A Bizarre Primary Season

If you thought 2016 or 2020 were weird and dangerous, wait. This morning Devin Núñez had one strange image on his Telegram. It’s a highly coded image of Governor Ron DeSantis portrayed as a reptilian. It is one of those images that make no sense unless you understand the full-on grievance and conspiracy among Donald Trump’s base.

I met many of this base while covering the primaries in 2015–6. I read my fair amount of Trump’s books and into Trump. I also talked to disparate groups that became his base. By mid-December of 2015, I knew this disparate group of people was going to vote for Donald during the primary. Some of these people were not regular voters but were committed to electing Trump. He was their man.

So who is Trump’s base? This matters a lot because this base is still committed, and they are positive Trump is a victim of the deep state. So, who are these people? And no, generally speaking, you usually cannot get all these people under one roof unless it’s a Trump rally.

The White Working Class: I start with the group even major media tried to understand after the election. If you read any men in dinner interviews from multiple media outlets, this is who they are interviewing.

These folks tend to be white, working class, and Union. They felt betrayed by the Democratic Party. NAFTA sent their good-paying jobs…