Even in 2016 it was clear he was a con artist. He literally said in one of the debates that he wouldn't accept the results of the election if he lost.

Cue 2020: shocked Pikachu face

Most Trump supporters just believe every negative story about him is a government conspiracy created to try to keep him out of power.

The lawsuits, the criminal charges, the COVID deaths... They think they're all lies of the liberal media.

How do you fight that?

Trump is openly saying that he's going to be a dictator. Trump is the Republican election pick. If you vote Republican, you vote for Trump, you're a shit bag faschie voting for fascism. Full stop.

I as a Canadian just don't get the appeal. He's not handsome by any stretch so there's no ascetic attraction.

He's not nearly as wealthy as he claims he is so it can't be admiration for his success.

He's got zero charisma so it can't be his charm.

He's as dumb as a pile of rocks so it can't be they admire his intelligence.

He's got the athletic prowess of a half dead goldfish and the skin tone of one so it can't be his physical ability.

I honestly just can't fathom the appeal.

All of his supporters in 2016 were also bad people. They saw the "grab them by the pussy" tape, they saw him make fun of a disabled person, and thought he was still a worthy candidate for their vote.

When I actually talk with Trump supporters, it's very clear to me that many don't actually support trump. Or, at least, not the trump we see. It's usually a case of leading a busy life and making the mistake of trusting a news org to tell you the truth of the matter when you have five minutes to catch up. And if you pick one that supports trump ...well you see where this goes. It is admittedly clear that people don't understand the gravity of the situation—but as a result, the 'crime' is usually ignorance, not maliciousness. As always, the fact that this is a 'political' topic muddies the water, and no one understands what the other side actually wants. We do agree on most things, it's just silly tribalism that makes us call a large portion of the population a "piece of shit".

There are always those outliers that are genuinely evil, but I do believe they're outliers.

From what I see, Trump is indicative of a growing trend, generally by conservatives to bring religion and their beliefs into government.

Trump is more absolutist and authoritarian than many other political candidates that I have seen.

To my best understanding of the current climate of the people who support him, they want more authoritarian control over what other people do. Partly in an effort to make themselves more comfortable in their own social interactions with others. So their assumptions of things like, women have curves, and men wear pants and have beards, and men like women and women like men, etc, are always correct, despite the fact that reality disagrees with them.

They're always on the lookout for any way for them to improve their socio-economic standing as well, with the basic concept of more for me, less for everyone else.

I believe that to them, Trump is a means to an end. Less for everyone else, more for them. More of their rules, and values, imposed on others, whether others want it or not.

Take for example, gay marriage. IMO, it's just marriage, eg. Two people who love eachother pledging their intention to continue to love and support eachother. My view is starkly contrasted by their view of "marriage is between a man and a woman before God!" (Or similar). Something something, the sanctity of marriage.... Blah blah. Nobody seems to care about divorce rates though the writings they're imposing on others pretty clearly state that marriage before God is a joining of souls in permanent matrimony and cannot and will not be broken. Ever. But I digress. Since they're opposed to gay marriage, they don't want it to be allowed, though it's clearly discrimination. Arguing about "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" and whatnot. The authoritarian, bull headed, my way out the highway mindset of someone like Trump, can actually achieve such goals. He's absolutist. Whether he believes in the prohibition of gay marriage or not.

On a personal note, I hope all the LGBTQ+ people get all the same rights to be as happy or as miserable as the cis/straight people. You're all fabulous and I love you all as brothers/sisters/siblings (for the gender ambiguous). I personally will continue to support you and fight along side all of you for equality.

Circling back to the point, this viewpoint can be copied and pasted on a number of issues that the right may not feel that they are properly represented on. Another good example is abortion; but that has mostly played out with the whole roe v. Wade thing, so I won't go into more detail there, despite the fact that I have a lot of things to say about it.

I think that demonstrates the point. They don't value him for what/who he is, they value him more for what he can do for them... To accomplish their goals and impose their ideals on everyone else. His ethical deficiencies and disregard for anyone's opinion, well-being, and opinion, are desirable features for them.

They're pushing for oppression of anyone who is different from them, trying to move up their capitalist ladder of success. Trump is just the latest tool that they're trying to use to accomplish that goal.

The worst part is that it’s not only Americans who are Trumpists. We’re Swedish and my mother looks up to that prick. How and why, I don’t know.

all i can do is look at our country and let out a big sigh. what will it take for the US to better itself?

If you support trump now.... You are a Natzi ... Full stop.

Almost all of my coworkers are Trumpers, can confirm, they are all shit people.

Trump is charismatic because he's a narcissist. Not in spite of it, but because there's a direct causal link.

This plays into a host of factors for the afflicted, including poor self esteem, familiarity with (and abuse from) other narcissists, and a whole lot more. This is very, very bad news because it suggests that a huge swath of the country is coping with some degree of mental health problems. The current system is pretty good at handling full-blown disorders, but anything less gets a pass or maybe is held at bay with minimal intervention. The bad part is that folks are predisposed to overt manipulation like we've seen in the last two presidential elections, because of it.

Upside is that enough people are self-aware and this search text auto-completed for me. But good grief are there a lot of results: https://www.google.com/search?q=why+do+i+find+narcissists+attractive

Edit: Usually I like posting things like this along with a solution, rather than just alarming people. In this case, I feel the need to post the core problem at hand, so that maybe people can see what they're actually up against, and focus their efforts in the right place. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the right answer is here, but I'm willing to talk to anyone about it. Thanks for reading.

I'd like to remind everyone that some of us are shit people but haven't and still don't support Trump.

People like Trump for the fascism. So yeah, they're all assholes and always have been.

Centrists: It's not all Republicans that support extremist candidates, there's still lots of non-extremists in the party!

Iowa caucus: Trump 51.0% DeSantis 21.2% Haley 19.1% Ramaswamy 7.7%

Leaving 1.0% or less that don't support an extremist candidate

I don't think one could make that argument in 2020, though. The man led an insurrection attempt. All questions were answered.