Trump's biggest fan: a veteran and vote-wrangler – despite his own controversies

On the morning of the New Hampshire primary, retired marine corps Sgt Al Baldasaro stood outside Londonderry high school, where a steady stream of people were heading in to vote. He’d been told Donald Trump would probably make an appearance around 10, but that time had long since passed.

That day, Baldasaro felt a responsibility to introduce Trump to as many people in town as he could. As a state representative for Londonderry, he always tries to help his constituents when they ask, and people had been asking to see the candidate. As one of Trump’s most outspoken supporters in the state, he wanted his guy to shake as many hands as possible.

Baldasaro has been at nearly every rally Trump has held in the US north-east over the past year, often onstage speaking in his role as co-chairman of the candidate’s New Hampshire veterans’ coalition. When Trump announced his plan to temporarily ban non-citizen Muslims from the US, Baldasaro was in the papers defending the idea. And when Trump talked about his support for veterans in the final Republican debate before the primary, he name-checked Baldasaro in front of 13 million viewers.