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The last decade has been rocky for Angela Brancato, who grew up in Chicago's Mount Greenwood neighborhood and then left with her fiance in 2007 for brighter job prospects in upstate New York and later North Carolina.

The prospects never materialized, and they returned in 2012 to Mount Greenwood, where she found part-time work at a neighborhood diner.

That's where she works today. She voted for Donald Trump. Two months after his inauguration, Brancato and other supporters in Chicago remain optimistic about his presidency.

"When (Barack) Obama ran, he ran on the idea of change," Brancato, 31, said on a recent morning before going to work. "The country certainly has changed in the last eight years, and it's not a change that I particularly care for."

Pockets of intense Trump support exist in the broad-shouldered city of deep blue Democrats, particularly in Brancato's Mount Greenwood on the Far Southwest Side, in Edison Park and Norwood Park on the city's Far Northwest Side and in sections of Sauganash/West Ridge on the Northwest Side neighborhoods with substantial populations of police and firefighters.

Trump won nearly 70 percent of the vote in three Mount Greenwood precincts and more than 50 percent in 15 other precincts in Chicago's 19th Ward, which includes the Beverly neighborhood. In five Edison Park and Norwood Park precincts, Trump gathered more than half the votes. He also got nearly 60 percent of the vote in three precincts in Sauganash/West Ridge.

Those Chicagoans who voted for the businessman say they did so to rev the economy, support law enforcement, shake up a stagnant political system, and check immigration and government growth. While Trump fumed over an investigation into his campaign's possible ties to Russian hackers and the Senate grilled his Supreme Court nominee, his Chicago supporters gave the new president incomplete ratings on his job performance.

Brancato said her vote came down to her economic distress and the Affordable Care Act, which became too costly for her to use. She said she and many others are fed up with politics as usual, that the education system is moving in the wrong direction and the country should be more conscientious on immigration.

"I voted for Trump because he's not really a Republican," said Brancato, who added that she voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and George W. Bush in 2004. She didn't vote in 2012. "I'm hoping and praying that he can somehow get these people who are so hopelessly block-headed to at least listen to each other."

'Dude, shut up'

Brancato is concerned, however, about Trump's unfounded and combative comments on voter fraud and surveillance on his phone, a continuation of her frustration with Trump's abrasive comments in the campaign.

"It would just be like, 'Dude, shut up,'" Brancato said. "'One of these days something's going to come flying out of your mouth and it's going to do irreparable damage.'"

She said Trump's allegations should be investigated fully and she remains concerned by indications that Russian hackers may have tried to influence the November election.

Down the street from Brancato, at United TV Service, owner Dave Benedict said he voted for Trump because he is taking "a businessman's approach to running the country." Like Brancato, he viewed Hillary Clinton as an extension of Obama's eight years as president, which Benedict viewed as a failure.

"He kind of has a trigger finger when it comes to his opinions," Benedict said of Trump. "He's not going to be politically correct. He's just going to tell you his opinion and that's the way it is."

Benedict, who said he voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008, said it is too early to tell how effective a president Trump will be. Benedict said he would be concerned if proof emerged that Trump's campaign colluded with Russians to influence the 2016 election or if Trump's claim that Obama ordered surveillance on Trump's phone turns out to be false.

Former 19th Ward GOP Committeeman Steven Graves said it should come as no surprise that Trump did well in Mount Greenwood, "because this is a middle-class, hardworking neighborhood," where people are tired of "the same old same old," and believe Trump can deliver jobs, lower taxes, cut government, secure our borders and strengthen the military.

"I think they felt like they finally could hit back," Graves said. "I think his heart's in the right place and I think he's learning as he goes." But, Graves added, "when he says, 'Drain the swamp,' half the crowd is his crowd."

Trump's election came at a particularly volatile time in Mount Greenwood, where 90 percent of residents are white and many police officers reside in brick Georgians and trim ranches on narrow city lots. Three days before the election, police shot and killed Joshua Beal, 25, an African-American from Indianapolis, in Mount Greenwood.

Authorities have called the confrontation a road rage incident. The shooting, which remains under investigation, sparked protests that pitted police supporters against groups critical of the shooting.

Trump backers in law enforcement privately said they are aggravated their support is perceived as racist, when they maintain it is based on what they see as declining support from Obama and the likely continuation of that if Clinton had been elected.

Turmoil to empathy?

About 30 miles north of Mount Greenwood, in neighborhoods that include Edison Park and Norwood Park, Robert Athey said he voted for Trump as a way to curb a federal government that was overreaching. Athey, who served as the Midwest representative of the U.S. secretary of labor in 2002-09, also said the Affordable Care Act was unaffordable.

Athey, of Norwood Park, also said that Obama and Clinton, as secretary of state, mishandled the U.S. response to Syria's civil war and Clinton in particular showed incompetence in the 2012 terrorist attack on U.S. government buildings in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead.

About Trump's performance, Athey said the Democrats have instituted "a war" against the president since his election. They can "attack the personality and avoid the policy," he added. It is too early to say much about the job Trump has done in office, he said.

But Athey acknowledged that Trump has hurt himself with Twitter posts and unfounded comments. His best explanation for the content of Trump's more controversial statements is that the administration is "so overwhelmed by the attacks that ... he gets ahead of himself on issues that don't matter."

"I kind of wish he wouldn't do it," Athey said. "It kind of dilutes his message and the message of the people who work for him."

He and other Trump supporters said backers of the new president tend to keep a low profile largely because, as Athey said, "the liberal media made Trump out to be the most horrible person in the world and people are reluctant to express their support."

Suzzanne Monk, who with her husband, Alexander Duvel, owns Worlds of Music Chicago in the North Center neighborhood, said their support for Trump led to bullying that is prompting them to close the musical instrument store by the end of April, convert it to an online business and leave Chicago.

In a letter she sent to several media outlets, Monk wrote that "because we support Trump, we no longer feel proud, or safe, being in this city." Duvel filed a police report in August citing harassing texts and phone calls.

Monk also contends the main reason for closing the store is that prospective customers have been intimidated "merely for associating with us."

Those whom Monk specified as harassing and intimidating the couple deny the claim. They say Monk and Duvel brought the problems on themselves for aggressive and offensive social media commentary and videos attacking liberals.

Benedict, the electronics repair shop owner in Mount Greenwood, said he has not been harassed or lost business for supporting Trump. Brancato said she also has not been harassed, although her fiance, who works in a more politically liberal neighborhood of Chicago, keeps quiet about his Trump support.

Edison Park Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa McIntyre said business owners avoid political conversations with customers out of a sense of professional protocol, and that it was unlikely any would suffer negative consequences if they publicly declared their support for Trump.

On the other hand, she said, some residents were angry with a local restaurant that participated in A Day Without Immigrants on Feb. 16 by closing for the day to demonstrate how important immigrants are to America's economy.

"People said they'd never go there again," McIntyre said.

Since Monk's story gained media attention on March 17, she said she has received an outpouring of support. Her "Save Music Store from Trump Haters" GoFundMe campaign, started in January, raised more than $17,000 as of Tuesday afternoon. Monk said about $9,000 has arrived since Saturday.

She acknowledged that unrest over the Trump presidency may have engaged people more in public affairs.

"I hope that can transform," Monk said, "and keep bringing the dialogue and bring America back together."

Chicago Tribune's Annie Sweeney contributed.

tgregory@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @tgregoryreports

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