Over the past few months, I have had the great misfortune of, through Town Halls, panel discussions, online communication, and real life, dealing with an unfortunate number of Trump Supporters, or Trumplings, as I like to refer to them. When I first set out to determine what the Donald Trump base was like, I believed that they were honest, worn-down Americans being taken on a joy ride by a charlatan, but, after a short while with them, I could literally have not been more wrong. Trumplings are by far the most hateful, ignorant, arrogant, obsessive, stupid group of people I have ever had the great misfortune of having spent any time with.
My first interaction with Trump supporters came from a panel discussion I was asked to help host on Islam in America. While most of the people were there to genuinely learn something, the Trumplngs, distinguishable by their t-shirts and hostile demeanor, were not there to learn; they were there to attack. According to Trumplings, Islam is not a religion. How about that? The United States Government, Military, E.U, U.N, and just about every other acronym-based organization recognizes Islam as a religion, but to Trumplings, Islam is a "cult of death." When asked to explain oneself, most people would use data from objective sites, but apparently not Trumplings. Trumplings cite data from known anti-Islamic sources and, when proper data is brought to show that, by their standards, all religions are "cults of death," they immediately close ranks and begin shouting rhetoric and launching personal attacks. They also seemed to be completely oblivious to the facts that the vast majority of the Muslim world lives in democratic nations and are doing more to stop ISIS than Western powers. To their credit, they didn't let things like facts or logic deter them.
My second interaction with Trumplings came from a Town Hall meeting where the topic, in particular, was immigration in America. One of the speakers proposed a very modest, very practical plan, to enforce already existing labor laws as a way to handle illegal immigration. Another speaker, a Trumpling, proposed a plan to have police officers launch millions of raids, throw people into the back of vans, and have them sent off to deportation centers. As you can imagine, this plan was not well received and, in response to minor criticism, the Trumpling went on a loud angry tangent, calling the entirety of the room, the bulk of whom were Republican, a bunch of "cowardly lib-tard scum who want the Mexicans in here to destroy America." I'm not exaggerating, by the way, word for word, that's what was said.
My third interaction with Trump came from interviewing Trumplings on the sidewalk, and here is where I truly learned the crux of their movement. Trumplings have zero idea what Donald Trump says. Upon asking several Trumplings why they supported the man, the most common answers were as follows:
"He's not a corrupt politician."
"He's a strong leader."
"He can work with people."
I immediately asked the Trumplings how Donald Trump giving money in exchange for favor is not corruption, as he admitted to in the first debate, and I was met with the blank, unknowing stare of a small child hearing that the tooth fairy isn't real. Most of them would then double down on the "strong leader" idea, and I would then ask them if killing women and children is what makes him a strong leader, and I would get the same blank stare. Oblivious to the fact that Trump vehemently defended killing the families of ISIS.
"B-b-but he can work with people. He's honest." To which I give the easiest answer, "No, he's not." Trump has spent the bulk of this campaign insulting everything under the sun, including the people who currently run Congress, the Republicans. Do Trumplings really think that Trump will walk into office and the people he's spent two years shit talking will do whatever he wants? Even further, apparently they believe that bluntness directly translates into honesty, completely oblivious to the fact that most liars speak bluntly. "I am not a crook," "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," "Benghazi was because of a video."
Despite the levels of stupidity I encountered, I still refused to believe that all of the Trumplings were bad. Then, I started asking them about the current state of America, and that's where the last bit of hope I held out was flushed down the drain. See, if I could describe Trumplings in one word, one word to encompass the unique essence of a Trumpling, it would be "spoiled." Trumplings are spoiled, spoiled children. They live in the greatest nation on earth with the strongest economy. The poorest of them make up the top 20 percent of wealth in the world, and they claim that we're destroyed as a nation. They claim that, just because a political party they don't agree with gets elected, they're being oppressed. Many of them think about, if not outright wish for a civil war, which would most likely leave millions of Americans dead, to come, and any attempt to convince them that their master is creating a cult of personality around himself is met with them parroting back soundbites like trained animals.
The worst, the absolute worst, of all of this, is that I know Trumplings are going to read this and I know they're going to take nothing from it. They're going to read this article, call me a liberal or something equally stupid, and retreat back to posting statuses about how Trump is the only hope for America.
Idiots.
