Opinion | Trump is not the problem, his MAGA followers are
By: Renee Graham (BostonGlobe. com)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Donald Trump is a convicted felon. He has also been found civilly liable for sexual abuse. After that trial, during which he repeatedly called his accuser, E. Jean Carroll, a liar, Carroll sued for defamation and won a $83.3 million judgment against him.
The former president is still facing dozens of felonies from three indictments including for his alleged withholding and mishandling of highly classified documents when he left the White House; election interference in Georgia after the 2020 presidential election; and conspiracy to defraud the United States after he lost his reelection bid to Joe Biden nearly four years ago.
Tens of millions of your fellow Americans — some of them friends, relatives, co-workers, and neighbors — don't care. They're going to vote for him anyway.
This is overwhelmingly true if those people are Republicans, a group that has largely abandoned the rule of law only when it applies to Trump. When 147 Republicans in the House and Senate voted against certifying Biden's historic win in the 2020 presidential election, that was an irreparable rupture in this nation's foundation. And it's only gotten worse. Every Republican toadying up to Trump to be his 2024 running mate has offered some version of the same damning qualifier: They will accept November's results if it is a "free and fair" election.
The inference, of course, is that 2020 wasn't, which is a Trump-manufactured lie that he's still spewing. For many Republicans, including those who want to be vice president, the only free and fair election is one that Trump wins.
Every time Trump garners another ignoble first — first president to be twice impeached, first former president to be indicted, first former president to be convicted in a criminal case — there's a kind of collective breath-holding to wait and see if just maybe, this will be the moment when a significant number of Trump's followers say "Enough."
But that has yet to happen and probably won't. If anything, when Trump faces any measure of accountability, like being found guilty on 34 felony counts last week for falsifying business records to help his 2016 presidential campaign, his followers seem bound even closer to him. His campaign claims Trump got $53 million in donations in the 24 hours after his "hush-money" case conviction.
A recent episode of "The Daily Show" aired excerpts from 2023 interviews with Trump followers by The Young Turks news program. Echoing an infamous Trump comment, a man made this shocking statement: Trump "could stand on the front steps of the White House and commit murder, and I'm with him."
During a 2016 campaign stop, Trump crowed about the loyalty of those he called "my people." He said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's incredible."
More than incredible, it's incredibly disturbing how many people are willing to elect a lawless president. When he won the presidency in 2016, Trump got 63 million votes. More than 11 million voters who witnessed the chaos, cruelties, and lies of Trump's White House years decided, "Yup, I want some of that, too," and he got 74 million votes in 2020 in a losing effort. There's no reason to think he won't top his 2020 total in November.
If Trump's attempts to upend the peaceful transfer of power, including inciting a deadly insurrection and bringing this nation to the brink of its worst constitutional crisis ever, haven't eroded his grasp on the Republican Party, it's hard to believe anything ever will.
In the 1970s, cult leader Jim Jones convinced his followers that a paradise in the jungles of Guyana awaited them in a place he called Jonestown. But once they arrived, he took their passports to prevent them from leaving. His followers became his hostages.
That's not the case with Trump's minions. They could walk away from Trump at any time. Nothing is holding them except their belief that he is the only man who will keep America white; continue to erode women's reproductive and health care autonomy; keep Black and brown people in their place and preferably outside this nation's borders; and push LGBTQ people out of the streets and back into closets.
In The Young Turks interview, a Trump follower said, "If [Trump] says it, then I'll go with it. If he wants to be a dictator, then so be it." While the Supreme Court is slow-walking its decision on whether a president has total immunity from criminal prosecution, his followers have already decided that whatever Trump wants, Trump should get.
This is the part where someone will say Trump's followers shouldn't be shamed or criticized for their continued support of the former president. But the fault never lies with the demagogues alone. It also lies with their followers who elevate them to power, keep them relevant, and do their terrible bidding.
Without his millions of followers, Trump is nothing more than a lousy businessman and a one-and-done former president. But with them, he could be months away from perhaps the most disreputable first of all — the first convicted felon elected to the White House.
Renee Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com. Follow her @reneeygraham.
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8 years ago , on this forum, I said that eventually Trump's followers would be a much bigger problem for the country than he himself is.
I wish I hadnt been so prescient.
MAGA is no longer a partisan political position, it is a infectious malignant disease.
Every single MAGA is diseased? Of course not.
The "movement" ? Yes.
And it is getting worse by the day.
This will NOT end well, no matter what happens.
“…Trump's followers would be a much bigger problem for the country than he himself is.”
And your prediction has come to fruition. The only solace we can take is in knowing their solid 30% does not define the present nor determine our future. Vote.
I would agree that only 30% of people are hard core MAGA, but they have a ubiquitous voice that never slows down for a second, and is capable of influencing , because of general apathy, a much larger group.
Since Trumps conviction there has been a veritable onslaught of "news" stories claiming Trump is the victim of "lawfare". These stories are taken from right wing media and picked up and amplified by people who probably mean no harm, but are doing harm.
'Probably mean no harm?'
I beg to differ.
Stupid morons for the most part
"I wish I hadnt been so prescient. "
You give yourself far too much credit - for only repeating Hilary's disdain for Trump's troops. She didn't go after just the candidate - she called his supporters a basket of deplorables and it was on. They didn't budge then and, in the shadow of Biden's dumpster, they're not likely to listen to you now.
CDS.
John
You article (especially the title) makes a very salient point with which I agree.
But (you knew there was going to be a BUT didn't you)
The lunacy of the NAGA masses is certainly a cancer on our society, but I disagree in part because I think that Trump is the problem, because the fomenting cauldron of hate, distrust and bigotry is exactly what Trump preaches so he is indeed a big part of the problem.
Trump was who brought these racist, misogynistic, ignorant, eternal victims out of their hiding places to become MAGA. There is no reason to think that without Trump they won't slowly go slinking back to the dark holes they came from.
Before Trump, with a few exceptions, spouting this racist crap was considered unacceptable. But then we got a POTUS that was constantly putting out dog whistles and talking about all the shit they were previously to embarrassed to claim. While MAGA (like Nazi's) will never go away, without the cult leader they will fade to obscurity and numbers too small to matter.
was who brought these racist, misogynistic, ignorant, eternal victims out of thei
The new trump voters are mainly former Obama supporters and minorities. He traded rich white votes for them.
“Before Trump, with a few exceptions, spouting this racist crap…”
The inception being the birth of right wing extremism spouted by the likes of limbaugh…he was aware, as was trump, that there was an underlying segment of the population that was rightfully voiceless, because of their dangerous tendencies but were ripe for the picking. So suddenly they had a voice.
We are dealing with the aftermath of those who selfishly exploited the opportunity and are left with the possibility that the fear and ignorance and hatred they spewed may actually win the day.
Sad does not begin to describe the unimaginable consequences that could be inflicted.
"Swing and a miss..."
Haven't heard that claim floated since the 2016 elections, when it was completely and thoroughly debunked.
Awfully biased and one-sided article. MAGA's make up only a small percentage of people who will vote for Trump. Republicans can range from being very conservative to fairly liberal on some issues. Many groups who would normally support the Dem nominee are giving up on Biden and the far-left radical progressivism that they continue to practice in spite of ongoing failures. The Independents will decide who wins in November, and it's looking less and less likely to be Biden.
The American people are a lot smarter than the left gives them credit for and know when they are being screwed, lied to, and ignored. None of these political prosecutions has hurt Trump, simply made him into a martyr. Biden was supposed to be a fair minded moderate who would unite us all. He immediately showed that radical left is calling all the shots here, probably with a lot of help from Obama and his people.
Trump supporters would not have accepted Biden even if he gave them all a fresh thousand dollar bill. Or cured their mothers cancer. Or got them all into heaven.
Of course, Trump supporters had no reason to believe or accept Biden....neither then nor now.
There is no such thing as the last $1,000 was printed 55 years ago and collectors have pulled the few remaining out of circulation.
Brandon would be using tax payer money to do that. Just like he is for his college student debt forgiveness program; and draining the national oil and gas reserves.
It is laughable to think Brandon would ever use his own money for anything.
Cuntrump made hundreds of millions of dollars while in office. Kushner made billions.
I don't believe you believe that.
Because no one can believe other than what Democrats tell them?
Sorry, there is a whole world of non brainwashed US citizens out there.
That isn't going to change no matter how hard Democrats push.
Trump is a liar and a crook. The evidence is overwhelming.
History is not going to be kind to MAGA.
Talking loud and saying nothing.
Brandon is liar and crook. The evidence is overwhelming.
History is not going to be kind to Democrats and their lemmings for what they have put this country through.
Only difference is Brandon and Democrats have the FBI and DOJ running interference for them.
We know Democrats and leftists are.
We all wish you would stop.
"Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon! Brandon!"
the siren call of the politically defective...
Seriously.
Hunter Biden would disagree with your fantasy.
Any rational and intelligent human being would disagree with the entire comment.
Hunter Biden: DOJ intentionally lets statute of limitations expire on tax felonies. Tries to let Biden walk via such a ridiculous plea that a Judge laughs it out of court and only proceeds with a prosecution after whistleblowers detail all the favorable treatment he received.
Trump prosecution" N ews accounts at the time noted that it was a “novel” prosecution, meaning no one had ever seen a case quite like the one Bragg conjured up against Trump. The case was a “novel application of the law,” a “risky and novel case” that “rests on a novel legal theory,” analysts said, to use examples from the New York Times . Sometimes the case was called “untested” and sometimes “unique,” but the larger point was that Bragg, who ran for office on a promise to pursue Trump, had stretched the law to indict his target. Later we learned, also from the New York Times , that Bragg, whose predecessor had not been able to find a suitable crime to charge Trump with committing, “ pushed his prosecutors to scour the penal code for a workable theory” — that is, for a charge that could be brought against Trump. It was a classic show-me-the-man-and-I’ll-show-you-the-crime moment.
Imagine believing they were treated equitably.
Useless, indulgent, rhetoric. All you have is ad hominem attacks on 'higher ups.'
Monty Python's: SPAMELOT! SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM. . . .
MAGAs' perspective on Democrats and Independents is not well thought out.
I DON'T LIKE SPAM!
'Imagine believing they were treated equitably.'
It's true - magats live in some perverse alternate reality/universe/bizarro world
Do you see Biden stopping the prosecution of his son? Biden already stated he will not pardon his son.
Lol. A promise that will expire the day after the election.
How many times does Biden have to lie to you before the tiniest bit of skepticism develops about one of the most notorious liars in American history?
What MAGAs and Donald actively are doing is building a separate 'world' to their own specifications and liking, then executing CRAMMING it down liberal's throats.
You can't show a CRIME that has not been committed. Material facts matters.
It's estimated that the average person unknowingly commits three felonies a day. Better hope the state doesn't dedicate its massive resources to figuring out how to punish you.
So let's try again:
No one has ever been charged under the statute Trump was charged under despite countless opportunities during the 55 years its been on the books. Targeting a man and then trying to find a crime to pin him with is not how an just legal system is supposed to work. You get that, right?
Boy! When I saw that little caption flash on my news screen I immediately thought MAGAs' warrior class is going to test that theory. . . sh-t, they may even secretly promise a bag of gold to the first conservative who assists in getting Hunter thrown in jail/prison! Retribution tour.
This goes to show just how easy it is to bring a grand old society down to pettiness.
I know damn well MAGAs are not writing about somebody lying to them. That shit (there) is rich. MAGAs shifting sand political foundation is planted in one man's delusion of this country. A madman and his henchmen.
Amazing watching you always portray Biden in the worst possible light while giving Trump a pass at every turn.
Your comments now are predictable and uncredible.
A Beriast uses labels (such as MAGA) to attack anyone who disagrees with them. That's how apologists for totalitarianism operate instead of dealing with facts.
Lol. I have no problem admitting Trump is unfit for office and would never suggest his word is bond.
You, however, just claimed Biden's promise not to pardon his son is binding.
Physician, heal thyself.
“..,.instead of dealing with facts.”
And the irrefutable fact is he was found guilty by a jury of his peers on 34 counts. Agree or disagree, the history is established and no amount of time, nor words, nor consternation will never, ever change the way in which we will look at this fundamentally fractured individual.
We'll take that as a confession.
Do better than stating a lie.
Don't know how to break it to you but:
Here is where, in your constricted view of this trying to find an angle, you make the mistake of assuming the government is ever going after all violators of every crime—no matter how petty. The legal system would be clogged, bogged down, and in perpetually need of refurbishing because of the massive amount of lunatics that break the law by spitting on sideways and vagrants sleeping on park benches and the like. The courts focus its 'red-hot' heat on 'Big fish.'
Donald is a 'whale.' And even so, that is not to say that the courts went in search of him. . . Donald, the former president, swam his big, fat ass, out into open waters where a big net was waiting.
You can't charge a CRIME where the law has not been broken.
(Serve.)
Or the day after his son gets convicted and sentenced to any time in jail.
At least Monty Python was funny.
Awww. He looks so sad. Must be and oldie but goodie from MAGAs pooping memes. /s
A strawman, I have never even implied Biden does not lie.
'the average person ...commits three felonies a day'
'We'll take that as a confession'
What 'average person' commits three felonies a day??????????
Maybe in maga world
And you mean Donald didn't see it coming. Maybe New York saw Donald a far off arriving. It could be that Bragg's promise (damn those diversity hires bringing their skills into the game) to "get Donald" was because A CRIME HAD BEEN COMMITTED AND OVERLOOKED. Or, maybe, just maybe, Donald and Bragg were doomed to meet in a court of law. Well, I will tell you this. The courts don't care about how the dance comes to the courthouse. . . it just cares about MATERIAL EVIDENCE inside the door. No material evidence. . . no partying can happen. Door closes with dance pants and shirts on the outside of it.
Now, as I keep informing you. . . if it ain't on the "books" you simply can't do it. But if it is. . . Look up! Look out! Or, POW!
Anyway, there is still hope for Donald. He and his cadre have been known to pull. . .something out of . . . somewhere that shines like a bright bulb in the eyes of judges dazzling them with its legal brilliance. Also, Donald can chance calling on his 'faves' on SCOTUS who are ever so grateful to transact with him. . . .
The movement has a name. Tell me what it is. And, what it properly professes its participants to be named and I will change in a *snap.* Even hurricanes have proper names for their 'movement.'
Sean's chief complain seems to go something like this: 'They got him with a law on the books, the government pulled it out of its ass, and that ain't fair!'
Every convict in the justice record-keeping database sings something similar. Rightly or even wrongly.
And not a defense.
Yes there are lies and then there are LIES and then there are MY WHOLE PROFESSIONAL LIE IS BUILT ON LIES.
[✘]
My bad. I thought your post had a point and you actually believed Biden's word meant something. I'm glad we agree Biden's "promises" are worthless and irrelevant to the issue.
Excellent example of a straw man. Lot of words to avoid addressing the point.
Seems a little senseless to bring it up then
Noted that you don't deny the substance of my comment.
You have no knowledge of what I may or may not know about anything.
Exactly, only what you display or don’t is known. Please don’t mistakenly take that as a taunt.
I request equal time for Donald and his shortlist of V.P. choices. Surely savvy MAGAs with their generators can arrange it. Go!
(If you don't do it. . . I, we, understand.)
There. Is that better?
Actually it's like the lawyers have to earn their damn 'keep' on a proper job. Also, lawyers love research. They strive and survive in it!
It is a "classic": Here is a proper law sitting here with names like, "Donald" written smack-dap in the middle of it. "Eureka!. . . Boss!"
One thing you have not denied is the CHARGE was found in New York law.
You have no point. Merely distress. The good news is the rest of MAGAs did not get a "Charge" from it! Be glad. Happy days! Because had "the team" been involved in this Donald would abandon you to it.
If it ain't on the "books" you simply can't do it. But if it is on the "books". . . Look up! Look out! Or, POW! Oh, and. . .we feel for MAGAs.
You want it.
You arrange it
GO!
Yeah. Huh-huh. I see now. It was not an accident that Donald's image with his V.P. choices was left out of your comment. The so-called, "non-partisan" have spoken clearly for all to see.
Yes.
Your post is self rebutting. No work to be done.
Ok, not a denial. Thanks for the confirmation.
I don't keep up with the Hunter stuff, but does President Biden mention much about the whole deal with Hunter and the right's obsession with him? and his trial or trials??? like I said, I can't keep up, don't want to keep up with their Clinton obsession and Hunter obsession and THEIR TDS.
unlike the former 'president' who can speak of nothing but himself no matter what or where after like a sentence on the alleged topic at hand
Do you really need to me explain what an average distribution over a population means and what that entails for any individual within that population?
No straw man. This article is about YOU!
[deleted][✘]
How many fascists have you known?
Wouldn’t the worst of the worst fascists understand and love their fascism instead of being unaware?
'Awfully biased and one sided article'
Weird that far right-wing fascists don't even know how insane they are.
We know when we're being screwed, lied to and ignored - magats obviously don't
I would hope so, brain dead biden is doing it all the time. The question is why some folks don't seem to care.
Are you sure?
Far right-wing fascists are what Trumpists are all about.
Are you trying to say Joe had something to do with it?
Sad, very very sad
Trump sure claimed he did...
Sad indeed.
Uh huh
Post:
Cutting through the bull:
1. Americans. . . Just how Ugly and Villainous do you want your next president to be?
2. Just how corrupt does America want to be as a nation in 2025?
3. SIGN THE CONTRACT THIS FALL FOR 'Ugly and Villanous'. . .and Corruption in America with be on You! No RETURNS.
4. VOTE! Your Way of Life Will Depend on You from here on out!
POST.
Cutting through the bull:
1. Liberals, Independents, and other acceptable voters: Take one random time or several random 'drop-ins' on TBN on your television. There are pastors teaching their congregations Christian nationalism, and domination over "pagans" (any one who is not a conservative Christian is included (including me)). Check 'em out. They are clearly telling their "multitudes" that pagans are the biblical enemies of God on various shows all day and deep into the night (replays). It's brainwashing. Pagans are the enemies of God and therefore of the church. First, there was the TBN demonization of pagans strategy, now some are literally talking about separating 'sheep from goat'. . . that it has already begun! The WASP/mixed evangelicals are definitely setting up something big! It would seem that TBN is taking advantage of the fact that a majority of liberals NEVER pay then too much attention.