Republican pollster Frank Luntz reported wobbly legs after hearing from a group of Donald Trump supporters, according to Time.
Luntz conducted a focus group of 29 people from Washington, D.C., and its suburbs that either like or adore the GOP front-runner, paying each participant for the two-hour-plus session on Monday night, the magazine reported.
“I used to sleep on my front porch with the door wide open, and now everyone has deadbolts,” one man said during the session, according to Time. “I believe the best days of the country are behind us.”
“I’m frustrated beyond belief. I feel like I’ve been lied to,” a woman said. “Nothing’s getting better.”
“We know his goal is to make America great again,” another woman said. “It’s on his hat. And we see it every time it’s on TV. Everything that he’s doing, there’s no doubt why he’s doing it: it’s to make America great again.”
After the group viewed recordings of Trump’s political flip-flops and remarks on women, the individuals reportedly said they liked Trump even more.
“You guys understand how significant this is?” Luntz asked reporters, according to Time. “This is real. I’m having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking.”
“I want to put the Republican leadership behind this mirror and let them see. They need to wake up. They don’t realize how the grassroots have abandoned them,” Luntz continued. “Donald Trump is punishment to a Republican elite that wasn’t listening to their grassroots.”
Luntz conducted a focus group aired live on Fox News immediately following the first GOP debate earlier this month, finding mostly negative views of Trump — then also the front-runner.
Trump then went to Twitter to attack Luntz as “a low class slob” who “picks anti-Trump panels!”
Time reported that most people in the room Monday night are angry about national security, including the nation’s porous southern border with Mexico, and complained about the U.S. falling behind in the world.
People in the room also panned Congress. But when asked to describe Trump, they used words such as “tough,” “successful,” “has guts” and “kicks ass and takes names.”