“Adevărul” tried to find out what Romanians in the USA think about the two presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. It is difficult to find a general answer, but we can say that Romanians prefer a president with conservative values and are concerned about the state of the economy.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are fighting for the US presidency. PHOTO: Shutterstock
We made a selection of people from all backgrounds, from people who work in construction, in the health system, in universities, respectively business people. However, it is difficult to determine with whom the majority of Romanians in the USA vote. Some are pro-Trump, some are pro-Harris.
As a general observation regarding US voters in today’s context, analyst Iulia Joja, expert in European Security and European Studies at George Washington University and Georgetown University (USA), argued: “I think that for most American voters, the number one concern is the economy, and I think that in the end, it’s the same principle as in the elections in Romania or anywhere else – people look at the money.”
Thus, we can assume that the Romanians, like the other voters in the USA, will look very carefully at the economic offers of the two candidates.
In this context, Trump has stated several times that he will stop the war in Ukraine and thus, the money from taxes paid by Americans will no longer end up in a conflict in Europe.
Attachment to their countries of origin, in the context of the Russian threat, should make Central and Eastern European immigrants not support Trump, who has a pro-Putin position and wants to intervene as much as possible. reduced America in Europe.
Things don’t seem to be quite like that. Iulia Joja specified that the voters from the Polish community in the United States – who should vote for the Democrats, in the context where it is also important for Poland that the Americans support Europe in the event of a conflict with Russia – ended up voting for the Republicans. Why? Because we are talking about an ethnic community, like the Romanian one, and the others in Central and Eastern Europe, with strong conservative values, and Kamala Harris did not offer them anything in terms of these values, but no clear plan with regarding helping Ukraine, stated Iulia Joja.
“Trump has won over important parts of the minorities with the economic message”
Liviu Aron, Romanian neurobiologist and geneticist, currently a researcher at the Faculty of Medicine of Harvard University in Boston, explained to “Adevărul” the pluses and minuses of each candidate, in his view: “I followed the entire election campaign very closely and elections are extremely difficult to predict. The statistical models have been updated, but even the best “pollsters” say they cannot predict a winner. Both candidates have weaknesses: Trump is polarizing, increasingly negative, violent and increasingly disoriented. Kamala has been a candidate for less than 100 days, and she has not had a clear message.“
The researcher from the city of Deva shows that Trump has won over important parts of the minorities with the economic message, while Harris is popular among women:
“Trump’s message was the economy and immigration. Harris didn’t have a clear message, except for abortion rights and warnings that Trump would be a dictator. So both candidates have their weaknesses. Trump and the Republicans have won over many minority men (Latinos and African-Americans) with their economic message, and the idea that the US is sending too much money to Ukraine. Harris won many women over with his pro-abortion message.”
The richest Romanian in the USA supports Trump
George Haber (70 years old), known as the richest Romanian businessman in the USA and as one of the visionary entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, who is referred to as the “father of DVD”, is a fervent supporter of Trump . A resident of Virginia, Haber has voted with the Trump team since October 25, reasoning: “We must elect Trump because he will stop World War III, bring back normalcy, and push back against those who spread hate and call us trash and scumbags.”
The entrepreneur sanctioned the accusations of Nazism and xenophobia against Trump, and therefore also against his voters, coming from the Democrats: “My name is George Haber, I am a proud Jewish entrepreneur, the son of Auschwitz survivors. My pronouns, according to the so-called Democratic Party, are: deplorable, despicable, garbage, racist, fascist, imperialist, weirdo, xenophobe, plus all the other variations thereof.”
Haber believes that electing Trump means prosperity and peace, while electing Kamala Harris will bring poverty and war.
Why do Romanians support Trump?
Marius Bercean (41), a small construction contractor living in Philadelphia, says he is a Democrat and will vote with Harris, although many Romanians in the US support Trump:
“I’m a Democrat, so I’m not voting for Trump. And if I were a Republican, I don’t think I would vote for Trump. Why? I don’t like that kind of man Do you understand? He’s a misogynist… Republican politics versus Democrat politics, of course it’s different. I know many Romanians who prefer Trump. He is anti-immigration, I think Trump is seen as a man who only focuses on the good of himself and his circle of people. He talks bad about immigrants, but without immigrants he had no wives, because all his wives were immigrants“, explains Marius.
He was impressed by Barack Obama’s autobiography and the way he expressed himself: “I read Obama’s book and see how beautifully and coherently he speaks. You can see that he has read a lot. To have a more intelligent discussion with someone, you have to read a little, but Trump doesn’t know how to string two words together.”
Asked why he thinks some Romanians sympathize with Trump, the Romanian claimed: “I think they are not very educated and they don’t know what they want either. Speaking of immigration, I don’t think they are afraid that immigrants will take their jobs, because no Romanian will go to work the land, only they left Romania to stop working the land in the country. But these immigrants who are coming, 8 or 9 million Mexicans, they are working hard and doing the hardest jobs.”
Bercean says that Romanians like Trump’s authoritarian figure and his success in business. Many Romanian supporters of the former president say, according to Marius: “Let Trump come and remove us from taxes, let’s do some new business. They see Trump as an example of a businessman, even though he took money from people, millions of dollars, and then went bankrupt, leaving tens of thousands of people and businesses on the streets.”
Another aspect that bothers Marius about Trump is his position on abortion: “how can you tell a woman what to do with her body. So, first of all, we’re all free, right? We live in a democracy. Think if your wife was raped by one and you are not allowed to have an abortion because that is the law. Would you raise the child of a criminal? Isn’t it the same as telling a woman she can’t have an abortion? What, we’re in the Spanish Inquisition now? Well, where are the rights then? If you have the right to do his business, to do I don’t know what, let that man do what he wants”.
Whose time was better?
Marius claims that he cannot say that it was better from an economic point of view during Trump’s first term: “The economy depends on many factors. It’s true that the Republicans are coming up with more taxes and fees, but I don’t think that’s bringing success to the economy. If you don’t let immigrants in, the economy suffers. Why is the economy suffering? Because who sits in 40 degrees Celsius to work in agriculture? Well, no one is sitting. That an American will never stay. If an American has no money, he goes on welfare. If the Mexican has no money, he goes and works the lowest jobs”.
Related to the war in Ukraine, the Romanian ironizes Trump’s promises: “Yes, sure, that war ends like closing a door. Are there so many factors behind that can affect the conflict? But the stupid world thinks that we pay them to the Ukrainians for nothing. No sir, that’s how all the great powers in the world are, they pay. Many Americans only look at this financial part and say, well, it’s our money and with that money we could do something else. Yes, but it’s not done, it’s never done”.
“It’s about paying the bills, having some financial stability”
Radu Vanco, a prosperous businessman from the United States who made his fortune in Silicon Valley, is a big supporter of Trump. A graduate of the Faculty of Electronics in Bucharest, Vanco claims that “it’s about paying the bills, having some financial stability and making sure our border is secure. It’s not about pronouns and other woke nonsense.” He pointed to the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris’ website allowed job seekers to choose from nine different pronoun options when applying for a position on her campaign — prompting some social media users to criticizes that it has “more pronouns than policies”. Applicants can choose from the more popular pronouns “he/him” “she/her” and “they/them” (el, ea, ei-nr), gender-neutral pronouns: “xe/xem”, “ze /hir”, “ey/”. em’ and ‘hir/hir’.
In support of its option, Vanco also brings some numbers that would show the increase in prices since Kamala took over as vice president: US “Gas: +50.5%; Electricity: +31.7%; gasoline: +49.1%; Airline tickets: +22.6%; Hotels: +51.2%; Food: +21.6%; Eating out: +23%; Baby food: +30.1%; Rent: +22%; Transportation: +32.9%; Car insurance: +54%; Real Average Weekly Earnings: -3.9%”.
Daniela Merryless, works in the health care system in Delaware (Joe Biden’s home state), and says she won’t vote: “The main reason is that Delaware is going to vote for Kamala anyway. I would have gone if the total number of votes counted in the USA. But like that…I didn’t make an effort to go vote.”
The result of the opinion polls is so close that analysts do not venture to predict who will win. What is certain is that regardless of the votes of the ethnic Romanians, we will have another electoral competition in the USA that will be decided by a very close score.
