Author: Heidi Tran

Donald Trump continues to enjoy unwavering support from his base, despite the ways he has harmed them. As the Trump administration continues to swing its wrecking ball over the U.S., Trump’s supporters persist in their conviction that he is Making America Great Again. Though some Trump voters are beginning to experience buyer’s remorse, Trump’s base remains unwavering in its support, seemingly oblivious to the harm the Trump administration has done them.

Trump’s tariffs, he claimed, would help bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. In reality, the tariffs are raising costs for many manufacturers and sending them out of the U.S. The tariffs on steel, for example, are reported to have increased annual costs for GM up to $1 billion.  General Motors and Ford both announced the closure of several plants in the U.S., as well as layoffs for thousands of employees. Many of those who are losing their jobs fall into Trump’s base, yet not only do they continue their unwavering support, they blame the manufacturers, not Trump.

Farmers, too, many of whom make up Trump’s base, have been hurt by Trump’s tariffs. Yet, as one farmer in Iowa, a Trump supporter, said, “We can overlook some things. We need to see the end result.”

Trump’s attempts to obliterate Obamacare, had they been successful, would have been a direct hit to a large number of Americans who make up Trump’s base – rural voters without college degrees. Though many previously uninsured rural Trump supporters gained health care under Obamacare, they voted for Trump on the faith that he would replace Obamacare with something better. Even as Trump continues to push a plan that would leave almost 18 million Americans without health care, Trump’s base insists that he’s going to change health care for the better.

Trump’s coziness with anti-freedom dictators such as North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, and his questionable relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, both leaders that Trump’s base once hated and distrusted, have rung no alarm bells among the base. Despite Trump’s chumminess with them, and the risk of compromising U.S. security as a result, Trump’s base have unwavering support of their leader, and insist that he knows what he’s doing, and that it’s for the good – not the undoing – of America.

Donald Trump’s Government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, wrecked the finances of many federal employees, some of whom make up Trump’s base. Though the shutdown did cause Trump to lose some ground with those who voted for him, now that Trump has ended it and re-opened the government, the diehard Trump supporters seem to have returned to the belief that the whole thing will be for the good of America.

According to Newt Gingrich,”The fact is, the president’s base is with the president…If he goes to them and says, ‘I got this done for the wall. I got this done to protect America. I’m doing these good things you believe in,’ the base is going to say, ‘fine.’ ”

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.”

Does the unwavering support of Trump’s base, and their inability to be presented with facts, a result of the Dunning-Kruger effect (in which they are not only misinformed, but unable to recognize that they are misinformed)? Or are they so full of fear of all of the possible threats to their world as a result of Trump’s fear-mongering, that they’re ready to latch on to him as the One who will protect them? Or does Trump’s base offering unwavering support because they see the Trump-induced harm to them as a worthy sacrifice for the ultimate goal of Making America Great Again?

‘Everyone is in shock’: Ohio community reacts to GM plant closure |
Washington Post [2018-11-30]

How Donald Trump’s base is hurting from his trade wars but sticking with their man | The Telegraph [2018-11-04]