Celebrating six months of ‘America First’ with Trump

Though he’s not even old enough to vote, 16-year-old Randon Carr stood alongside rush-hour traffic Thursday holding a Trump-Pence campaign flag as it waved in the wind behind him.

Randon stood next to his mother, Debbie Carr, who also carried a flag in support of President Donald Trump, while wearing an American flag print dress and a large bow in her hair with “TRUMP” spelled out in stickers across the top of the bow.

The Carrs joined members of America First-Team Manatee, a group of local Trump supporters, who congregated at the corner of Manatee Avenue and First Street Thursday afternoon to mark Trump’s sixth month in office.

Trump’s inauguration ceremony was held Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C.

Randon said it was a great feeling to be out in public showing his support.

“I feel that it’s important to support our president any way we can. I mean his job’s already hard enough, so we need to give all of our support possible,” Randon said.

His mother agreed.

“He’s doing what we hired him for but he keeps getting dumped on. It doesn’t matter if he did something totally great, he’d still get negative. And it’s like, give the guy a chance he’s only six months in office, give him a shot,” she said.

Andrea Stanford, a founding member of America First-Team Manatee, said they’ve shown their support for Trump at the busy intersection periodically over the past year. On Thursday, several wore T-shirts with Trump’s name across the front in bold letters.

“We just want the world to know we’re out here supporting our president and the ‘America First’ philosophy,” Stanford said. “We’re encouraged by all his administration is accomplishing in a couple months.”

The group of more than a dozen sign-toting and flag-waving supporters were met with frequent honking horns of approval.

Sandy Greeley said hearing the cheers and honking horns of approval are why she comes to these events.

“That’s why I do it, because people want to know that they’re not alone, that they’re not the only ones. ... There’s a lot of us out there that still love our president, we still support him, and we will,” Greeley said.

But before they took their posts, words were exchanged with a man shouting his disapproval of Trump while driving away from a nearby Starbucks parking lot, where the group stopped for a cold drink before standing in the 90-degree heat.

Words of disapproval ares not unusual for the group. Greeley said she sees people who don’t support the president regularly when the group stands at the corner.

“I’d say about every other car,” Greeley said, laughing. “We are not giving up on President Donald Trump because we love him. And he is the answer.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2017 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Celebrating six months of ‘America First’ with Trump."