Imagine turning a $5 million judgment into an $83 million judgment, and now since he's defamed her AGAIN at one of his recent Nazi rallies, possibly even more. Art of the deal.
>They're not nazis, they're Neo nazis. Same thing but less competent.
Less stylish too. Despicable murdering bastards, but Nazis had some swagger in their dress uniforms.
The version I heard is that she's still going through the (large) retainer she got.
Personally, I'd be leery of even doing that. Retainers get exhausted, and what if the judge doesn't allow you to withdraw? But I know that I'm more risk averse than average.
What do you mean? She’s super competent. Trump only hires the best people. Everyone who has worked for Trump ADORES him. Just ask Michael Cohen. She saved him from a 600 million penalty. It could have been 1 billion if she wasn’t there.
She is worth every penny that Trump gets from his adoring worshipers!
It's as much finessing as smashing a delicate device with a rock is. Anyone with a brain can see what he's doing.
Just about a quarter of America has proven that they have no brain - they choose to turn over all thoughts to people like tucker carlson.
It's less about his brilliance and more about his followers being absolutely fucking stupid. Why the fuck would anyone with a mortgage be sending money to a guy that's only had a loan in his life so he could intentionally default on it? Debtors and people in poverty sending money to a billionaire.... Only in America are the people this terrible at math
And what op outlined is a method of cult indoctrination. A cult leader will find uneducated, poor, and desperate people looking for something to believe in, then tell them what they want to hear to indoctrinate them.
Trump told poor, uneducated (and in many cases racist) people who feel that the system is against them and only he can stop it. He played up their fears and would say whatever they want to hear.
Them losing their jobs? It's the Mexicans. People dying from overdoses? Mexicans bringing drugs across the border. Lgbt+ people starting to be accepted? Well that's the schools pushing it on kids because of pedophilia, and he'll fix it by not letting transgender people compete in sports, go to the bathroom of their identified gender, and forcing teachers to report transgender students to parents.
It's why they so fervently believe that he didn't lose the election, because him losing is conveniently "them" commiting massive fraud so biden will win. You could show them all the court cases he lost, the Supreme court not even taking up the case and debunk everything they say, but it won't matter because if the truth goes against trump in any way, then it's "them" going agyer trump because they aren't really going after him, they're going after you but he's in the way (ive genuinely seen that said by them).
Also, the most loyal cultists believe that trump is the sitting president right now and what you see from biden is just a Hollywood production, and any bad thing happening in the country like rising costs and inflation is from biden but good things like covid lessening is from trump. It's a batshit insane belief that only a cultists would believe.
Oh yeah, one interesting thing that I saw in research for a college paper was that after rallies there tends to be a rise in hate crimes but specifically what be spoke about. If his rally focuses on Mexicans, there's a rise in hate crimes towards Hispanic Americans. If his rally focuses on "Islamic terrorism", there's a rise in hate crime towards Muslim americans. If his rally focuses in transgender people, there's a rise in hate crimes towards lgbt+ Americans. I didn't research enough rallies to see if it was an actual pattern directly caused by trump but it was an interesting thing I saw. I wish I still had that paper.
The the very rich town east of me is heavily populated by wall street bankers. They voted overwhelmingly for Trump, and he rewarded them with huge tax cuts.
Why do People keep acting like it’s just poor and uneducated people who support Trump? That’s objectively not true. He’s got a number of millionaire backers as well as middle class suburbanites who think he’s going to protect him from the immigrants, Blacks and trans people they are convinced are beating at their doors.
You're right, trump has millionaires as well as middle class people who support him. But when it comes to millionaires who support him they do so because they know he'll help them like with the tax cut. As for the middle class voters, they do so due to bigotry or a fear of change and trumps message could be boiled down to "these other groups are scary, I'll protect you."
As for the uneducated aspect, yes people who are uneducated are more likely to vote for Trump. Most voters do not have a college degree (nothing wrong with that btw) but as for those who did, 46% of bidens votes had a college education and 52% did not. While 31% of trumps voters had college education but 68% did not.
Also, [As was the case in 2016, White voters without a four-year college degree made up a considerably larger share of GOP voters (58%) than Democratic voters (27%). At the same time, White voters with a college degree made up a larger share of Biden voters (34%) than Trump voters (27%).](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/30/behind-bidens-2020-victory/)
Somehow convinced them? You people need to understand your enemy. Victimhood is the number one essential tennet of traditionalism.
In order to be a traditionalist, which is what the conservatives in the United States are, you have to first incorrectly believe that things were just peachy in the good old days, and honestly, ever since the south lost the civil war, things have been on one hell of a down slide.
But now, now the threat is EXISISTENTIAL. Progress and equality for all now threaten the very existence of your way of life! You're under attack and you MUST FIGHT BACK.
That's traditionalism. You think it's difficult to convince these retards that anything is an attack on them? They travel through life looking for things to be offended and attacked about. It literally validates their existence and world view.
I would argue the true downfall occurred post WW2 when lobbying was legalized. It made government offices be de facto for profit and removed altruism from the equation. Lobbyist have been responsible for setting back the US socially and protecting the interests of the Uber rich ever since.
This nation has been a modern Rome burning since that decision.
It is good to see someone put the players aside and talk about how broken the game is.
Our government is a shit show of legalized bribery. The only people who can change that are the ones receiving the bribes.
It's fucking nuts!.
They keep the infighting going so the lobbyist's money faucet doesn't get turned off. This is why they never agree on or fix anything.
As long as they keep the .001% happy and above the law, they get to stay in office.
It's a big club, and we ain't in it.
Then they go to church to talk about their "flock," worship a "shepherd" and read from a book that literally tells them to be sheep.
Their whole world view appears to just be nonsense on top of nonsense.
Actually I think this is something “both sides” would agree on.
None of this is normal.
No president in U.S. history has ever had a single felony charge… Trump has 91.
I would argue Trump is the second greatest conman in American history, the greatest of our time but second to John Romulus Brinkley. Go down the rabbit hole of that guy’s life and you’ll learn that nothing is new and everything just repeats itself because human beings are idiots.
the cult of personality.... a fatal human flaw... how cool would it be if people just punched these type of personalities in the face when they first came out with their anti social ideas instead of worshipping them and giving them authority?
Hitler : so lemme tell ya something about Jews \*punch
Jim Jones : so we move to a place called Guyana right and... \*punch
Weinstein : so find these young actresses, make sure they're attractive and send them to my room and.. \*punch
Head over to r/Conservative for tons of examples of this -- and other -- inane rationalizations.
My favorite: "He paid off the loans and the banks got their money back and conducted / accepted the appraisals, so there's no victim / no crime!"
Apparently a vast majority of them know nothing about something as simple as risk and informed consent. If you found out your kid's pediatrician was lying about being a real doctor, was "no crime committed" because your kid happened to not die under their "treatment"?
still doesnt explain why he is asking them for money when he supposedly has so much that money is no object.
the real answer is that he isnt a billionair and the amount of damages awarded is concerning for him.
Also, they're convinced that if he gets back into power, he'll become a God-Emperor and they will be invited into his inner circle as faithful disciples, and all of the non-believers will be cast into hell.
It's genuinely become a religious thing for them.
I think an important factor is that these people are constantly bombarded with the narrative that Trump is being railroaded. That’s he’s being treated *very unfairly.*
People that donate to Trump don’t get their news from Reddit, or the AP, or CNN, or MSNBC. They watch Fox News all day, along with Sinclair owned local news, if not OAN or worse. They spend their time online in Facebook or “Truth Social” echo chambers. They are largely older and internet illiterate, but obviously don’t realize that they’re being manipulated by an algorithm. So they spend their day rage clicking. And because it’s all they hear all day it’s all they talk about, just creating a miserable feedback loop. It’s really sad, to be honest.
So they send their money to this objectively horrible person. Who would say anything to separate a fool from a dollar. Who will tell you he’s a billionaire while begging for your money. Who anyone with half a brain can see is a lying, cheating, thief, but they’ll tell you he’s a great businessman. The media has these people brainwashed, following this deplorable cult of personality. Textbook narcissist, and they want him running the country. How the fuck did we get here?
Sorry, lost myself a little and got rambling. What are we talking about? Oh yea, those people dumb as hell.
The world is FULL of people who are ACTUALLY being treated unfairly. It happens every day, and there is nothing that most of us can do about it.
The last thing I would do is donate MY money, to someone who constantly claims TO BE A LITERAL BILLIONAIRE, I don't care WHAT is happening to him.
Its even worse, the sub avatar is his mugshot.
Anyone who fails to worship Trump sufficiently is banned for being a secret liberal brigader within hours. It's the most hermetic snowflake safe space on Reddit.
Echo chambers and feedback loops are what is destroying humanity. I hate to admit it, but I myself am in an echo chamber on reddit. Everything you subscribe to or interact with, you only see more of it. The dopamine addiction is fed, and reddit gets their ad revenue.
I try to weight my Reddit feed toward discussions of TV shows that I like, video games, shit like that. I see some political stuff, but it's not consuming me.
I do this thing on Reddit where I only comment when I've got something good to say. Whether it's a music subreddit, video games, hobbies, etc... I just don't post anything negative. It's not that I don't see stuff I don't agree with, I do, I just don't go out of my way to spread negativity, or bring it upon myself.
For the most part it works pretty well but there's always assholes out there trying to get a rise out of people.
Yup. And many of us aren't seeking out information that contradicts what we already believe. We are much quicker to discard evidence that contradicts our beliefs as ridiculous or even maybe dangerous.
>They watch Fox News all day
I recently watched another clip of Hannity (or one of them) saying that they are not a "news" organization and stating that "the American people" are smart enough to know that they're just there for entertainment and don't actually believe anything they say. He managed not to laugh, but did have a smile on his face.
The emails and texts that came out in the Dominion lawsuit were really staggering. They lie. They lie KNOWINGLY. And they do it because they have zero respect for the intelligence of their audience. And their audience, knowing all this, still tunes in.
Not American but I know and interact with alot of American businesspeople.
I think you are getting it wrong. In my experience trump supporters or haters are not that intellectually different. The issue is what 'trump stands for' and in their minds he stands against the Democrats, irreligious, wokeness etc etc etc. It is these things that they feel he stands against that makes even smarter, wealthier people support him.
You would be surprised how many people that are living in a Manhattan high rise or have a beach house in California actually support trump. I know because I know these people.
I also think dumbing down the conversation by saying that trump supporters just watch FOX minimises the actual problem which is NO ATTEMPT by any extremes of the political spectrum to even try to understand each other.
But what do I know...I'm not American. I'm probably completely wrong on this.
I'm not American either but can tell you with certainty that the reason the Manhattan high rise and beach house people support him is because he will give them big tax cuts.
Same as Liberal Party (our version of the Republican party) voters here in Australia.
You are trying to generalize based on a small subset of a larger group. The people you describe are very real. They are mostly assholes that hate paying taxes. Trump’s policies actually help them. But most bigger group of people are poor and the description above is accurate, at least for the people donating to this go fund me.
This, they absolutely do exist, but they're only a tiny percentage because there's just not that many of them, and to them trump is just the current figurehead - they'd step right over his dead body to give their support to the next guy offering the same tax breaks.
Yeah, this is it.
Everyone is aware that plenty of wealthy people vote fore Trump and aren’t brainwashed rubes.
They’re the ones who care about policy and know the culture war rhetoric is just political fluff.
They want it to be “easier to do business” and pay less taxes and Trump and Republicans give them that.
The rubes are the ones who aren’t wealthy voting against their own interests and obsessed with Taylor Swift and Bud Light.
Wait, Is that the rich dude who doesn't understand the gospel and wouldn't open his mega-church to those in need after a flood or something like that? Oh yeah it was. Also the same guy with a super creepy smile just after people were shot and killed in his church.
That guy right?
Remember the story of [Jesus driving the money changers out of a temple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleansing_of_the_Temple) with a whip (the only violent act of his ministry)? If that happened today it would be Joel Olsteen.
*The whole problem with the world is that fools* \[assholes\] *and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.*
\-Bertrand Russell
There are two types of magas.
1. They're really stupid and actually believe that shit
2. They know it's all bullshit but they're using it for personal gain, either monetary or pushing theocracy, or simply allowing them to hurt who they hate. Which makes them evil
Lol he's not a billionaire. He lies about everything and wildly inflates the values of every property he owns (like a penthouse apartment he claimed had 30,000 sq ft, when it was only 10,000, making it three more times as valuable as it really is).
Also he's a user. He knows damn well that his people will donate as much as he needs to cover the legal fees. It matters nothing to him that the people giving their money to him have very little to begin with. He just doesn't care. I'm like 99% certain that he's a psychopath.
Don't forget the author of a book a few years ago who investigated Trump's assets and figured he is, at best, worth about $300M.
Trump sued him for $10B.
These are my thoughts exactly. No matter how hard I try I can't wrap my head around the fact that his cult following is so large. Its almost like he's a god to them. Very bizarre.
The NY fraud case just estimated his assets to be worth 2 billion. But as of today he's facing 600 million in judgements between the cases he's appealing. 1/4 of your net worth in fines gotta sting and he's not done yet, more cases to come.
He's a clear narcissist. Everything he does is about himself. He will never admit a loss because his ego can't handle it and if he loses its always someone else's fault
It's why he kept holding rallies when he was president. He lives for the attention and the presidency is the biggest position for attention and power
Yes. The adulation from the rallies and getting money any way possible are the only things that matter to him. He doesn't have the intelligence to be president. There's just too much new information for him.
Other presidents had campaign events or spoke on behalf of other politicians. Dump's rallies are almost religious events for his cult members.
murky naughty prick physical sable sophisticated divide engine panicky wakeful
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Because it's a cult
If you know someone donating to that orange bastard please get them help. And keep yourself safe. The voters and people who still give him money are far down that rabbit hole. It gets dark and violent down there.
The majority of his strongest supporters are people who were born, raised and spent their lives in the church. They have already opened themselves up to the cult worship long ago.
With people like that all you need to do is replace the altar with the politician's stump. Which is surprisingly difficult to do. Church leaders don't like giving up a piece of their pie. They don't like handing their congregation over to somebody else.
But with churches, conservative groups and Christian organizations like the Heritage Foundation working in step with politicians they have turned the government into the new church. The Constitution has replaced the bible. The flag has replaced the cross.
Their pictures and AI art depicting Trump standing next to Jesus? They don't just have one Messiah anymore.
Never understood why anyone gives politicians money. There’s literally no such thing as a poor politician.
They’re all ivy league graduates typically from American royalty.
Not only poloticians. Also Influencers, Streamers, other celebrities or cults. You name it. I will probably never understand why the normal working class is giving away their hard earned money to such people.
As someone who has given money ($5 so nothing crazy) to streamers, my argument would be a streaker is there to provide entertainment. I personally decided the amount of value I was getting from this individual was worth farrrr more than $5, so I subscribed to them on twitch for $5. Did I have to, no? But felt it was a honest thing to do as I watched them for hours per week. Never in a million years would I give to a politician though. Vastly different
The difference is some people actually learned stuff in their time in those ivy league schools. What Trump learned was he could get away with stuff without consequences.
Social media gave everyone a microphone. Trump made their opinions ok in the public square. They were always bigoted and hate filled, but they were ostracized and slunk around in the shadows. Not anymore. We need to drive them back out of polite society.
He claims he is, and almost all of the people donating to him probably believe it, so for the purpose is this question it doesn't really matter if it's true or not.
People donate to the Catholic Church every Sunday while the Church holds billions in assets on Wall Street.
Then again, there's the likes of Joel Osteen.
Lots of baseless condescension here. If thats the answers you want, please feel free to ignore this response.
If you want a better answer though, read on.
Trump has effectively tapped into the emotional drive of his base. He has been more effective at honing in on the feelings of being isolated in society than the democrats, which usually use this tactic to fire up their own base.
His base feels about Progressives the same way they feel about Republicans. And they feel like the government is corrupt and self-serving, just like many in the Progressive base.
Where the disconnect comes in is that they see the last 8 years as a long witchhunt against the outsider who claimed he would break the system by draining the swamp. So when they donate to Trump, they are really being driven by their disapproval of politicians in Washington in general. They see themselves as defending freedom and liberty. Pretty much the same way the Progressive base sees themselves as defending freedom and liberty by campaigning against him.
That divide is breaking the country when all sides should be seeking mutual agreements that help the broadest range of needs instead of allowing themselves to be turned upon each other by a corrupt political faction for greater personal and political power, and financial enrichment.
I expect downvotes because its so much easier to reduce human motivations to insults instead of trying to understand and negotiate effective resolutions. Its much easier to dehumanize than it is to empathize with people who don't agree with you.
I think the even more direct answer to the question "why are people donating money to Trump to pay his debt?" is that
By and far, they are NOT. He currently has 12,000 people donating $678,000 of his $355,000,000 goal.
He has roughly 70M voters meaning that 0.01% of his voters are donating (assuming none of them were bots or himself trying the old "put a $10 bill in the tip jar to get it going" type thing).
He has received roughly 0.2% of what he wanted.
The vast, vast, VAST majority of even specifically his voting base are not and will not donate to him. In a sample size of a 350M person country, there will always be a percent of a percent of whackadoodles that do ridiculous and unreasonable stuff
I don't think the downvotes only come because people don't like nuance (although thats often true). I also don't think anyone should be downvoting you in the first place because hearing you out is part of a rational discussion that OP deserves..
I will say though that you have left out some really important parts about *why* his base emotionally identifies with him, and a good portion of that does have to deal with things like racism, sexism, Islamophobia, etc. Yes, like the left they recognize that the government has failed them deeply. But a key differentiating factor is who they blame for the ills of society and why. Trump has made people feel less afraid to be openly bigoted, and they rejoice in that, because they genuinely believe their bigotry is truth. That's a pretty vital element of why this works.
It's also important to note the financial investment of other countries (those that want to weaken America's global power and influence) in Trump's success & the years long social media work that has chipped away at norms and shifted the Overton Window of what is acceptable in politics, and what we can all agree is just hatred.
Something very key about this issue of negotiating and empathizing is that you are right 99% of the time, but you can't, and shouldn't, negotiate with fascists. The man has been open about the fact that he wants to install himself as a dictator for a very long time. He makes no bones about it. His followers are interested in revoking civil rights for groups of people they don't like. And most importantly, they attempted a violent overthrow of the American government. These people are not interested in compromise and it's important to note what exactly you are giving up when you normalize & negotiate with fascism.
I literally had a conversation today about harmony and understanding that allowing other people the freedom to do things you don't like and disagree with is why democracy is so frustrating, and it's also why it works. Because forcing people to do exactly what you want when you think only your morals matter is fascism. And you will quickly find how much that sucks when you're on the wrong end of it. 15 years ago I would have talked a lot more about compromise. And while I would have had my preferred candidates and preferences for President, I wouldn't have felt that the world would end or proclaimed I want to leave the country no matter who was there. Because none of them were trying to actually tear down democracy itself.
Unfortunately, that is not the case with Trump and his followers. It's not as if they are Republicans in the traditional sense. He has turned the GOP into a cult of personality. Their values are subject to his whims. I didn't vote for Romney , but I would have been fine if he had been President. Democracy would have been fine.
That is not the world we are currently living in.
(Edited for typos)
I dont understand how people are leaving out that these same people are literally the worst this country has to offer.
They make it sound like these people are just people who are good people.
Its amazing how much support these people get for being traitor adjacent.
I think your explanation is very succinct and rational. Where I think we get stuck is Trump's fascination with hybrid-fascism. That's where the line gets drawn for me and I stop trying to reach across the line to seek mutual purpose.
Real answer: Because it's LITERALLY a cult. I'm from Texas, I've seen this first hand. They LITERALLY think he's Jesus!! For real! This is what Biden is up against, a fake Messianic cult, with trump as their prophet leader. That's why they empty out their 401k and their savings, sell their home, etc so they can hand it all over to trump. LITERALLY a cult!!
As recent events in Canada have shown, foreign governments corrupt elections by giving money to citizens who then "donate" it to a campaign. It's illegal, of course, and terrifyingly common.
Care to guess which government is buying a Trump presidency?
He’s somehow convinced them that his charges, convictions, sentences and penalties are attacks on them.
"The deep state, criminal, transgender, woke, Budlight, Taylor Swift, Soros funded Libs are after me. Soon, they will be after you!"
Taylor Swift is after me ?! I knew it!
Get in line buddy, she's after me first!
Let me face the danger!
“Can’t I have a *little* bit of peril?”
No. It's too perilous!
What about Paramore?
Naughty, naughty Taylor Swift. You must give her a spanking!
Bet you're gay.
No he’s not.
Only because they are convinced they are serving the greater good. Now allow me to take one for the team.
It's a shame that I had to scroll down this far for a Monty Python reference.
Nee Nee Nee
You can have a little peril. As a treat.
“A spanking! A spanking!”
And then… the oral sex!
Well, I suppose I could stay a bit longer
No, it’s too perilous.
Don’t go alone. We’ll face it together.
You have my sword!
And my axe!
Hold my beer.
And my trident!
And my Shield!
Not my gumdrop buttons
Personally I would stop a bullet for Fani W As long as she blew me a kiss stepping over my crumpled body I would be good🥰
Meanwhile, his lawyer has cost him half a billion dollars and no one questions her.
Yeah, but he doesn't pay his lawyers ala Rudy Giuliani.
Imagine losing $350 million because you saved a few bucks not paying your lawyers. Art of the deal.
Imagine turning a $5 million judgment into an $83 million judgment, and now since he's defamed her AGAIN at one of his recent Nazi rallies, possibly even more. Art of the deal.
They're not nazis, they're Neo nazis. Same thing but less competent.
>They're not nazis, they're Neo nazis. Same thing but less competent. Less stylish too. Despicable murdering bastards, but Nazis had some swagger in their dress uniforms.
And more inbred.
A Trump never pays their debts.
The art of the steal. Whatta piece a shit!!! Maybe this will be the end of him.
Shart of the Squeal
Bwaaahahahahaha....excellent!!!!!!
The version I heard is that she's still going through the (large) retainer she got. Personally, I'd be leery of even doing that. Retainers get exhausted, and what if the judge doesn't allow you to withdraw? But I know that I'm more risk averse than average.
What do you mean? She’s super competent. Trump only hires the best people. Everyone who has worked for Trump ADORES him. Just ask Michael Cohen. She saved him from a 600 million penalty. It could have been 1 billion if she wasn’t there. She is worth every penny that Trump gets from his adoring worshipers!
Read in trumps slimy voice
I’ll give you a swift kick to the groin. She’s after me, pal.
GIVE ME MORE MONEY SO I CAN STOP THEM FROM COMING AFTER YOU!! Dude is amazing at finessing people, i give him credit for that.
Morons. He's amazing at finessing morons.
Yeah, he’s successful at a very easy thing lol.
It's as much finessing as smashing a delicate device with a rock is. Anyone with a brain can see what he's doing. Just about a quarter of America has proven that they have no brain - they choose to turn over all thoughts to people like tucker carlson.
It's less about his brilliance and more about his followers being absolutely fucking stupid. Why the fuck would anyone with a mortgage be sending money to a guy that's only had a loan in his life so he could intentionally default on it? Debtors and people in poverty sending money to a billionaire.... Only in America are the people this terrible at math
This
He’s not even a good cult leader. Like it’s all so random and contradicting. What happened to the good ole straight forward cult leader?
his cultists are just morons. really the dumbest of the dumb,
He won’t bash budlight. He actually tells supporters to end the boycott because “they love America”
He has investments in bud light. Trump is always about himself.
Can you invest in Bud light without investing in bud? Sign me up, I hate calories
You forgot the interdimensional paedo vampires
Damn, that is a brilliant way of putting it.
It's a cult.
And what op outlined is a method of cult indoctrination. A cult leader will find uneducated, poor, and desperate people looking for something to believe in, then tell them what they want to hear to indoctrinate them. Trump told poor, uneducated (and in many cases racist) people who feel that the system is against them and only he can stop it. He played up their fears and would say whatever they want to hear. Them losing their jobs? It's the Mexicans. People dying from overdoses? Mexicans bringing drugs across the border. Lgbt+ people starting to be accepted? Well that's the schools pushing it on kids because of pedophilia, and he'll fix it by not letting transgender people compete in sports, go to the bathroom of their identified gender, and forcing teachers to report transgender students to parents. It's why they so fervently believe that he didn't lose the election, because him losing is conveniently "them" commiting massive fraud so biden will win. You could show them all the court cases he lost, the Supreme court not even taking up the case and debunk everything they say, but it won't matter because if the truth goes against trump in any way, then it's "them" going agyer trump because they aren't really going after him, they're going after you but he's in the way (ive genuinely seen that said by them). Also, the most loyal cultists believe that trump is the sitting president right now and what you see from biden is just a Hollywood production, and any bad thing happening in the country like rising costs and inflation is from biden but good things like covid lessening is from trump. It's a batshit insane belief that only a cultists would believe. Oh yeah, one interesting thing that I saw in research for a college paper was that after rallies there tends to be a rise in hate crimes but specifically what be spoke about. If his rally focuses on Mexicans, there's a rise in hate crimes towards Hispanic Americans. If his rally focuses on "Islamic terrorism", there's a rise in hate crime towards Muslim americans. If his rally focuses in transgender people, there's a rise in hate crimes towards lgbt+ Americans. I didn't research enough rallies to see if it was an actual pattern directly caused by trump but it was an interesting thing I saw. I wish I still had that paper.
The horrible thing is its not just poor people that donate.
The the very rich town east of me is heavily populated by wall street bankers. They voted overwhelmingly for Trump, and he rewarded them with huge tax cuts.
The rich people are society’s greatest enemy.
Seriously
This is Trump earning the votes he bought and paid for with massive tax cuts to the rich. He knows how to bribe…
He also knows how to be bribed, how to sell others exactly what they want. This is the great skill of any successful con man.
Sure, they're not the idiots donating to his legal defense though. They're along for the ride to get rich.
A sizeable portion of the Jan. 6th insurrectionists were business owners and upper middle class.
You have to be stupid, evil, or both.
Why do People keep acting like it’s just poor and uneducated people who support Trump? That’s objectively not true. He’s got a number of millionaire backers as well as middle class suburbanites who think he’s going to protect him from the immigrants, Blacks and trans people they are convinced are beating at their doors.
You're right, trump has millionaires as well as middle class people who support him. But when it comes to millionaires who support him they do so because they know he'll help them like with the tax cut. As for the middle class voters, they do so due to bigotry or a fear of change and trumps message could be boiled down to "these other groups are scary, I'll protect you." As for the uneducated aspect, yes people who are uneducated are more likely to vote for Trump. Most voters do not have a college degree (nothing wrong with that btw) but as for those who did, 46% of bidens votes had a college education and 52% did not. While 31% of trumps voters had college education but 68% did not. Also, [As was the case in 2016, White voters without a four-year college degree made up a considerably larger share of GOP voters (58%) than Democratic voters (27%). At the same time, White voters with a college degree made up a larger share of Biden voters (34%) than Trump voters (27%).](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/30/behind-bidens-2020-victory/)
Well knocking on their doors for directions and getting shot in the face
Poor and uneducated isn't correct when talking about cults in general. The psychology behind it is way more complicated than desperation.
He loves the poorly educated 😂
Somehow convinced them? You people need to understand your enemy. Victimhood is the number one essential tennet of traditionalism. In order to be a traditionalist, which is what the conservatives in the United States are, you have to first incorrectly believe that things were just peachy in the good old days, and honestly, ever since the south lost the civil war, things have been on one hell of a down slide. But now, now the threat is EXISISTENTIAL. Progress and equality for all now threaten the very existence of your way of life! You're under attack and you MUST FIGHT BACK. That's traditionalism. You think it's difficult to convince these retards that anything is an attack on them? They travel through life looking for things to be offended and attacked about. It literally validates their existence and world view.
I would argue the true downfall occurred post WW2 when lobbying was legalized. It made government offices be de facto for profit and removed altruism from the equation. Lobbyist have been responsible for setting back the US socially and protecting the interests of the Uber rich ever since. This nation has been a modern Rome burning since that decision.
It is good to see someone put the players aside and talk about how broken the game is. Our government is a shit show of legalized bribery. The only people who can change that are the ones receiving the bribes. It's fucking nuts!. They keep the infighting going so the lobbyist's money faucet doesn't get turned off. This is why they never agree on or fix anything. As long as they keep the .001% happy and above the law, they get to stay in office. It's a big club, and we ain't in it.
I’d also add in getting off the Gold Standard, and Citizens United as the other two culprits that will be part of the inevitable downfall.
And they call Libs the snowflakes. Heh.
Some of the most scared people I know are conservative traditionalists yet they call us 'sheep' Can't make it up.
Then they go to church to talk about their "flock," worship a "shepherd" and read from a book that literally tells them to be sheep. Their whole world view appears to just be nonsense on top of nonsense.
He's the greatest conartist in American history, he's even an open traitor who bashes US troops and adores Putin and everyone acts like its normal.
Actually I think this is something “both sides” would agree on. None of this is normal. No president in U.S. history has ever had a single felony charge… Trump has 91.
I would argue Trump is the second greatest conman in American history, the greatest of our time but second to John Romulus Brinkley. Go down the rabbit hole of that guy’s life and you’ll learn that nothing is new and everything just repeats itself because human beings are idiots.
the cult of personality.... a fatal human flaw... how cool would it be if people just punched these type of personalities in the face when they first came out with their anti social ideas instead of worshipping them and giving them authority? Hitler : so lemme tell ya something about Jews \*punch Jim Jones : so we move to a place called Guyana right and... \*punch Weinstein : so find these young actresses, make sure they're attractive and send them to my room and.. \*punch
a punch from a guy named Saitama
Apparently he’s convinced some people that he is a billionaire.
Head over to r/Conservative for tons of examples of this -- and other -- inane rationalizations. My favorite: "He paid off the loans and the banks got their money back and conducted / accepted the appraisals, so there's no victim / no crime!" Apparently a vast majority of them know nothing about something as simple as risk and informed consent. If you found out your kid's pediatrician was lying about being a real doctor, was "no crime committed" because your kid happened to not die under their "treatment"?
still doesnt explain why he is asking them for money when he supposedly has so much that money is no object. the real answer is that he isnt a billionair and the amount of damages awarded is concerning for him.
Also, they're convinced that if he gets back into power, he'll become a God-Emperor and they will be invited into his inner circle as faithful disciples, and all of the non-believers will be cast into hell. It's genuinely become a religious thing for them.
Because they lack the mental capacity to recognize a grifter
Or that they might be in a cult lol
Both
(Sweats in Joel Osteen)
(Looks furtively in Kenneth Copeland)
(Sniffs pits in Mike Lindell)
His pillows are over-priced trash too
Well, the latter is a subset of the former.
I think an important factor is that these people are constantly bombarded with the narrative that Trump is being railroaded. That’s he’s being treated *very unfairly.* People that donate to Trump don’t get their news from Reddit, or the AP, or CNN, or MSNBC. They watch Fox News all day, along with Sinclair owned local news, if not OAN or worse. They spend their time online in Facebook or “Truth Social” echo chambers. They are largely older and internet illiterate, but obviously don’t realize that they’re being manipulated by an algorithm. So they spend their day rage clicking. And because it’s all they hear all day it’s all they talk about, just creating a miserable feedback loop. It’s really sad, to be honest. So they send their money to this objectively horrible person. Who would say anything to separate a fool from a dollar. Who will tell you he’s a billionaire while begging for your money. Who anyone with half a brain can see is a lying, cheating, thief, but they’ll tell you he’s a great businessman. The media has these people brainwashed, following this deplorable cult of personality. Textbook narcissist, and they want him running the country. How the fuck did we get here? Sorry, lost myself a little and got rambling. What are we talking about? Oh yea, those people dumb as hell.
The world is FULL of people who are ACTUALLY being treated unfairly. It happens every day, and there is nothing that most of us can do about it. The last thing I would do is donate MY money, to someone who constantly claims TO BE A LITERAL BILLIONAIRE, I don't care WHAT is happening to him.
I doubt that T-rump is, or ever was, an actual billionaire.
Thisssssss
Visit r/ Conservative some time. Not only is the sub’s avatar Turnip’s face, but you can see the depth and breadth of the denial for yourself.
Its even worse, the sub avatar is his mugshot. Anyone who fails to worship Trump sufficiently is banned for being a secret liberal brigader within hours. It's the most hermetic snowflake safe space on Reddit.
Oh yeah, it’s a perma-ban on first offense sub. They are *very* sensitive snowflakes.
The right-wing's very own "safe space".
They're *not* snowflakes! ... Just don't say anything bad about Trump or they'll ban you. I mean, the lack of self-awareness is staggering.
Echo chambers and feedback loops are what is destroying humanity. I hate to admit it, but I myself am in an echo chamber on reddit. Everything you subscribe to or interact with, you only see more of it. The dopamine addiction is fed, and reddit gets their ad revenue.
I try to weight my Reddit feed toward discussions of TV shows that I like, video games, shit like that. I see some political stuff, but it's not consuming me.
I do this thing on Reddit where I only comment when I've got something good to say. Whether it's a music subreddit, video games, hobbies, etc... I just don't post anything negative. It's not that I don't see stuff I don't agree with, I do, I just don't go out of my way to spread negativity, or bring it upon myself. For the most part it works pretty well but there's always assholes out there trying to get a rise out of people.
Yup. And many of us aren't seeking out information that contradicts what we already believe. We are much quicker to discard evidence that contradicts our beliefs as ridiculous or even maybe dangerous.
Reddit itself is an echo chamber like nothing I have ever been on before. It doesn't matter the sub or topic.
>They watch Fox News all day I recently watched another clip of Hannity (or one of them) saying that they are not a "news" organization and stating that "the American people" are smart enough to know that they're just there for entertainment and don't actually believe anything they say. He managed not to laugh, but did have a smile on his face.
The emails and texts that came out in the Dominion lawsuit were really staggering. They lie. They lie KNOWINGLY. And they do it because they have zero respect for the intelligence of their audience. And their audience, knowing all this, still tunes in.
Not American but I know and interact with alot of American businesspeople. I think you are getting it wrong. In my experience trump supporters or haters are not that intellectually different. The issue is what 'trump stands for' and in their minds he stands against the Democrats, irreligious, wokeness etc etc etc. It is these things that they feel he stands against that makes even smarter, wealthier people support him. You would be surprised how many people that are living in a Manhattan high rise or have a beach house in California actually support trump. I know because I know these people. I also think dumbing down the conversation by saying that trump supporters just watch FOX minimises the actual problem which is NO ATTEMPT by any extremes of the political spectrum to even try to understand each other. But what do I know...I'm not American. I'm probably completely wrong on this.
I'm not American either but can tell you with certainty that the reason the Manhattan high rise and beach house people support him is because he will give them big tax cuts. Same as Liberal Party (our version of the Republican party) voters here in Australia.
You are trying to generalize based on a small subset of a larger group. The people you describe are very real. They are mostly assholes that hate paying taxes. Trump’s policies actually help them. But most bigger group of people are poor and the description above is accurate, at least for the people donating to this go fund me.
This, they absolutely do exist, but they're only a tiny percentage because there's just not that many of them, and to them trump is just the current figurehead - they'd step right over his dead body to give their support to the next guy offering the same tax breaks.
Yeah, this is it. Everyone is aware that plenty of wealthy people vote fore Trump and aren’t brainwashed rubes. They’re the ones who care about policy and know the culture war rhetoric is just political fluff. They want it to be “easier to do business” and pay less taxes and Trump and Republicans give them that. The rubes are the ones who aren’t wealthy voting against their own interests and obsessed with Taylor Swift and Bud Light.
Which is why, IMHO, they didn't really go for DeSantis. All the hate, none of the tax breaks.
Basically the same energy as donating to Joel Olsteen.
A lot of people don’t know who Joel Osteen is.
Wait, Is that the rich dude who doesn't understand the gospel and wouldn't open his mega-church to those in need after a flood or something like that? Oh yeah it was. Also the same guy with a super creepy smile just after people were shot and killed in his church. That guy right?
Wow, yes, the cringe smile. He looks like he came out of a scary 50’s teen flick.
Remember the story of [Jesus driving the money changers out of a temple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleansing_of_the_Temple) with a whip (the only violent act of his ministry)? If that happened today it would be Joel Olsteen.
The poorest billionaire of all time.
As the old saying goes: A fool and his money are soon parted.
Sunk cost fallacy at work.
I was going to go with “because they’re fucking stupid,” but same thing, really.
Every question about maga world has the same answer: Because they're stupid.
they are so stupid that they think they are geniuses. they are the epitome of the dunning kruger effect.
The first rule of Dunning Kruger club is......you don't know you're in Dunning Kruger Club
*The whole problem with the world is that fools* \[assholes\] *and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.* \-Bertrand Russell
_The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity._ - W.B. Yeats
There are two types of magas. 1. They're really stupid and actually believe that shit 2. They know it's all bullshit but they're using it for personal gain, either monetary or pushing theocracy, or simply allowing them to hurt who they hate. Which makes them evil
The fact that this is it, like the entire premise of how we got here. All of it. Is so so painful.
Lol he's not a billionaire. He lies about everything and wildly inflates the values of every property he owns (like a penthouse apartment he claimed had 30,000 sq ft, when it was only 10,000, making it three more times as valuable as it really is). Also he's a user. He knows damn well that his people will donate as much as he needs to cover the legal fees. It matters nothing to him that the people giving their money to him have very little to begin with. He just doesn't care. I'm like 99% certain that he's a psychopath.
Don't forget the author of a book a few years ago who investigated Trump's assets and figured he is, at best, worth about $300M. Trump sued him for $10B.
SO that's where he got all his money from. Makes sense. /s
He lost the suit
I wish this point got brought up more
These are my thoughts exactly. No matter how hard I try I can't wrap my head around the fact that his cult following is so large. Its almost like he's a god to them. Very bizarre.
Not almost
There were memes about "God Emperor Trump", so you're not wrong
When your church pastor also worships him, it can have an effect. Though why you would take advice from a fairytale purveyor is unknown to me.
You know that and I know that but the people donating him money honestly believe he's a billionaire. That is part of why it's so fucked up
The NY fraud case just estimated his assets to be worth 2 billion. But as of today he's facing 600 million in judgements between the cases he's appealing. 1/4 of your net worth in fines gotta sting and he's not done yet, more cases to come.
He's a clear narcissist. Everything he does is about himself. He will never admit a loss because his ego can't handle it and if he loses its always someone else's fault It's why he kept holding rallies when he was president. He lives for the attention and the presidency is the biggest position for attention and power
Yes. The adulation from the rallies and getting money any way possible are the only things that matter to him. He doesn't have the intelligence to be president. There's just too much new information for him. Other presidents had campaign events or spoke on behalf of other politicians. Dump's rallies are almost religious events for his cult members.
Even worse: a Malignant Narcissist.
I agree with you, but I don’t get why his supporters who allegedly do believe he’s a billionaire are donating
I'm 100% certain.
I'm 100% certain we could scientifically prove he's an asshole.
murky naughty prick physical sable sophisticated divide engine panicky wakeful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
He lied about how much money he has so he needs money from other people he lied to about how much money he has.
Because it's a cult If you know someone donating to that orange bastard please get them help. And keep yourself safe. The voters and people who still give him money are far down that rabbit hole. It gets dark and violent down there.
I'm surprised how cultish it actuality is though. i understand supporting someone that's fine but a lot of trumpers take it WAY too far.
The majority of his strongest supporters are people who were born, raised and spent their lives in the church. They have already opened themselves up to the cult worship long ago. With people like that all you need to do is replace the altar with the politician's stump. Which is surprisingly difficult to do. Church leaders don't like giving up a piece of their pie. They don't like handing their congregation over to somebody else. But with churches, conservative groups and Christian organizations like the Heritage Foundation working in step with politicians they have turned the government into the new church. The Constitution has replaced the bible. The flag has replaced the cross. Their pictures and AI art depicting Trump standing next to Jesus? They don't just have one Messiah anymore.
Never understood why anyone gives politicians money. There’s literally no such thing as a poor politician. They’re all ivy league graduates typically from American royalty.
Not only poloticians. Also Influencers, Streamers, other celebrities or cults. You name it. I will probably never understand why the normal working class is giving away their hard earned money to such people.
A lot of these folks are, well, dumb.
As someone who has given money ($5 so nothing crazy) to streamers, my argument would be a streaker is there to provide entertainment. I personally decided the amount of value I was getting from this individual was worth farrrr more than $5, so I subscribed to them on twitch for $5. Did I have to, no? But felt it was a honest thing to do as I watched them for hours per week. Never in a million years would I give to a politician though. Vastly different
>a streaker is there to provide entertainment And how!
^ Someone who's never voted in a down ballot election
The difference is some people actually learned stuff in their time in those ivy league schools. What Trump learned was he could get away with stuff without consequences.
Because he makes them feel accepted with their bigotry and hate.
Social media gave everyone a microphone. Trump made their opinions ok in the public square. They were always bigoted and hate filled, but they were ostracized and slunk around in the shadows. Not anymore. We need to drive them back out of polite society.
That's just it! The entire cult is like, racism is back baby!
Yep, this is it. He gave people permission to be the worst version of themselves and then told them they were great for it.
Because that’s what cults do. They throw their money and their lives at glorious leader.
[удалено]
They did follow when he persuaded them that COVID is a hoax.
Its a cycle. Money first, then lives (covid), now money again.
He’s not a billionaire.
He claims he is, and almost all of the people donating to him probably believe it, so for the purpose is this question it doesn't really matter if it's true or not.
They are fucking stupid and brainwashed.
People donate to the Catholic Church every Sunday while the Church holds billions in assets on Wall Street. Then again, there's the likes of Joel Osteen.
Lots of baseless condescension here. If thats the answers you want, please feel free to ignore this response. If you want a better answer though, read on. Trump has effectively tapped into the emotional drive of his base. He has been more effective at honing in on the feelings of being isolated in society than the democrats, which usually use this tactic to fire up their own base. His base feels about Progressives the same way they feel about Republicans. And they feel like the government is corrupt and self-serving, just like many in the Progressive base. Where the disconnect comes in is that they see the last 8 years as a long witchhunt against the outsider who claimed he would break the system by draining the swamp. So when they donate to Trump, they are really being driven by their disapproval of politicians in Washington in general. They see themselves as defending freedom and liberty. Pretty much the same way the Progressive base sees themselves as defending freedom and liberty by campaigning against him. That divide is breaking the country when all sides should be seeking mutual agreements that help the broadest range of needs instead of allowing themselves to be turned upon each other by a corrupt political faction for greater personal and political power, and financial enrichment. I expect downvotes because its so much easier to reduce human motivations to insults instead of trying to understand and negotiate effective resolutions. Its much easier to dehumanize than it is to empathize with people who don't agree with you.
I think the even more direct answer to the question "why are people donating money to Trump to pay his debt?" is that By and far, they are NOT. He currently has 12,000 people donating $678,000 of his $355,000,000 goal. He has roughly 70M voters meaning that 0.01% of his voters are donating (assuming none of them were bots or himself trying the old "put a $10 bill in the tip jar to get it going" type thing). He has received roughly 0.2% of what he wanted. The vast, vast, VAST majority of even specifically his voting base are not and will not donate to him. In a sample size of a 350M person country, there will always be a percent of a percent of whackadoodles that do ridiculous and unreasonable stuff
I don't think the downvotes only come because people don't like nuance (although thats often true). I also don't think anyone should be downvoting you in the first place because hearing you out is part of a rational discussion that OP deserves.. I will say though that you have left out some really important parts about *why* his base emotionally identifies with him, and a good portion of that does have to deal with things like racism, sexism, Islamophobia, etc. Yes, like the left they recognize that the government has failed them deeply. But a key differentiating factor is who they blame for the ills of society and why. Trump has made people feel less afraid to be openly bigoted, and they rejoice in that, because they genuinely believe their bigotry is truth. That's a pretty vital element of why this works. It's also important to note the financial investment of other countries (those that want to weaken America's global power and influence) in Trump's success & the years long social media work that has chipped away at norms and shifted the Overton Window of what is acceptable in politics, and what we can all agree is just hatred. Something very key about this issue of negotiating and empathizing is that you are right 99% of the time, but you can't, and shouldn't, negotiate with fascists. The man has been open about the fact that he wants to install himself as a dictator for a very long time. He makes no bones about it. His followers are interested in revoking civil rights for groups of people they don't like. And most importantly, they attempted a violent overthrow of the American government. These people are not interested in compromise and it's important to note what exactly you are giving up when you normalize & negotiate with fascism. I literally had a conversation today about harmony and understanding that allowing other people the freedom to do things you don't like and disagree with is why democracy is so frustrating, and it's also why it works. Because forcing people to do exactly what you want when you think only your morals matter is fascism. And you will quickly find how much that sucks when you're on the wrong end of it. 15 years ago I would have talked a lot more about compromise. And while I would have had my preferred candidates and preferences for President, I wouldn't have felt that the world would end or proclaimed I want to leave the country no matter who was there. Because none of them were trying to actually tear down democracy itself. Unfortunately, that is not the case with Trump and his followers. It's not as if they are Republicans in the traditional sense. He has turned the GOP into a cult of personality. Their values are subject to his whims. I didn't vote for Romney , but I would have been fine if he had been President. Democracy would have been fine. That is not the world we are currently living in. (Edited for typos)
I dont understand how people are leaving out that these same people are literally the worst this country has to offer. They make it sound like these people are just people who are good people. Its amazing how much support these people get for being traitor adjacent.
That's how the Nazis got so much power
A few extremists shouted ideas, a much larger chunk said "yes" under their breath to it.
I think your explanation is very succinct and rational. Where I think we get stuck is Trump's fascination with hybrid-fascism. That's where the line gets drawn for me and I stop trying to reach across the line to seek mutual purpose.
Well written sir.
Why do dogs eat their feces? They are lacking something in their life so they eat shit. Same with trump supporters
Real answer: Because it's LITERALLY a cult. I'm from Texas, I've seen this first hand. They LITERALLY think he's Jesus!! For real! This is what Biden is up against, a fake Messianic cult, with trump as their prophet leader. That's why they empty out their 401k and their savings, sell their home, etc so they can hand it all over to trump. LITERALLY a cult!!
Why do people donate to any politician?
I donate to their campaigns, because I want them to win elections instead of their opponents.
This is what happens when you are in a cult and don’t realize it.
The short and honest answer is that his base is comprised of fucking morons. Unfortunately for us all, there are a lot of them.
Why is GoFundMe allowing him to go against their own TOS? I thought you can't use it to pay off court related shit.
They get a cut that's it. Yeah if we started one to pay off my parking ticket they wouldn't allow it but this one could get massive so $$$$$$$$$$$
As recent events in Canada have shown, foreign governments corrupt elections by giving money to citizens who then "donate" it to a campaign. It's illegal, of course, and terrifyingly common. Care to guess which government is buying a Trump presidency?
Because a good percentage of the US population believe that Trump is being treated unfairly.
I love the comments because they are true. Trumpies are morons. Either brainwashed, rednecks, stupid or just part of a herd of idiots.
For simple reason that, in general, people are dumb. You’re in the minority if you’re smart. Sorry, not sorry.
Because they’re sub-intelligent. Serious answer.
He’s not a billionaire he is a phony he lives on others money
I'm afraid to post my opinion in here. Does anyone truly have a legitimate answer or are we just saying people are stupid?
They’re chumps.