Trump is back – and you would be surprised how many Santa Cruzans support his agenda

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Donald Trump is now our president for the next four years. 

For some of my friends and neighbors in my San Lorenzo Valley community, this is a very scary thought. They are mystified. How did this happen? Everyone they know voted for Kamala Harris. 

I live in Ben Lomond. I wanted to find out for myself how my neighbors and community members really feel about Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. As an independent in Santa Cruz, my views are sometimes “outside” of what is acceptable among progressives. Sharing conservative views in public in Santa Cruz is considered by too many as not acceptable. 

I think and hope Trump’s election is starting to shift that dynamic. I hope those who hold conservative ideas will feel more empowered to speak and join in civic discourse. 

Starting in mid-September, I started to wear a Trump “Make America Great Again” hat every day in Santa Cruz County. I wanted to provoke, yes, but I also wanted to have conversations.

I was expecting opposition. But the reaction I got was the opposite. 

I noticed people staring at the Trump hat while trying hard not to be caught staring. But, amazingly, over the entire eight weeks that I wore a Trump hat, not a single person said anything negative about Trump or the MAGA movement to me. 

Instead, every day I wore the hat, people would quietly come up to me and offer tacit, whispered support, saying something like, “I really like your hat.”

Some would start a whole conversation about Trump and how the country really needed a strong businessman to lead America.

Even if people weren’t talking to me, I know many of my neighbors are worried about a second Trump presidency. And many want to hear what I like about him. For me, choosing Trump came down to four main issues – immigration, the economy, taxes and America’s standing in the world. 

Let’s start with immigration. All countries have borders they jealously guard and monitor.  Decades ago, when I was a student in France, I inadvertently overstayed my visa by a week. The campus police stopped by my dorm looking for me. I renewed my student visa the very first thing the next morning.

A country that will not control its borders is open to chaos and danger from unknown and unnumbered invaders. We might disagree on how to handle the U.S.-Mexico border, but 80% of Americans think the current border situation is a problem we’re not handling well.  We have to get a handle on it. The Biden administration had four years and failed. 

Trump has a simple plan that has appealed to a wide swath of the nation – get control of the border and better regulate who comes in and when. 

Some of my friends are quite concerned that starting on Day 1 Trump will deport every undocumented resident in America. How would one even go about deporting 11 million undocumented residents? No one has even suggested that will happen. Trump wants to finish the wall so we will be able to control our borders.

As for Trump deporting millions of hardworking, undocumented workers and members of our communities, I don’t believe that will happen. I believe that undocumented criminals, gang members, drug dealers, people who break our laws and anyone who intends to do harm to America or our citizens should be deported.  

I’m in the residential construction business. Spanish is the language spoken on my job sites. My contractors pick up their skilled day laborers at the Johnnie’s Super Market parking lot in Boulder Creek starting at 6 a.m. on weekdays. No one ever asks these good, hardworking, skilled workers where they come from or if they have papers. The only question they ask is how well can you do the job. 

We Americans are a good and just people. I have faith the government will not allow good, honest and hardworking residents in their communities to be deported.

Secondly, like it or not, the world runs on oil. Our homes, transportation, heating and manufacturing depend on it. The Biden administration began canceling oil leases and stopped fracking on Day 1. 

I remember paying $1.67 a gallon for gas in Idaho the last year Trump was president. I just paid $4.62 a gallon for gas in Santa Cruz.  Trump has promised to “drill baby drill.” He has also promised that within a year the price of gas will be cut by half. That sounds good to me. 

When I was running for county supervisor, I met a young man who told me that he thought $15-to-$20-a-gallon gas in California would be a good thing. He shared with me that expensive gas would make California a better and cleaner place to live.  

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Nevertheless, I’ve never met anyone at Costco pumping gas who thinks that higher gas prices would be a good thing for California.  

Several months ago while campaigning, Trump proposed eliminating income tax on tips for waiters and gig workers. Since then he has expanded the “no income tax” idea to include many other tax-paying Americans. 

A few days ago, Trump proposed a new tax collecting entity, to be named the External Revenue Service, which would charge tariffs on goods imported to America from other nations.  

This is nothing new. Up until 1913, the United States government funded most of its activities by means of tariffs. Not only did the county run without income tax, but it had a budget surplus. 

Most countries charge high tariffs on American manufactured goods and agricultural products. This makes American goods more expensive in other countries while allowing foreign, tariff-free manufactured goods to fill the shelves of Walmarts across America.

If Trump is successful in eliminating federal income tax for most Americans, I won’t mind paying more for strawberries picked by Americans rather than paying 40% of my income in taxes.    

These are just a few reasons why I voted for Trump and why I think he won a mandate to govern. I believe Americans have a deep desire to see their country restored to its former greatness and glory among the nations of the world.  

Donald Trump has promised to do that. The voters have given him a mandate to do so. That’s what we call democracy. 

Tom Decker builds affordable homes, with a focus on homes for victims of the CZU fire. In 2024, he ran for Santa Cruz County supervisor for District 5. He has lived in Ben Lomond for almost 20 years. His family’s business is located in downtown Boulder Creek. He and his wife are blessed to have six children and 19 grandchildren.