‘Trump stands for America,’ Georgia vet says of president. ‘He just tells it like is’
Editor’s note: This story is part of a series profiling Georgia voters’ views on the upcoming presidential election.
Jeff “Bones” Cheatwood will likely never forget his encounter with Donald Trump in the months before Trump became president.
It was 2015, at a rally in Alabama.
Cheatwood got Trump’s autograph.
“Talked to him for about three minutes,” Cheatwood recalled recently in a telephone interview about his support for the now-incumbent Trump. “Man, it was just like me and you talking.”
Now with Trump seeking re-election, Cheatwood, who once served aboard submarines in the Navy, is still in Trump’s corner.
At a Republican rally on Oct. 27 in Meriwether County in west Georgia, the bushy-bearded Cheatwood toted a Trump flag and wore a Trump cap and a Trump T-shirt.
Talking to a reporter a couple of days later about what it is about Trump that he likes, Cheatwood said, “I’m a vet. I’m an American. I’m 58 years old. I’ve worked for everything I’ve had. ... I love Trump because Trump stands for America.”
Asked what he thinks of Democratic challenger Joe Biden, Cheatwood laughed and said, “He needs to go back to the cellar.”
Even so, Cheatwood thinks the nation will endure as a solid and mighty union no matter which candidate wins.
“I got a tattoo on my arm that has an American eagle,” Cheatwood said, “and in its talons is a ripped-up Russian flag.”
After leaving the Navy during the Reagan Administration, Cheatwood worked as a boilermaker and, later, in shipyards across the Southeast.
Now retired, he does motorcycle repairs at the small business that bears his name: Bones Cycle Shop. (He got the nickname because he was skinny as a child.)
“I’m totally against any kind of socialism,” he went on. “I mean, I’m an American. ... My great-great-greats fought in the Revolutionary War; they fought in the war of northern aggression.”
His mother’s folks are from north Georgia. His dad’s hail from South Carolina.
He is not so much a fan of political parties, which is something else he admires about Trump, who though a Republican fancies himself a Washington outsider.
Cheatwood also likes what he sees as Trump’s nose for business.
“He don’t really see color. You know what color he sees? He sees green,” Cheatwood said. “And America has been needing green for a long time, brother.”
When asked how the wealthy Trump has connected with common folks, Cheatwood offered this:
“I guess because people look at him, man, just like you should look at anybody. I mean, I’ve got friends that’s done better than me, and I’ve got friends that’s not alive and OD’d and never had nothing. ... He might’ve had a easier start than some of us because his daddy was already set, but that’s the American way. I mean, you know, you’ve got to look at things.”
Cheatwood said his support for the president is also rooted in what he views as Trump’s appreciation of the working class.
“I love him to death — and a lot of people don’t like him because of it — because he don’t practice” political correctness, Cheatwood said. “He just tells it like it is, brother.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2020 at 2:30 PM.