Cheers from Trump supporters grow louder

NORWOOD, Mass. - Donald Trump insults and exaggerates.

He dismisses the need for public policy ideas, gets confused about world affairs and sometimes says things that flat out aren't true.

And the cheers from his supporters only grow louder.

By the standard that voters typically use to judge presidential candidates, Trump probably should not have survived his first day in the 2016 race.

Yet as the summer draws to a close and the initial votes in the nominating calendar appear on the horizon, Trump has established himself as the Republican front-runner.

Listen to these voters:

- "It's totally refreshing. He's not politically correct. He has a backbone and he cannot be bought," said Leigh Ann Crouse, 55, of Dubuque, Iowa.

- "This country needs a businessman just like him to put us back on track, to make us stop being the laughing stock of this world," said Ken Brand, 56, of Derry, N.H.

- "He says everything that I would like to say, but I'm afraid to say. What comes out of his mouth is not what he thinks I want to hear," said Janet Boyden, 67, of Chester, Mass.

They are among the dozens of voters interviewed in the past two weeks by The Associated Press to understand how Trump has defied the laws of political gravity.

Uniting them is a deep-rooted anger and frustration with the nation's political leaders - President Barack Obama and conservative Republicans who, these voters say, haven't sufficiently stood up to the Democratic administration.

Some haven't voted in years, or ever, and may not next year. But at this moment, they are entranced by Trump's combination of utter self-assurance, record of business success and a promise that his bank account is big enough to remain insulated from the forces they believe have poisoned Washington.

By the way, they say it's not that they are willing to look past Trump's flaws to fix what they believe ills the country. It's that those flaws are exactly what makes him the leader America needs.

"At least we know where he stands," said Kurt Esche, 49, an independent who was at Trump's recent rally outside Boston. "These other guys, I don't trust anything that comes out of their mouths. They're lying to get elected. This guy's at least saying what he believes."

"He may have started as a joke," Esche said, "but he may be the real deal."

Crouse is a merchandise processor at a retail distributor outside Dubuque, the Mississippi River town where Trump tossed Univision anchor Jorge Ramos from a news conference.

A political independent who has never participated in Iowa's leadoff presidential caucuses, Crouse said she began following Trump from the moment he referred to Mexican immigrants as criminals during his campaign kickoff.

"He's just attracting people who are frustrated, and as you can see, there are a lot of us," she said.

Illegal immigration is the perfect summation of Trump's unorthodox campaign.

He claims it's an issue the GOP would not be discussing if not for his presence in the race, even though the topic has been at the center of political debate for years.

It's the only one on which he has made a concrete proposal; his rivals, by comparison, have rolled out lots of ideas on a range of issues.

Here's Trump's pitch deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally and build a border wall. Critics deride this approach as nave, but his supporters say it's the obvious solution.

"As crazy as it might be, I think he's addressing something that needs to be heard," said Randy Thomas, 40, of Bedford, N.H. "I think he's saying something that everybody thinks always has to be addressed. If you have a country of laws, you have to abide by the laws."