Donald Trump’s supporters are sticking with him, no matter what.
They heard his voice, clearly on audio, admitting to deceiving and misleading the nation into 200,000 coronavirus deaths and counting. One day later, they were cheering him on at an airport hangar in Michigan, no masks needed, and continued doing so through the weekend in Nevada and Arizona.
With each passing day, Trump’s lies get more and more obvious, numerous and brazen. His supporters’ response: More adulation.
Book after book after book -- from John Bolton to Mary Trump to Michael Cohen to Bob Woodward -- all get released in rapid-fire succession, and all say essentially the same thing. Donald Trump is not just ill-suited to be president, he is a danger to us all.
For 40 percent of the country, Donald Trump is their guy, come hell or high water. They aren’t holding their proverbial nose while voting for him. They love him so much that they are willing to risk their lives to cheer him on.
Who are these people?
Everyone knows by now that Trump gets the lion-share of his support from white men without a college degree. Makes sense. Most educated people see through his bullshit pretty easily, while many uneducated people do not. But it goes beyond that, and I have broken it down into seven categories that pretty much covers it. Of course, many of his supporters fit several of these.
1. Racists: This is the most obvious. Not every Trump supporter is racist, but all racists support Donald Trump. There are clear-cut examples, like the people waving their Confederate flags and confronting Black Lives Matter protesters with their AR-15s slung over their shoulders. These are the white supremacists, militiamen and Boogaloo Boys. But this also can include your seemingly innocuous friend or colleague, who never seems to get upset when a cop murders a person of color, but then is always quick to express outrage on Facebook when riots break out in the aftermath.
2. Evangelical Christians: Why do evangelicals support Trump so vigorously when it is so obvious he is not religious? Abortion. Even though Trump is clearly not a Christian man, he is nominating hundreds of anti-abortion federal judges. Abortion is the No. 1 issue, by far, for evangelicals, so they are more than willing to make their deal with the Devil in order to get what they want.
3. Law Enforcement: Cops, perhaps, have the most at stake in this election. They have lived in a world for decades in which they have been essentially above the law. Suddenly, their ability to kill and assault people with impunity has been curtailed. If Joe Biden wins, and Democrats take over Congress, cops across the nation will soon be living in a brand-new world in which they will be held accountable for their actions.
4. The Wealthy: Donald Trump’s signature piece of legislation was to slash taxes for millionaires and billionaires. If Biden wins, there’s a strong chance those tax cuts will be repealed.
5. Business Owners: Trump has attacked regulations on all fronts, resisted raising the federal minimum wage and slashed corporate tax rates.
6. Gun Enthusiasts: Never has there been a more firearm friendly president. He has snuffed out any and all attempts to pass even the smallest, most common-sense gun-reform measures.
7. Conspiracy Theorists: These are the truly wacky people who support QAnon and believe that Donald Trump is fighting the “Deep State” and a cabal of pedophile, cannibals who have infiltrated Hollywood and the Democratic party. They’re the people who record themselves making pledges that, “Where we go one, we go all,” and think 5G towers are responsible for COVID-19. Sadly, their ranks have swelled, and one of their members, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is poised to win a Congressional seat.