Trump supporters offer advice to president 1 year after his election

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Local supporters of President Donald Trump are weighing in one year after his election.

Even in Democratic-leaning Chicago, there are lots of supporters of the president who choose first to stake out their identity as conservatives. And because the president seems to be hearing them, they are happy with him, for the most part.

But they have some advice.

Ten weeks after the inauguration, supporters rallied for a DuPage Deplorables Ball as the new commander-in-chief was sworn in organized by Michael Irving.

"I think the message is still on i think he needs to just stay strong and keep pushing the establishment," Irving said.

Irving got animated about politics first in 1984, helping Ronald Reagan to re-election. He said the 40th president's sunny ways are what his successor needs to emulate now.

"Avoid all these petty arguments that don't mean anything. (But isn't that part of his appeal though to so many people on that wing of the party?) Yeah, but now instead of a candidate or a reality TV star, the apprentice show host, now he is president of the United States," Irving said.

Irving, like many Trump supporters, see the elevation of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court as the president's finest moment so far. But Irving and others worry about the Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia collusion investigation and how a GOP-dominated Congress could not repeal Obamacare.

"I would give the president a C+ and i would give Congress a D," said George Pearson, Black Tea Patriots.

Pearson is a leader in a niche of the Trump base, as seen on the Black Tea Party Patriots Facebook page. The oil sales executive -- who served in the Navy then in law enforcement -- sees the president's tweeting as a distraction to getting things done.

"Sometimes I do want somebody to snatch the phone out of his hand, but this is one of the reasons why he was elected because he doesn't mince words," he said.

And late Wednesday afternoon the chairman of the Kendall County GOP wrote that his "disappointments are not with President Trump, rather Republican leaders in Congress."

It's a common theme and something that may explain again what really motivates those Trump tweets, which have often been aimed at members of his own party.