Former president of the USA Donald Trump – VP nominee, J.D. Vance rally, Atlanta, GA, August 3, 2024. (Credit: Phil Mistry/Shutterstock)
For many people, especially those leaning left, Donald Trump’s disqualifications to be president seem obvious, prompting some to question: How could anyone still vote for Trump?
Some of the evidence Trump’s critics cite include his two impeachments, multiple criminal indictments at the state and federal levels, and a felony conviction. Opponents also say that Trump is a threat to democracy, a misogynist, racist, a serial liar, and a rapist.
About 78% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independent voters say that Trump broke the law when he allegedly tried to overturn the 2020 election results. But less than half of Republicans think he did anything wrong.
I am an anthropologist of peace and conflict, and I have been studying what I call the Trumpiverse since 2015, when Trump descended a golden escalator and announced his candidacy for president. I later wrote a related book in 2021, called “It Can Happen Here.”
More recently, I have been examining toxic polarization – and ways to stop it. Many efforts to reduce people’s polarized views begin with an injunction: Listen and understand.
Why are people voting for Trump?
To this end, I have attended Trump rallies, populist and nonpartisan events and meetings where Democrats and Republicans connect and talk. Along the way, I have spoken with Trump supporters ranging from the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, faithful to moderate “hold the nose and vote for him” conservatives.
And indeed, many on the left fail to understand who Trump voters are and how they vary. Trump’s base cannot simply be dismissed as racist “deplorables,” as Hillary Clinton famously said in 2016, or as country bumpkins in red MAGA hats. Trump voters trend older, white, rural, religious and less educated. But they include others outside those demographic groups.
Many people have thoughtful reasons for voting for Trump, even if their reasoning – as is also true for those on the left – is often inflamed by populist polarizers and media platforms.
Here are five key lines of reasoning that, in varying combinations, inform Trump voters’ choice.
1. Media distortion
Where those on the left see Trump’s many failings, those on the right may see what some political observers call Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes simply called TDS.
According to this line of argument, the left-leaning media dissects Trump’s every word, and the media then distorts what he says. I have found that some Trump supporters think that people who feed too much on this allegedly biased media diet can get TDS and develop a passionate, perhaps illogical dislike of Trump.
I have also heard hardcore Trump supporters argue, with no evidence, that such “fake news” media outlets, like CNN, are part of a larger deep state plot of the federal government to upend the will of the people. This plot, according to those who propagate it, includes not just leftists, government bureaucrats and people who claim to be Republicans, but really aren’t, but also people in law enforcement.
Some Trump supporters also see merit in his contention that he is being wrongly persecuted, just like some see the Jan. 6 defendants being persecuted.
2. Bread on the table, money in the bank
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
For many Trump voters, the answer to Ronald Reagan’s famous question is clear: “No.” They accurately remember Trump’s term as one of tax cuts, economic growth, and stock market highs.
It is true that overall employment numbers and average pay went up under President Joe Biden. But for some Trump supporters, that economic boost pales in comparison to the massive surge in inflation during Biden’s term, with prices rising almost 20%. While the inflation rate has recently abated, prices remain high – as voters are reminded of every day at the grocery store.
Polls also show that Trump has a strong lead over Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on how they would handle the economy, which is a top concern for voters, especially Republicans.
3. A border invasion
Another reason some Americans want to vote for Trump: immigration.
Like inflation, the number of people illegally crossing the border soared under Biden.
This massive influx of “illegal aliens,” as Trump calls them, dropped to its lowest level in four years in July 2024. This happened after the Biden administration made it harder for immigrants to apply for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, a policy measure that is in line with many Republicans’ approach.
In 2022, a poll found 7 out of 10 Republicans worried that “open borders” were part of a Democratic plot to expand liberals’ power by replacing conservative white people with nonwhite foreigners.
Trump has played into some people’s mostly false concerns that immigrants living illegally in the U.S. are freeloaders and won’t assimilate, as illustrated by recent – untrue – allegations that immigrants are eating pets in Ohio.
In 2022, 82% of Republicans said they viewed immigration as a “very important” issue. Trump continues to tout his proposed solution, which includes shutting the border, building a wall, and deporting 11 million immigrants who are living in the U.S. without legal authorization.
4. A proven record
Some Trump voters simply compare the records of Trump and Biden-Harris and find that the tally tilts firmly toward Trump.
And it’s not just about the economy and immigration.
There were no new wars under Trump. Biden-Harris, in contrast, are saddled with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip. Trump supporters’ perception is that American taxpayers foot a large portion of the bill, even though other countries are also giving money to Ukraine, and Israel is actually buying weapons from the U.S.
I have found that Trump supporters also think he is better suited to deal with the rising power and threat of China.
5. The MAGA bull in a china shop
While some Harris supporters lament Trump’s destruction of democracy and decency in politics, I have found that Trump voters see a charismatic MAGA bull in a china shop.
It is precisely because Trump is an unrelenting pugilist, or a fighter – as he showed when he raised a fist after the assassination attempt against him in July – that he should be elected, his supporters believe.
Some even view him as savior – who will save the U.S. from a “radical left” apocalypse.
For such Trump stalwarts, MAGA is not simply a slogan. In the Trumpiverse, it is a movement to save an America that is on the brink of failure.
Alex Hinton is a distinguished professor of Anthropology and the director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University – Newark.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The Left defines truth as what benefits the state. Who gives a ratzazz about the state? Trump is not a warpig, doesn’t need corruption to feed his bank account like most of them… The economy will go far better than under any Democrat or RINO… It’s not at all a difficult decision to make
You write: “This massive influx of `illegal aliens’, as Trump calls them, dropped to its lowest level in four years in July 2024.” — If it did, was that a temporary appeasement because it was an election year? Why wasn’t it down in 2023, 2022 or 2021? While the total number still here steadily increased!
There was also Democratic Party support for the conspiracy to replace every sex-based category and law with a “gender”-based law or category, undemocratically attempting to force us to accept the changes without even a congressional discussion.
There were the hateful anti-white activists and white self-haters of the type exposed in Matt Walsh’s movie “Am I a Racist?” — producing mandatory re-education lectures on federal employees, private sector employees, schoolchildren, etc. (sometimes referred to as CRT). When Democrats accept professors who claim that all white people are racist but no black people are racist — how can a “fight against racism” mean anything but a fight against white people?
There was the continued Democrat reluctance to accept that we, as Americans, have an individual Constitutional Right to keep and bear arms (which is more fundamental than “what laws are candidates proposing right now”).
And there is the general loss of credibility among Trump’s critics due to the lies and exaggerations they have been caught making. E.g. Democratic candidate staffers making baseless accusations of genocide against Israel. Arguing that school administrators would discipline the same percentage of black children as white were those administrators not racist. Arguing that the black percentage nonracist police would shoot would equal the black percentage of the population (rather than, say, the black percentage among murderers). Claiming that Trump advocated “calling out the National Guard against protesters” (when, in fact, he advocated calling them out only against those protesters who were burning stores or even police stations, shooting fireworks rockets at police, occupying roads and highways and such). When Democrats accept leftists who call anyone they don’t like “fascist” — why should we care if people call Trump fascist? We WANT someone whom the Left hates.
“agenda-free, transparent research summaries”
Give me a break. This is a thinly veiled hit piece on Trump and his supporters.
Trump won because he will alter the course of the ship of state
back to the calm seas of reason and away from the whirlpool of insanity.
4 years of trump is ”a new world order i can get behind”!