US President Donald Trump’s order temporarily banning refugees and immigrants from seven mostly Muslim countries is playing well in Trump Country, those places that propelled him to the White House.
The New York businessman and reality TV star promised to put America first during the campaign, his supporters say, and he is doing it.
That includes securing the nation’s borders and doing everything possible to prevent terrorists from entering the US.
In their view, Mr Trump is being Mr Trump. They add that Democrats and liberal snowflakes and soft-hearted do-gooders just need to calm down.
“He’s going to do what he says and says what he does,” said Barbara Van Syckel, 66, of Sterling Heights, Michigan.
“That’s a little frightening for some people.”
Thousands have demonstrated at US airports since Mr Trump issued an order on Friday blocking people from seven countries in the Middle East and Africa from entering the US and suspending refugee immigration for four months.
The protests included a gathering of several hundred people at the Birmingham, Alabama, airport, the largest in a Southern state Trump carried with ease.
Washington’s state attorney general filed a lawsuit over the order and a federal judge in New York issued an emergency order temporarily banning deportations of people from the seven nations.
Some Republican lawmakers have questioned the order, with senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina saying they fear it will become “a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism”.
None of that criticism matters much in Trump Country, those states and counties where Mr Trump claimed the votes to win the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Retired social service worker Judith Wilkenloh says the order shows Mr Trump “means what he says”.
“He’s just unafraid. He’s just going ahead like a locomotive and I like him more and more every time he does something,” said Mrs Wilkenloh, 72, of Fredrick, Maryland.
Trump supporters said they are satisfied with the immigration order and the ideas behind it, from improving national security to watching out for Americans first.
Some Trump backers said they might do things a little differently but their overall reaction is positive.
“We’re not the world’s social security office. We’re not here to take care of people,” said Jim Buterbaugh, head of custodial work and maintenance at a public school in the western Montana town of White Hall.
“I understand that people need help but there are other ways besides bringing them here.”
Mr Buterbaugh, who has actively fought the re-settlement of Syrians in Montana, was frustrated that Mr Trump’s moratorium did not include countries such as Saudi Arabia, where most of the September 11 hijackers were from.
The executive order also did not include the creation of safe zones for refugees, which he favours.
