Patricia Phillips is a retired investment banker. She voted for Donald Trump in 2016.
“I have friends who’ve lost friends of 40 years because of the election,” she said.
She’s determined not to lose any friends over her support for President Trump — including her friend of more than two decades, Maureen Giordano, who can’t stand Trump.
“The way he does things, the way he expresses himself, the way he creates divisions amongst people,’’ Giordano said. “I feel like he’s sabotaging his efforts.”
Giordano is an unaffiliated voter. Phillips is a Republican. And they were chatting over coffee at a café with couple of friends. The women meet up every Friday. Everyone but Giordano is a Trump supporter.
I asked whether they knew she wasn’t a Trump supporter.
“Oh yes!” They said, chuckling.
These days, Giordano said, they try to avoid talking politics.
“I steer clear, for the most part,’’ she said. “But they’ve had conversations with me. I would never let it get in the way of our friendship.”
“We do talk politics,’’ said Vera Ricci, an x-ray technician whose husband owns a small jewelry business. “It’s not that we don’t.”
Ricci feels strongly that Trump supports small businesses. But she says she and her friends are careful not to let talk of politics get to heated.
“When I feel that it’s getting a little bit out of control, our friendship comes first,” she said. “So I’ll either switch the subject or Maureen will switch the subject.”
The women met the way people in small towns often do — at a local gym and at the bank, where Patricia Phillips used to work.
The way people talk about politics on today, Phillips said, makes it harder to get along.
“Some of the things, especially on social media, you see people write or talk about the president. I can’t believe it,’’ she said. “I mean I grew up, I respect the office, even if I didn’t care for the president…Today it’s totally different.”
But her friend, Maureen Giordano, said President Trump is partly to blame for riling people up.
“The way that people are so angry,’’ she said. “He just gives us a lot of ammunition.”
Ammunition, she said, to lash out at anyone who disagrees.
“I mean I don’t want him to fail, but I wish he would do it in a different way,’’ Giordano said. “I think he would accomplish more if he were a little more — normal.’’
Beyond Trump’s leadership style, there’s one issue about which even the Trump supporters in this group depart from the president. That’s abortion.
Vera Ricci, the one who switches the subject from politics if it gets too heated, said, “I think it should be a personal decision. I don’t think it should be politically involved at all.”
Ricci was talking as woman, and as a mother.
“I mean God forbid if it were my daughter, say, that was raped say at 15 or something,’’ she said. “I would feel that would be her personal decision, not the political decision.’’
Still, Ricci doesn’t see herself as entirely on the side of abortion rights.
“I guess I’m both,’’ she said. “I am pro-life and pro-choice.”
If Ricci could tell Trump what to do on this, she said, “I would say, Drop it! It’s none of your business!’’
That’s similar to the way Beverly Najjar sees it. She owns the Coldbrook Café in North Scituate where Ricci and her friends meet up.
“Just keep it the way it is,’’ she said. “I mean I have a part of me that thinks that, you know, the woman should choose, basically, because I’m a woman, and I don’t want anyone telling me. That’s why I think they should just leave it.”
Najjar also is a mother with a daughter. But she doesn’t think there’s any threat to abortion rights or the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade.
“The Democrats are just making that an issue,’’ she said.
Najjar is a staunch Republican, and nothing that’s happened since Trump got elected has changed that. And if polls are any indication, both sides of the Trump divide are equally dug in.
