Or, we might say, trying to understand the mindset. And now we repeat this question from Part One: ”how could Donald J. Trump, a man with a plethora of character flaws, who surely will go down in history as one of worst presidents to ever occupy the White House, have so many staunch supporters?”
That is very difficult, if not impossible to answer, but we are certainly going to delve into this issue and try to determine what motivates these individuals to lock themselves into being hardcore Trump supporters.
We’ll start with a general definition of a mindset. Here is a very good one from developgoodhabits.com: “In a fixed mindset, people believe their qualities are fixed traits and, therefore, cannot change. These people document their intelligence and talents rather than working to develop and improve them.” They have a great tendency to lock in initial opinions.
Next, from mindvalley.com. And noted psychologist Carol Dweck: “People with a growth mindset feel that they can learn anything or acquire any ability if they put in enough effort. These people don’t let setbacks stop them.”
It sure doesn’t take a lot of deep thought to conclude that, in this discussion, we will be specifically be talking about the first definition, not the second.
So let’s make this observation. That 40% of Americans, who we keep hearing will vote for Trump no matter what, are largely Caucasians, mostly males. Also, many are religious people, called Evangelicals. So when we talk about mindsets in this context it should be understood that it will include Evangelicals. And, we might say that all of those in this group share the same thinking, they all worship Trump.
Speaking of Evangelicals, the ones that strongly support Trump do it because they agree with him on certain issues such as abortion, immigration, same-sex marriage, and various others. The question would seem to be is: how could these people of faith tolerate Trump’s anything but Christian behavior, much of which we will discuss below?
In this exploration, we will use a process in which a statement will be made about Trump’s behavior and actions followed by what seems to be the general attitude of these hardcore supporters on the subject or issue.
*There was that “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump and Billy Bush were having great fun discussing women and how easy it was to seduce them, and Trump said, “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. … Grab them by the pu**y, You can do anything.”
Trump supporters: well, maybe that is a bit crude and kind of nasty but, as we know, boys will be boys, sometimes they are just naughty.
*At the July 2018 Helsinki, Finland conference, when Trump met with Putin of Russia a reporter asked him if he believed his U.S. intelligence agencies or, rather Putin, relative to the Russian meddling in U.S. elections in 2016. He didn’t hesitate to say, “Putin says it’s not Russia, so I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
Trump supporters: President Trump simply doesn’t trust these intelligence agencies or the FBI and says they are a part of the “Deep State.” He has called their leaders passive and naive saying “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!” We have faith in him and agree with what he says about the intelligence community.
*Making fun of a disabled reporter: at a rally in South Carolina in November 2015, Trump, who disliked something a reporter had written said in a mocking tone, “Now, the poor guy — you ought to see the guy: ‘Uh, I don’t know what I said. I don’t remember,'” Trump said, as he contorted his arms in an apparent imitation of Kovaleski, who suffers from arthrogryposis, a neurological disorder that causes involuntary and rhythmic shaking.
Trump supporters: he wasn’t intentionally making fun of this guy, he was just joking. Those at the rally took it as a joke, why is there a big fuss about it?
*Southern border immigration, children cruelly separated from parents, put into cages: The Trump administration’s horrific decision in 2018 that separated untold numbers of immigrant children, including very young ones, from their parents when they tried to cross the Southern border. Many of these kids were thrown into cages, were denied showers, clean clothing, and hot meals. This was simply inhuman, barbaric.
Trump supporters: Well, I guess something had to be done to put a stop to this endless, illegal immigration by people who had no right to cross our border. Nothing else was working so something had to be done to teach these illegals a lesson they wouldn’t forget.
*Making fun of climate activist Greta Thunberg: Now he attacks a young person trying to do the right thing for this planet. Greta Thunberg, a 16-year old Swedish environmental activist on climate change has gained international recognition for her work.
President Donald Trump, in his usual insulting-type twitter, mocked this dedicated, hard-working teen soon after she was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, calling her great achievement “ridiculous” and suggesting she take anger management classes. He sounds like a kid who just got rejected by a little league baseball team and blames one of his fellow players for some odd reason.
Trump supporters; He’s got every right to get mad as hell, and for Time Magazine to choose some foreign teen over this president who is doing great things for America, making it great again. And, yes, it is more than ridiculous. Another sham, one more hoax.
*Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord: The world was shocked when Trump announced that he would have the U.S. withdraw from this crucially important accord relative to combating climate change/warming. That means that the U.S. became the only country in the world that will not belong to it as well as cooperate with other countries.
Trump supporters: The U.S. is already doing a lot about climate change on its own. It’s time for Russia, China, European countries and others to do something about it. We can operate on our own and we don’t need other countries to dictate what we must do.
*Withdrawing from the 2015 Iranian Nuclear Agreement: This agreement between Iran, the U.S., and other major countries was working well, and Iran had dismantled much of its nuclear program. After Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in May 2018, because he said it wasn’t working and Iran was cheating, that country has resumed some of its nuclear activities and the program is in a tenuous state.
Trump supporters: Trump is entirely correct, that agreement was a sham, the Iranians cannot be trusted and they represent a danger to the world. We must do everything possible to make certain that they cannot threaten any other country and there are those in America who believe we should get ready to attack it. Trump did the exact right thing.
*Ukraine telephone conversation: House committees have produced concrete evidence of a telephone call that Trump made to President Zelensky of Ukraine in which he made it clear that he wanted Zelensky to open an investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter in exchange for military aid of $391 million.
Additionally, during the 2016 election campaign, he said this: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 33,000 Hillary Clinton emails that are missing,” Lastly, in a news conference he also asked China to investigate the Bidens. Asking other nations to get involved in our elections is, without a doubt, impeachable.
Trump Supporters: What a bunch of crap, no more than a sham, a hoax, nothing but lies. The Democrats hate Trump with a vengeance and they will do anything to get rid of him, but it will not work.
Well, in closing, all I can say is that there is some good news in this situation: at least, two-thirds of the American people have their heads on straight.
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