Manu Raju breaks down Trump's first week of his second term

(CNN) — There are two areas of bipartisan agreement about President Donald Trump’s early days back in the White House: voters say he is moving quickly to keep promises and he is far more active and visible than his predecessor.

There is, though, a giant divide over whether that is fantastic or frightening.

“Trump is being bold and thinking big,” is the early headline from Betsy Sarcone, a Republican voter from suburban Des Moines. “How refreshing it is to have someone who says what they mean and can coherently answer questions.”

Democratic organizer Davette Baker of Milwaukee is on the other side of America’s Trump divide.

“This man is unhinged,” Baker said as Trump’s first week back in the White House unfolded. “The ‘law and order’ president isn’t holding up law and order. … And the immigration issue has everyone scared.”

Linda Rooney represents a middle ground of sorts, if there is such a thing when it comes to Trump.

“On the one hand, I am glad he is cleaning up the mess Biden left, both domestically and foreign,” said Rooney, who runs a consulting business in the Philadelphia suburb of Media. “But I wish he would use more discernment. Not all of the January 6 people should have been pardoned. It was an attack on our democracy and on our elected leadership.”

Rooney, Baker and Sarcone are among the nearly 100 voters who were part of our “All Over The Map” project, an effort to track the 2024 campaign through the eyes and experiences of voters who live in swing states or are part of critical voting constituencies. Now, as Trump gears up quickly, these voters will help us track public sentiment about the new administration, including whether the president is losing support among those who voted for him or perhaps gaining support from those who opposed him.

Our first check in suggests that their views during the campaign are largely holding, with some early markers to watch.

Rooney, for example, voted for Trump, then Biden, then Trump, and suburban voters like her will be critical in the 2028 midterms.

“I was optimistically hopeful after the election, but I feel he is like a bull in the china shop,” Rooney said in a text exchange. “Or that he’s using a sledgehammer where finer instruments are called for.”

Still, she is mostly in sync with Trump promises to cut taxes and reduce regulations.

Rooney was a Nikki Haley primary voter who settled on Trump in the end because she believed then-Vice President Kamala Harris was too liberal and not ready for the presidency.

Trump supporters excited by his early days

Those who were with Trump from the beginning are exhilarated by his busy and defiant early days.

“President Trump is keeping his word,” said Tamara Varga, a Republican small businesswoman in Tucson. “I think he has been very transparent and that is a breath of fresh air.”

Kristin Caparra, a consultant and Trump voter from the Philadelphia suburb of Drexel Hill, praised the swift confirmation of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s efforts to challenge birthright citizenship.

And she was struck by the changed energy level at the White House.

“The American people heard more from this president in the first 48 hours than they have heard from Joe Biden in the last two years,” Caparra said.

Debbie Katsanos, a New Hampshire Trump supporter, was more nuanced than many hardcore Trump supporters on the January 6 question. She said she believed many of those convicted were charged with more serious offenses than they deserved. Yet she also said, “anyone justly convicted of true violence” deserved to be punished if their sentence was fair.

But she said President Joe Biden’s final day pardons made moot any continued debate over the scope of Trump’s decision.

“If you want to talk about abusing the pardon system, let’s talk the 11th hour pardons from President Biden,” Katsanos said.

Chris Mudd, a Trump supporter who owns a solar energy company in Waterloo, Iowa, was both complimentary of Trump’s early moves and candid that he will likely have to bite his tongue sometimes.

“I like what I see so far,” Mudd said in a text exchange. “Ending DEI is good. I like the pardons for the J6ers. I don’t think I will like everything, but you have to take the good with the less good.”

Andrew Konchek judges Trump in a similar way. He bristles at the president’s tone sometimes and disagrees with him on abortion rights and when he calls climate change a hoax.

Konchek is a commercial fisherman, and on day one Trump kept the promise that won Konchek’s vote: rescinding federal approval for offshore wind farms off the New England coast.

“Donald Trump is already delivering,” Konchek said.

Voters question Trump’s early moves

That truth alarms Trump critics.

“The decisions he made, particularly regarding LGBTQ+ rights and racial equity, felt like a step back,” said Melissa Cordero, an Air Force veteran who lives in Tucson.

David Moore, a registered Republican but Trump critic, saw nothing to like in the early Trump actions.

“The peaceful transfer of power is so important and pardoning those who would have had it otherwise goes against a big part of what makes the United States special,” said Moore, who runs a Western wear business steps from the US-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona. “The immigration policies are terrible. Giving ICE permission to raid schools and places or worship is absolute fear mongering.”

Tonya Rincon, a recently retired auto worker from suburban Detroit, called the sweeping January 6 pardons “lazy and a slap in the face to law enforcement.” Her bigger complaint, though, was Trump rolling back Biden’s steps to expand access to health care and to lower prescription drug costs. “All of which will make it harder for the neediest Americans to access basic health care,” Rincon said.

Joan London, a Reagan conservative who switched her Pennsylvania voter registration to independent because of Trump, predicted many of his new initiatives would be tied up in court battles for years.

London, an attorney, also questioned the Trump January 6 pardons.

“I back the blue and thought that was the conservative way,” London said.

Likewise, Antonio Munoz, a retired Las Vegas police officer, said, “Trump talks about being pro-law enforcement yet he forgave the people who cause violence against officers.”

Yes, Munoz said, Trump was keeping his word.

“All we can do is wait and see,” Munoz said. “We all know to deport all immigrants is impossible and would hurt law abiding citizens and the economy.”

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