UNION, S.C. — As Johnny Sinclair sees it, this declining mill town voted overwhelmingly to send President Trump to the White House for one overriding reason: to change rules of political engagement in Washington that had long left places like this high and dry.
So when Mr. Trump released his first budget last week, proposing to significantly shrink the footprint of federal government while building up the military, Mr. Sinclair saw a politician finally following through.
“We don’t expect Trump to get everything done he said he would. But we expect him to try,” Mr. Sinclair said Friday, as he sat in a restaurant here with four friends. “The roads may not end up paved in gold, but we expect him to be out, shovel in hand.”
In Washington, Mr. Trump’s budget has been met by many with deep, even hostile skepticism. South Carolina’s longtime Republican senior senator, Lindsey Graham, called it “dead on arrival.” Democrats’ denunciations have been even stronger.
