Bay Area Republicans rate President Trump's job performance
SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - President Donald Trump returns to Washington Saturday with some momentum from his first foreign trip, which some Republicans are calling a big success, after his meetings with NATO, the G7 leaders, Saudi Arabia, and the Pope.
"Because of his trip to the Middle East, I would give him an A+," said Roseann Slonsky-Breault of Oakland who says she initially favored Marco Rubio over Mr. Trump during last year's GOP primary race. She says so far, President Trump has met her expectations, especially with his speech in Saudi Arabia about terrorism.
"He had strength and resolve and his speech was I think outstanding," said Slonsky-Breault.
Republicans are not of one mind, however, in their opinions of President Trump's leadership and performance on the job.
Ohio Republican and former House Speaker John Boehner, said Thursday at an energy convention in Houston that the president's foriegn policy is good, but he had blunt criticism of President Trump, who has been his friend for 15 years.
"Everything else he's done (in office) has been a complete disaster...He's still learning how to be president," said Boehner, according to an article in the energy publication Rigzone.
"I'd definitely give him mixed reviews," said San Francisco Republican Party Chair Jason Clark, who added that he is frustrated by the president's constant Twitter posts.
"He says one thing on twitter and does another thing over here," said Clark, "I think definitely within the White House they need to be better at organization and coordination."
Clark also says he thinks the tweets are a distraction that take President Trump's focus away from more important issues.
"Tax reform, so that millennials like me can afford to save for a house or something," said Clark.
"He said he'd drain the swamp, but now he's just jumped in it and swimming in it," said Tea Party Republican Dave Erlich, a former Alameda County Republican Party chair.
Surprisingly, Erlich was one of the earliest Bay Area supporters of the Trump campaign, but he says now he and other Tea Party conservatives in California are disappointed and frustrated by what they see as a series of gaffes from a Trump administration that hasn't been able to focus and lead the Republican-controlled Congress in passing health care and tax reforms.
"What he's failed at is building a cohesive administration. He doesn't have anybody's back, so they don't have his back. And that's why he's going through all the problems he has. He's not taking any advice from anybody," said Erlich.
Still, some say the president has delivered on one promise, filling the late Justice Antonin Scalia's Supreme Court seat with a conservative justice.
"His appointment and the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch really was a very important motivating factor for many conservatives, so he's already a winner in his term on that one," said Harmeet Dhillon, RNC national committeewoman for California.
Looking ahead, many Republicans are hoping President Trump can do more to unite the party and get their agenda passed.
"They're all fighting within themselves and I think he has to work a little bit harder to get them to come together," said Slonsky-Breault.