Where are the Trump supporters?

Polls show a stubborn 38% of the public is sticking with Trump, even as the disastrous leaks keep coming.  Where are these people?  I’m not sure, but they are certainly not among his White House staff:

Wait a minute—wasn’t I called “deranged” then I pointed out that Trump was a moron?  Did you Trumpistas expect his own White House staff to be admitting the same, less than 4 months into office?

Then there are those who deny the truth of these stories—even when they are based on eyewitness reports of meetings, written up into transcripts, circulated to dozens of White House officials, and not even denied by the White House!

Trumpistas now live a a post-logic world where the King can literally do no wrong, where any setback is due to some sort of dark conspiracy of the “deep state”, which is bound and determined to thwart “the will of the voters”.

Unfortunately that won’t work.  Trump ran as a sort of superman, who could cut through all the Washington bureaucracy and get stuff done.  He never once said he’d Make America Great Again if Paul Ryan cooperated, he said Paul Ryan would cooperate or he’d be gone.  Sorry, but when you run as superman there are no excuses for failure.

For the country’s sake I hope he resigns.  But for my own sake I hope he stays around for 8 years.  Trump has Made Blogging Fun Again.

Update:  This post suggests that I was wrong in assuming that Jared Kushner was less nutty than Steve Bannon. If true, this is really bad news for the GOP.


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26 Responses to “Where are the Trump supporters?”

  1. Gravatar of KJ KJ
    20. May 2017 at 08:09

    I’m eagerly awaiting whatever incoherent diatribe Major.Freedom has in store for this one.

  2. Gravatar of Jeff Jeff
    20. May 2017 at 08:27

    There have been a number of anonymously-sourced stories since January implying that Jared Kushner was the “adult in the room”. By the rules of leaking, this has to mean that Kushner or his staff is the anonymous source. Is this not obvious?

    If it’s a staffer doing this without Kushner’s approval, he has to find and fire the staffer. Otherwise, Trump has to fire Kushner. Doing that might cost him Ivanka, and that’s a heavy price to pay. Look for Trump to find some prestigious out-of-the-loop post for Kushner.

  3. Gravatar of JMCSF JMCSF
    20. May 2017 at 08:38

    At this point the only supporters are republicans. I imagine incentive it becomes clear that the republican agenda will not be passed into law youbwill see their support dwindle. But what would it take for the last 30% of Americans to stop supporting him?

    Trying to ban free press? Firing up the ovens? You could put Hitler’s name on the Republican ticket and I bet we would still see at least 20% of the vote.

  4. Gravatar of Kyle Hale Kyle Hale
    20. May 2017 at 08:41

    All you have to do to verify Trump is a complete moron is take any unedited transcript of any interview he has done in the past 2 months and read it out loud.

    Every word.

    No really, just try it; it is mentally exhausting and your brain will refuse to say the things he has said, both from a linguistic and a logical perspective.

  5. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    20. May 2017 at 12:30

    “I’m eagerly awaiting whatever incoherent diatribe Major.Freedom has in store for this one.”

    Same here.

    “Trying to ban free press? Firing up the ovens?”
    -That’s when I’d start supporting him again.

    Kyle Hale, anyone can be made to sound like an idiot if their words are transcribed on paper.

    Jeff, it’s a selection effect. Bannon’s staff has no purpose in leaking to the press; they’ll leak to Cernovich.

  6. Gravatar of FXKLM FXKLM
    20. May 2017 at 14:39

    We need more focus on Trump’s stupidity, laziness and instability and less on his supposed racism and sexism. Attacking him on substance is a useless distraction because (1) he has so little substance and (2) it firms up his support on the right.

    If the left really wants to get rid of Trump, they need to make the case for replacing him with Pence with no major policy changes. That’s the only way to reach supermajority support for removing him. They need to resist the temptation of using Trump to attack Republicans as a whole or we’ll be stuck with this nonsense for a full term.

  7. Gravatar of Philo Philo
    20. May 2017 at 15:22

    “Trump has Made Blogging Fun Again.” Surely you will soon tire of the game of Trump-baiting, and return to more substantive topics.

  8. Gravatar of Ricardo Ricardo
    20. May 2017 at 16:05

    I love the Trump posts!

  9. Gravatar of Patrick R. Sullivan Patrick R. Sullivan
    20. May 2017 at 16:11

    Russia’s FM, Lavrov, has come out and denied that Trump talked to him about the Comey firing.

    What we seem to have is a reverse ‘Being There.’ In Kozinski’s novel, Chance the Gardener is thought to be a genius because he never says anything but simple statements of fact. With Trump the opposite happens, he talks and talks, giving the usual suspects opportunities to make mountains out of molehills.

    A guy who go through Wharton is definitely not stupid. A lot of his critics seem to be though.

  10. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    20. May 2017 at 16:27

    Your wishes are my command:

    “Polls show a stubborn 38% of the public is sticking with Trump”

    The Reuters poll is rigged against republicans:

    Look at the political affiliations in the latest poll:

    Democrat 5,180
    Republican 4,427
    Independent 1,563
    ——————–
    TOTAL 11,170

    These represent approx. 46.4% D, 39.6% R, and 14% I, respectively

    This is why Reuters consistently reports that Trump is unpopular. They have been doing this “random but not really random” sampling for years. I knew right where to go the moment you posted that poll.

    Contrast the above with the latest Gallup poll of party affiliation:

    2017 May 3-7
    Republicans 29
    Democrats 28
    Independents 40

    For independents, 40% vs. 14% is a huge difference.

    At any rate, if polls and popularity contests really did determine value and truthfulness, then the Drudge Report would be more valuable and truthful than this blog.

    “Wait a minute—wasn’t I called “deranged” then I pointed out that Trump was a moron?”

    Yes, but please don’t kid yourself into believing that you’re the only sufferer. A psychopath is no less psychopathic if he identified another psychopath. It just means there are two instead of one.

    There are millions of people suffering from Trump derangement syndrome. There were millions of people suffering from “slavery is good” syndrome, and “women shouldn’t vote” syndrome, in the past, why would sheer numbers matter when it comes to the veracity and quality of people’s ideas? You can’t just say that because your neighbour is just as nutty as you, that it makes your nuttiness any less nutty. Yes, it is indeed possible for the world to be composed of all psychotics except for one person. Ideas are not true or false by virtue of how many believe or disbelieve it, I don’t care what brainwashed cockamamie worldview you see in Rorty and other self-contradicting “What I say is objective but what everyone else says is subjective” demagogues.

    “Then there are those who deny the truth of these stories—even when they are based on eyewitness reports of meetings, written up into transcripts, circulated to dozens of White House officials, and not even denied by the White House!”

    Truth? You don’t know the meaning of it, no, truth is not what people can get away with, it is not what is widely believed, and it is certainly not based on “anonymous sources”, or fake “memos” of a person’s boss after you were fired, and it is not even based on what the White House denies. If the White House had to deny every fake news story published, the White House would only be doing that and nothing else. Yes yes, that’s exactly what you want it to do all day every day, but they selectively deny and accept what benefits them, just like you do on this statist blog.

    “Trumpistas now live a a post-logic world where the King can literally do no wrong, where any setback is due to some sort of dark conspiracy of the “deep state”, which is bound and determined to thwart “the will of the voters”.”

    Post logic is where you already are, where Trump can do no good, where every single sentence he says is deconstructed and every grammatical slip, every imperfect statement, is focused on and the millions of other statements are ignored. That’s fake news reporting.

    “Unfortunately that won’t work. Trump ran as a sort of superman, who could cut through all the Washington bureaucracy and get stuff done. He never once said he’d Make America Great Again if Paul Ryan cooperated, he said Paul Ryan would cooperate or he’d be gone. Sorry, but when you run as superman there are no excuses for failure.”

    You won’t work.

    “For the country’s sake I hope he resigns. But for my own sake I hope he stays around for 8 years. Trump has Made Blogging Fun Again.”

    No, the fake news is what you are drinking, that has made it fun for you, because it sanctions your existing prejudices and envy

    “Update: This post suggests that I was wrong in assuming that Jared Kushner was less nutty than Steve Bannon. If true, this is really bad news for the GOP.”

    Vox is fake news

    Sumner you are so clueless, when are you going to read and link to real news sources? You keep citing left wing, CIA/deep state propaganda sites that have a proven track record of lying and spreading false information on purpose

    Is this all you have? Fake news sites that publish disinformation and you link to it as if it is true? Where is your due diligence?

  11. Gravatar of dtoh dtoh
    20. May 2017 at 18:17

    You asked “Where are these people?”

    I’m currently in HCMC.

  12. Gravatar of Philo Philo
    20. May 2017 at 18:42

    @ dtoh:

    Ho Chi Minh City? Hennepin (or Henry) County Medical Center?

  13. Gravatar of mbka mbka
    20. May 2017 at 18:43

    Patrick R. Sullivan,

    “A guy who go through Wharton is definitely not stupid.”

    That was 50 years ago. There are various forms of mental decline and dementia that could explain the facts of lately.

    Besides: many activities don’t require a brilliant overall mind. Or a strategic mind. Or a political mind. The POTUS needs those qualities. But brilliant car salesmen, say, just need a very narrow command of sales tactics. They may be morons in every other aspect. Brilliant 3rd world dictators just need to be brutal and paranoid about rivals. And may be morons otherwise. Brilliant physicists have said naive or moronic things about politics and society. Brilliant people of all stripes have supported the Nazis. etc.

    The point is, an this moment in time, Trump the salesman has sold his presidency to the American people and bullied the Republican party into supporting him. But he doesn’t have any sense for the complexities of politics, international or congressional. He’s a one trick pony. The trick still keeps on working on his supporters. Everyone else is now laughing.

    BTW, history is full of factions supporting moronic puppets as heads of state to further their own interests, so I wouldn’t even want to claim that Trump in any way “won over” the GOP. History is also full of said puppets that were swiftly dealt with by their own supporting faction once the wind had changed.

  14. Gravatar of Benjamin Cole Benjamin Cole
    20. May 2017 at 19:12

    OT (that is, on topic if macroeconomics):

    http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/05/new-hsieh-moretti-paper-land-use-restrictions-economic-growth.html#comment-159634567

    Egads, these authors, cited by Tyler Cowen, say US aggregate growth is cut by 50% since 1969, essentially by property zoning.

    Even I think the estimate is a bit extreme, but it is a reminder that property zoning is probably a far more important topic than the minimum wage or fidgets in “free trade.”

    Most importantly, the paper underlines the point: One cannot be a U.S. macroeconomist without including a treatment property zoning in your views.

    Property zoning is a major macroeconomic policy issue, right up there with monetary policy, minimum wage and trade.

  15. Gravatar of Patrick R. Sullivan Patrick R. Sullivan
    20. May 2017 at 19:51

    mbka, I’ll go with Occam’s Razor; Trump isn’t stupid, but most of his critics are.

  16. Gravatar of dtoh dtoh
    20. May 2017 at 20:16

    Philo –

    Saigon.

  17. Gravatar of Patrick R. Sullivan Patrick R. Sullivan
    20. May 2017 at 20:28

    Some astute comments (most of which will go right over the heads of 90% of the commenters here) drawn out of her interviewee by Mrs. Clarence Thomas;

    http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/13/scholar-unravels-the-big-lie-surrounding-the-tump-campaign-and-russian-collusion-video/

  18. Gravatar of mbka mbka
    20. May 2017 at 20:35

    Patrick R Sullivan

    “mbka, I’ll go with Occam’s Razor; Trump isn’t stupid, but most of his critics are.”

    Occam’s razor suggests the opposite:
    – if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s likely a duck, not a genius 3D chess playing mastermind
    – when everyone on the freeway seems to come at you instead of driving with you, it’s likely you’re the one on the wrong side.

  19. Gravatar of Greg DeLassus Greg DeLassus
    21. May 2017 at 05:43

    “f Trump, they need to make the case for replacing him with Pence with no major policy changes. That’s the only way to reach supermajority support for removing him. They need to resist the temptation of using Trump to attack Republicans as a whole or we’ll be stuck with this nonsense for a full term.”

    This sounds right to me. There should be common ground here on which Ds & Rs can compromise. Republicans should welcome a Pence presidency because he is a stone conservative who will advance their preferred agendas more effectively than the current office holder. Democrats should welcome a Pence presidency because—little as we might like his policy preferences—we can sleep more soundly with his fingers on the button than Pres. Trump’s.

    Because Pres. Pence is an obtainable outcome that we should all prefer, both sides should focus on laying the groundwork for that outcome. Attempts to score points on the other side based on the incompetence of Trump or the arrogance of his critics should be discouraged as unhelpful to that mutually agreeable goal.

  20. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    21. May 2017 at 06:18

    Speaking of morons, the person who put together that photo which Sumner linked to in the post header:

    That Russian structure is St. Basil’s Cathedral, for the Eastern Orthodox faithful.

    It isn’t the Kremlin.

    Is he insinuating Trump should be investigated for turning Eastern Orthodox? Hahaha

  21. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    21. May 2017 at 06:25

    The founder of Twitter has fascist/communist tendencies.

    Williams […] says he was wrong thinking that the world would be a better place if there was a platform for everyone to freely speak and exchange ideas.

  22. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    21. May 2017 at 06:31

    He also said, about the Internet which has a very high degree of freedom of speech:

    The Internet is broken

    http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-93364601/

    Thank everything this guy was not around during King George, or else there wouldn’t be a US

  23. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    21. May 2017 at 06:37

    The real reason Trump is so hated on the left and in DC is because to them he represents the embodiment of Capitalism

  24. Gravatar of ChargerCarl ChargerCarl
    21. May 2017 at 11:32

    “mbka, I’ll go with Occam’s Razor; Trump isn’t stupid, but most of his critics are.”

    Bobby Fischer isn’t stupid either, but I sure as shit wouldn’t want him in the White House…

  25. Gravatar of Scott Sumner Scott Sumner
    21. May 2017 at 12:01

    Patrick, You said:

    “Russia’s FM, Lavrov, has come out and denied that Trump talked to him about the Comey firing.”

    Now if only the White House would deny it.

  26. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    24. May 2017 at 17:31

    This comment from Sumner:

    “where any setback is due to some sort of dark conspiracy of the “deep state””

    is proof he is useless in the pursuit of liberty

    He is no libertarian

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