Editors report on PBS about nation's mood and immigration after one month of Trump as president

David Bradley

The PBS NewsHour chose three newspaper editors, including one from a 25,000-circulation daily, to give perspective from "the heartland" on the first month of President Trump's administration Wednesday night.

"He's made a few misstatements," said David Bradley, publisher-editor of the St. Joseph News-Press in northwest Missouri, but he began by saying "I think people are fairly well satisfied with what Donald Trump is doing now." He added later, "He has made a mistake, I think, on his order on immigration from those seven countries. He's correcting that right now and doing everything he can to try to keep the country safe."

Noting that many immigrants work in Missouri meatpacking, Bradley added, "I don't think people are against immigration in our part of the world. They'd like to see it done legally. . . . The main concern of people in our area, they want more and better jobs and a pro-business environment . . . a better form of taxation that's more pro-growth . . . less regulations that bog down businesses from growing . . . and they would like to see a better sense of community among all sides so they can get together and work together. . . . People are getting turned off by all the protests and all the antagonism going on," and would like to see Americans "sit back and let him run the country."

Bradley is also chairman and CEO of the News-Press & Gazette Co., which owns 13 dailies and weeklies in Missouri and Kansas, and even more TV stations in seven states. He was joined on the NewsHour by Lee Ann Colacioppo of The Denver Post, who said "People say the nastiness of the national debate has worked itself into legislative bodies here that are usually more civil," and David Haynes of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who said his readers say "the media needs to let his administration get organized" but also say "I wish he'd stop tweeting at 3 o'clock in the morning . . . One of the hopes right now is that the White House become more professional and less chaotic."

Haynes said opinion in Wisconsin is divided on immigration: "When you get out in the state, out in the rural areas . . . that's also where dairy farming is," and 40 percent of workers in the industry are immigrants, many of them undocumented. To watch the segment, click here.