Here’s What Local Republicans Say A Trump Presidency Will Mean For Hawaii

Nolan Chang, the national committeeman for the Hawaii Republican Party, believes the middle class has suffered tremendously under the Biden-Harris administration.

With Donald Trump returning to the White House, however, Chang sees a return to good times and growth — including locally — “just like the previous four years when he was in office.”

He recalled during the Trump administration gas prices were lower and inflation was under control. He doesn’t understand why a grocery cart full of food at a Honolulu Costco costs hundreds of dollars more than at an H-E-B grocery in Texas, where he recently visited.

Under Trump, Chang argued, “The middle class will be relieved and the economy will improve, which would take us out of inflation. And then it would be a little more affordable for people to live and not have 30,000 people move away.”

How will Trump accomplish that?

“Drill, baby, drill,” said Chang, quoting the former president, who supports expanding production of fossil fuels and cutting back on renewable energy. It is energy costs, Chang said, that largely influence all others.

Civil Beat spoke with top local GOP leaders about what a Trump return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will mean. The interviews were conducted both before and after Tuesday’s election.

Trump supporters have a four-year track record to compare and contrast.

They remember a nation that was not mired in foreign wars, greater support for business, a commitment to freedom of speech and gun ownership and a general sense of a strong and forceful commander in chief.

They also believe the economy was better nationwide under Trump.

“I got just one statistic for you — gas,” said Bob McDermott, a former member of the Hawaii House of Representatives who on Tuesday lost his bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono. “What was it? Two bucks a gallon? Two-twenty maybe?”

That was roughly the price range for unleaded nationally in 2016, the year Trump was elected, although it was around $2.87 in Hawaii.

Today, though, it’s about $4.57 a gallon, among the highest in the country. It’s even more for diesel — $5.35 — which truck drivers use when delivering groceries, said McDermott.

Hawaii gas prices have always been high, primarily because the state relies heavily on importing fuel. But to McDermott, banking on a green energy economy, as Biden-Harris pushed for, has not brought down electricity rates in the islands.

His former House colleague, GOP Rep. Gene Ward, also has doubts about renewables. He said Hawaii’s goal to have 100% of its power be generated by renewable energy by 2045 is more of a political goal than one based on science.

“And we’re finding more and more as we research that, hey, this is going to be almost impossible,” he said.

Projecting Strength

Another big issue that local Republicans think will improve under a second Trump term is foreign policy.

“First and foremost, I see Pearl Harbor, strengthening the military and signals to Xi Jinping: ‘Keep your hands off Taiwan,'” Ward said. “To me, that is probably the most important Pacific geopolitical decision that any administration could make. And I think that’s one where Xi Jinping needs to cool his jets on all of his imminence for Taiwan.”

McDermott, a Marine veteran, is opposed to U.S. involvement in the war in Ukraine, a position Trump shares.

“Who knows how much money we’re sending to Ukraine,” he said. “And we have no business over there. It’s not in our national interest.”

Chang, the national committeeman, said Trump’s four years were marked by less international conflict.

“No war from Korea. Nothing from Russia, China, everybody behaved themselves,” Chang said. “But once he left office, look what’s happening in Ukraine, what’s happening in Israel now. You got China wanting to attack Taiwan.”

Chang also believes that Trump will bring more resources to the U.S. military, including upgrading facilities. As someone who spent nearly four decades working at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, he said base infrastructure has been neglected there and at the neighboring Hickam Air Force Base.

The facility is known as Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Oahu is also headquarters for the United States Indo-Pacific Command. To supporters, a second Trump presidency means a safer Hawaii.

Help For Hawaiians

State Rep. Diamond Garcia is heartened that a former congresswoman from Hawaii has Trump’s ear, which he thinks will be good for Hawaii’s Indigenous population.

“I believe now with Tulsi Gabbard on his transition team and probably going to be a prominent member of his Cabinet, I believe that this is our opportunity to present our Native Hawaiian issues directly to him and get the White House to do something about it,” he said.

Garcia took issue with comments made by Gov. Josh Green that Hawaii’s congressional delegation might not get things done for the islands because the GOP now controls the Senate and possibly the House.

“But the good thing is Republicans here in Hawaii have open communication now with the Trump transition team,” he said. “That is great news for Hawaii.”

Garcia would like to see more federal support for placing qualified Hawaiians on Hawaiian homelands.

“I mean, it’s pretty much a state program now. And that happened at statehood, and that was one of the conditions of statehood,” he said. “But I believe that it’s time for the federal government to come through and really help the state fulfill the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.”

It was a Republican from Hawaii, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, who got the act passed when he was a territorial delegate to Congress in 1921. But around 28,000 Hawaiian homelands beneficiaries are on a waitlist.

Garcia also likes Trump’s proposal to cut taxes on Social Security, which he said will help seniors in Hawaii. Just last week Trump also suggested the possibility of abolishing federal income taxes and instead use his plan to increase tariffs to subsidize entitlement programs.

The idea, however, has been criticized as unworkable and damaging to the economy. Some say cutting the Social Security tax will lead to reduced benefits, though Trump disagrees.

But Trump’s economic policies appeal to GOP leaders in the islands. Several said they’d like to see more help for so-called ALICE families, which stands for asset limited, income constrained, and employed. A 2022 report said a majority of Native Hawaiian households fall below the state’s poverty line.

Tamara McKay, chair of the Hawaii Republican Party, has worked in real estate in the Las Vegas area, a place many Hawaii residents now call home because they find it more affordable than Hawaii.

McKay said it’s sad that so many Hawaiians live in Nevada.

“The basis and the whole reason for aloha, the culture of Hawaii, is with those people — and we’re chasing them out,” she said.

McKay likes Trump’s idea to exempt tips from taxes, something he announced in Nevada in June. The state has a large service industry.

“I think it would be a huge help,” she said, noting that Hawaii has a large service industry, too. “It may not seem much, especially with the cost of groceries and gas and so forth. But every little bit is going to help the people who live here.”

Ward also believes the president-elect will renew hope for the American dream and keep the people of Hawaii in Hawaii.

“We’ve got to be able to get people a job or got a an ability to buy a house,” he said. “This is the core of who we are as a people. And he said he’s going to push that.”