What Kind of People Voted for Trump?

There are two kinds of people who voted for Donald J. Trump in 2024. The first group was conned—they bought the sales pitch, got burned, and are just now starting to realize they were used. Veterans who lost their jobs, farmers who went bankrupt, blue-collar workers whose towns never saw the economic boom Trump promised—they’re pissed off, and rightfully so. But then there’s the second group.

The ones who will never wake up. The ones who, no matter how many times Trump lies, betrays, fails, or humiliates them, will stand by him until the bitter end. They will make excuses, twist logic into knots, ignore reality, and cling to their delusions with both hands—because admitting the truth would break them.

These people aren’t victims of Trump anymore. They’re willing participants in their own destruction.

THE TRUE BELIEVERS: TRUMP IS THEIR RELIGION

For some, Trump isn’t just a politician. He’s a savior. A messiah. A symbol. They don’t just like him; they worship him. He’s the golden calf, the god-emperor, the great avenger of their grievances.

These are the people who plaster his face on their trucks, fly Trump flags higher than the American flag, wear shirts with his name like he’s a sports team. Many of them made their way to Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 to risk prison for a man who wouldn’t cross the street to save them from a burning car.

They don’t care what he does or who he hurts, because he is them. When Trump is attacked, they feel attacked. When Trump is mocked, they feel mocked. When Trump is losing, they feel like they’re losing.

It’s not about policy or results anymore. It’s about identity. And that’s why they will never let go—because if Trump is a fraud, then their whole sense of self crumbles.

THE HATERS: THEY DON’T LOVE TRUMP—THEY SIMPLY HATE HIS ENEMIES

Not all the unshakable Trump supporters are true believers. Some don’t even like him that much. They know he’s an idiot. They know he’s corrupted. They know he’s full of shit.

But they don’t care.

Because it was never about loving Trump—it was about hating the people he hates. The libs. The media. The academics. The immigrants. The protesters. The LGBTQ+ activists. The “coastal elites.” The government. The “deep state.” The list goes on.

Trump could gut veterans’ benefits, destroy farmers’ livelihoods, raise taxes on working-class people, and screw over his own supporters every single day—and they’d still cheer, as long as he was making the right people miserable.

This is why nothing sticks to Trump. Scandals that would have ended any other politician don’t matter to his most die-hard fans, because to them, it’s not about governance. It’s about owning the libs.

They don’t care if Trump ruins their lives if he makes someone else’s worse.

TOO DEEP IN THE LIE TO TURN BACK

Some Trump supporters aren’t brainwashed or hateful. They’re just trapped. They’ve spent years defending Trump, arguing with friends and family, dismissing every scandal, pretending that every failure was a success. If they turn on him now, they must admit they wasted years of their lives defending a fraud. They can’t do it. It’s too humiliating.

So they double down. They tell themselves they were right all along. They insist that every bad thing about Trump is a lie, every attack on him is fake news, and every disaster he causes is part of a bigger plan.

They don’t believe it. Not really. But they must keep pretending, because at this point, admitting they were wrong would destroy them. So they’ll go down with the ship. Not because they love Trump. Not because they believe in him. But because they can’t face what it would mean if they finally admitted the truth.

SO WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM?

The true believers, the haters, the con men—they’re not changing. Ever. They will defend Trump until the day they die, no matter how many ways he screws them over. But reality doesn’t care about their delusions.

Their farms will still fail. Their jobs will still disappear. Their healthcare will still suck. Their wages will still stagnate. And when it happens, they won’t blame Trump.

They’ll blame immigrants.
They’ll blame Democrats.
They’ll blame the media.
They’ll blame "the deep state."
They’ll blame literally anyone except the man who caused it.

Trump will keep taking their money, keep using them, keep exploiting their fears, and they will love him for it. Because for them, it was never about making America great again. It was about making sure someone else suffered more than they did. And that’s why they’ll never wake up.  

-Closer to the Edge

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Commentary:

Consider all of Trump’s lies that his cult followers believe. This is called “The Dunning-Kruger Effect. [In other words], the problem isn’t just that they are misinformed; it is that they are completely unaware that they are misinformed, which creates a double burden [for them]. Studies have shown that people who lack expertise in some area of knowledge often have a cognitive bias that prevents them from realizing that they lack expertise [or knowledge and intelligence].”

“As psychologist David Dunning wrote in an op-ed for Politico, ‘The knowledge and intelligence that are required to [understand an issue at hand] are often the same qualities needed to recognize that one is [unwitting] — and if one lacks such knowledge and intelligence, one remains [completely oblivious] and is [incapable of understanding complex issues]. This includes political judgment: These people cannot be reached because they mistakenly believe they are correct [without the use of logic, inferential and divergent thinking, analysis, synthesis, common sense, evidence and facts].”

MAGA politicians support him as well because they want to hold on to their power despite the consequential destruction of our Republic. There are also millions of people who choose to ignore his seditious and treacherous behavior, his reprehensible ignorance, egregious incompetence, intentional maliciousness, anti-social personality disorder, pathological narcissism, psychopathic dominance, impulsivity, remorselessness, cheating and lying. Thus, we can assume they support him because of their own illogic, xenophobia, resentment, racism, hatred, anxiety, insecurity, avarice, credulousness, submissiveness, powerlessness and fears.

-Glen Brown