This week at the Republican Primary Debate, Nikki Haley referred to Donald Trump as the “most disliked politician in America”, apparently missing the irony of the moment given he didn’t attend the event because his popularity among the American voter is off the charts relative to her and the rest of the field. Despite being ridiculed for running since day one – late-night hosts mocked him, politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Lindsay Graham guaranteed he’d lose, A-list celebrities like George Cooney superciliously dismissed the notion, and the media scoffed right up until the moment he was elected – Donald Trump’s popularity grew.
In his four years in office, the overwhelming narrative from the establishment class (coastal city, Ivy League graduate, upper-class income, etc.) was Donald Trump and his supporters are deplorable and bad for the future. Before he could even start his term in office Rashida Tlaib vowed “We’re going to impeach the m*****f****r”. Quickly, he was described as a racist, white supremacist, inveterate lying, misogynist, and xenophobic bigot – minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. Clearly, this life-long showman had pulled a fast one on the slow-witted American people and the erudite class were duty-bound to make us wise to the scam.
The only problem was it wasn’t working.
No matter how vitriolic the charges, the people knew who and what they voted for and, thanks to the internet and to the chagrin of his detractors, were able to see the man and the results for themselves.
They voted to protect the border, he promised to build a wall, and he did. They wanted more jobs for Americans, and he delivered manufacturing plants to the states. They wanted to get out of endless wars, and he refused to start any. They wanted fewer taxes, and so he cut them.
Though he was pilloried as an arch-white supremacist, misogynist, and racist, he somehow managed to create an economy where more black female entrepreneurs succeeded than at any time in history. He freed black prisoners and guaranteed funding to Historically Black Colleges ten times longer than America’s first black president, Harvard’s very own Barack Obama. CNN’s own black analyst, Van Jones even had to tip his hat to Trump’s victories for black Americans.
We wondered about NATO spending, so he took the member countries to task. We didn’t want to suffer the economic disaster of the climate change accords in Paris, so he withdrew us from them. We were tired of fearing Middle Eastern terrorists like ISIS, so he took them out, and we were even more tired of funding them by buying their oil, so he opened up our pipelines and made us energy-independent.
All the while, the media tried to convince us he was perhaps the worst person on the planet.
It just wasn’t adding up.
Making good on Tlaib’s prophetic promise to impeach, the Democrat majority drafted the articles claiming Trump colluded with Russia, only to find out the evidence was bought and paid for by his vanquished presidential competitor Hillary Clinton. This was followed by an exodus from the Democrat party. The Walk Away campaign, founded by a gay man, suddenly exploded in numbers of loyal leftists seeing through the façade and walking away from what they knew to be lies. The black community began to rally around Trump, giving thanks for using his office to support their needs. The iconic Kanye West sought to work with Donald Trump and was castigated by white and black elite as crazy, even suggesting he was no longer black. Suddenly, blackness was a political position, not an immutable characteristic.
Another prophetic prediction from soon-to-be media darling and establishment elite member Anthony Fauci warned Trump would be facing a breakout virus. How he knew this is unclear, yet he stated it with the certainty of someone with insider information. Suddenly, the pandemic came, and what followed was a cascade of government overreach and abuses both in America and worldwide the likes of which we had never seen. No matter what Trump did, even pushing for their sacred vaccines, he was credited only with the disasters. Once his predecessor, Joe Biden, took over, the media winds shifted 180 degrees.
It’s as if these people cannot see what they’re doing enough to realize Americans see right through it. Their behavior is that of narcissists who cannot be told they might be wrong and are practiced at the art of projection and gaslighting. Shrouding themselves in self-righteousness, they believe the object of their scorn should be the object of everyone’s scorn. You must hate what they hate, believe what they believe, and practice what they practice.
History is littered with examples of this social dynamic, perhaps never more so clearly as what we read in the Bible, a book the establishment likewise disregard as comfort for imbeciles. Rather than read it and see the parallels, they can’t be bothered. So they won’t see how uncanny their behavior is to the political and religious leaders in first-century Israel. Like the Romans, Pharisees, and Sadducees they have constructed a mountain of rules and regulations, approved gods and behaviors offering them power over the plebes who suddenly were listening to a low-life saying he had come to make Israel great again. However, the powers that be only heard the ramblings of someone who was exposing their corruption and how wrong they were despite their painstaking attempts to appear righteous.
You may be thinking I’m lionizing Donald Trump and comparing him to Jesus, but like them, you’d be missing my point. Rather, what we are witnessing is a man beleaguered by an elite guard who have convinced themselves of their superiority and even god-like ability to rule the world. They feign being champions of freedom as they pile burden after burden on the commoners.
If anything, Trump is more like David or perhaps his womanizing son Solomon, both of whom were demonstrably broken human beings, failing in the same ways we see Trump fail. David suffered similar persecution by King Saul for much of his political life, and Solomon came clean with us that he chased women and built palaces and monuments not much different than the New York real estate developer who plasters his name on nearly everything he makes.
Trump, despite his own narcissistic tendencies, has repeatedly pointed us to the Creator in his humbler moments. This is what the deplorable class love about him. He reminds us of the broken heroes of old, exposed for their weaknesses and failings but with the courage and conviction to take on the powers who will oppress us for, as they see it, our own good.
Trump’s appeal is not him. It’s his willingness to call out the phonies, the industry of liars, and the brutal honesty of a man who’s benefited by the system. His promise is tied to America’s promise to its citizens – you were made to be free to pursue lives of happiness and prosperity, not be ruled by tyrants.
He is loved because he understands America, unlike those who are hell-bent on fundamentally transforming it until it is no more.
