US-PORTUGUESE FAVOUR TRUMP

 

The Portuguese people living in the United States are mostly in favour of  President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, according to reliable sources.

 

“Trump will be welcomed by Portuguese living on the east coast and all the way to the far west,” says Carolina Marcos, editor of the Portuguese American Journal.

 

Born in the Azores, like many other US immigrants, she has lived for many years in Boston, Massachusetts. One example of Trump's popularity, she says, is in the Massachusetts city of Fall River. She acknowledges that Portuguese residents helped other voters there to “embrace Trump and his harsh stance on immigration.” 

 

Carolina Matos was unhappy with both candidates in the December presidential election but notes that not only did Trump win in 2024, but he also had a higher percentage of votes in 2020 than anyone since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. 

 

Journalist Ben Blake, reporting from Fall River, has clearly shown that although support for Democrats there dominated the community for 70 years, it has greatly fallen because most locals have moved to the right and are now pro-Republican and pro-Trump.

 

Blake visited Fernando’s bar in Fall River where the bar manager, Lucy Oliveira, serves Portuguese dishes such as pork sandwiches and bifanas to a crowd of regulars.  The locals told Blake that nearly all of them support Trump, each for personal reasons. One of Trump’s most liked characteristics is his “toughness.”  Lucy Oliveira said Trump’s brand as a successful businessman resonates because of Fall River’s post-industrial economic slump. “Everyone wants Trump because the economy is so bad,” she said. 

 

Daniela Melo, a Portuguese professor at Boston University, joked that “you can’t understand the politics of Mass unless you  understand how the Portuguese think.” She says that Portuguese attitudes currently stem party from President John F. Kennedy’s immigration laws, which allowed so many Portuguese to enter the country in the 1950s. Many came from the Azores with Fall River sometimes being referred to as “the tenth island.”

 

The number of people immigrating to the United States dropped dramatically when livelihoods in Portugal improved after the overthrow of the dictator Salazar In 1974.

 

The Portuguese have integrated into American society like the Jews, Irish, and others. Many Portuguese families are now in the second, third, or fourth generation in the United States.

 

In California, it was predicted that the Portuguese community might tip the balance of power in the US Congress. Reporting internationally from the small town of Thornton in California’s Central Valley, Faith E. Pinto, a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times described Portuguese flags flying proudly above the streets thronged with festive season revellers. Portuguese people from all across the Central Valley flocked to Thornton to celebrate. There was a parade, several Catholic Masses, and even a bullfight. It was a delightful occasion “to share food, language, and culture of families quietly, but powerfully, tucked away in Californian farmlands, according to the Los Angeles Times.  

 

“You don’t have to be Portuguese to get elected in the Valley – but it doesn’t hurt,” joked Jim Costa, a US politician.

 

“Far away from the centres of power in Washington, a small but sizable Portuguese population has played a meaningful role in shaping the Central Valley – and the community’s politics could prove crucial,” wrote Faith Pinto. 

 

Latinos far outnumber the number of Portuguese immigrants in California’s Central Valley. “Although the Portuguese are now generations deep in the Valley, many are still close to their immigrant family roots. And in many ways, the story of Portuguese people in California – just over 350,000, according to the 2020 US census – follows the arc of many immigrant groups in the US”. 

 

Generation by generation, Portuguese worked their way up to become supervisors, managers, or owners of farmlands in California. Portuguese politicians have been vying to represent their region, and now most are welcoming Donald Trump. 

 

At a “Farmers for Trump” rally involving tractors and trucks blaring their horns and flying Portuguese flags down a two-lane highway, Kenneth Rose, who called himself 100% Portuguese, perched himself on a pick-up truck and declared: “I’ve seen enough. I don’t need any more liberalism in this country.”