then — moving twice, having a grandchild, being injured at work — and her views of Trump have changed. But she remains a Trump supporter, if not as ardent as before. And her perspective remains valuable in understanding why and how Trump remains a political force despite the unprecedented events that made his election: an insurrection, two impeachments, and multiple criminal charges and convictions.
“I feel like we’re all in the same boat,” she said in a recent interview. “It sometimes feels like democracy is being lost and it’s no longer in the hands of the people.”
That doesn’t mean Hayes is sympathetic to Trump’s relentless, false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from her — she’s a bit ambivalent about the question — but rather a sense of being overwhelmed by a fast-moving society, where problems appear and disappear so quickly that by the time the government makes decisions, ordinary people don’t seem to have time to reflect and react.
“We’ll move on to the next thing right away,” she said.
Critics might argue that Trump’s stream-of-consciousness rallies, divisive social media posts and promises to act as an autocrat on his first day in office have something to do with this, but Hayes sees it differently: He believes people were more patriotic and less preoccupied with the day-to-day needs of economic survival during Trump’s presidency, when inflation wasn’t driving up the prices of basic necessities like food and rent.
This, too, is complicated: Many Americans have struggled during the pandemic and polls at the time showed disappointment with Trump’s governance, but government indicators show the economy is recovering well under Biden.
Hayes’ life has also seen some changes: After the pandemic closed her personal training business in Fredericksburg, Virginia, she moved to Florida and took a job at a sports medicine clinic near Jacksonville.
She had health insurance for the first time. She suffered a sudden injury to her finger, which developed an infection, underwent multiple surgeries, fought over workers’ compensation, and lost her job for a year. She moved back to her hometown about two years ago after having a relationship with a man who was renting her house in Virginia.
She has restarted her personal training business, making about $60,000 a year, more than she did eight years ago, and is now enrolled in an Obamacare insurance plan that she had previously rejected. Though her financial situation is better than it was eight years ago, she said she still feels strained, especially with rising prices.
She doesn’t believe Trump is anymore the dominant media figure he was eight years ago.
“He was the one controlling the narrative,” she said. “What he said dictated how the interview went. He controlled everything at that time.”
“Now it seems like things have changed and he’s almost become like an underdog,” she continued. “He’s always holding his feet to the fire and no one else seems to be doing that.”
Hayes rejects the idea that Trump’s actions were unprecedented and put him in this position. He, for example, blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for failing to restrain the January 6, 2020, rioters, and exonerated Trump for inciting them with false claims that he had won the election. Instead, Hayes expressed surprise that so many rioters received prison sentences.
“It’s as if he’s playing with the cards he’s been dealt when it comes to Trump’s ability to use the media and understand the ‘big organisation,'” she said.
Still, Ms. Hayes isn’t as enthusiastic about Trump as she was eight years ago, when the topic was a constant in her life. Her favorite personal-training clients, an elderly couple who loved to talk about him, have both passed away. She has stopped using Facebook.
“I was more interested and excited,” she said. “I want Trump to be in the position because he was doing well at one time, and I’m not as excited about what’s happened while this last administration was in power.”
She knows not everyone shares her views: Though her two adult daughters are more liberal than she is, she said she tends to avoid political discussions with her family.
Since her profile in The Times in 2016, she’s received a flood of emails, Facebook messages and letters. Many have called her ignorant. Some, seeing her dire financial situation, have offered her jobs.
“I was told I was ignorant and I felt a lot of anger towards myself,” she said.
She admits that, like most people, she doesn’t pay close attention to the details of the news. She said she was surprised and saddened by the backlash, but not bitter.
“With all that we have had to go through tragically together as Americans, we are not united,” she said. “We are far from united.”
