Trump Is the Everyman Who Hates the People Who Adore Him

The 'high school, no-college' cohort has been empowered, meaning facts and reason no longer matter.

Courtesy of the Collection Chamber 

Don’t get me wrong; not all World Wrestling Federation (WWF) fans are MAGA. There is probably a handful of former Trump supporters who have seen the light and now accept that the WWF was garbage that should have offended them as humans had they been paying attention.

The problem with the WWF (which later became the WWE) is that many fanatics who watched countless hours of the brain-less “fights” didn’t understand that what they viewed was 100% fake. The bravado, the fantastic threats, and the over-the-top exaggeration of masculinity stimulated legions of boys and men, resulting in Saturday afternoon brawls in the den before the TV and streets at Halloween filled with WWF superstar costumes. How many Hulk Hogans, Rocks, Stone Cold Steve Austins, or Ric Flairs stalked the streets of Everytown, USA?  

When many of these boys grew up, they found something lacking in their lives. The wacky, toxic maleness they viewed for hours left them feeling hollow and adrift. Modern life emptied them, and if they tried to act out even in the smallest ways that resembled the wild, fake world of WWF, society told them to grow up. Society told them to be sensitive to others, respect women, be kind to people, and never mock anyone weaker than them.

And then Donald Trump entered their lives, and toxic masculinity with all of the brutality of the WWF pumped them up like deflated tires. In an evolving economy that left under-educated men and women behind, the goonish bravado of Trump made them feel like boys again on those long Saturdays watching marathons of WWF. Trump’s verbal body slams of anyone showing the faintest hint of weakness thrilled them, bringing back the glorious nostalgia of stars like Jesse Ventura climbing the ropes and calling spectators in to fight him. The “show” was fake and over the top, but millions adored it and still has a large international following. As a kid, I hated it, and there was nothing worse than when the only thing on TV was fake wrestling — maybe this is why I never lost my head over Reagan and never became a Trumpist. 

When Trump left office, his approval rating was 39 percent. People hated him, and even many who supported him in 2016 had given up on him. The election wasn’t close in 2020, but — and this is what shows me how potent the lure of the “show” is for Trump’s cult — similar to the hyperbole of the “great wrestlers of the 1980s and 90s, Trump’s obvious lie even before the polls in California had closed that there was widespread voter fraud needed neither proof, nor rationale, nor reason because it was the kind of empty bluster that so many millions of under-educated men in America craved from their childhood. It made them feel powerful and manly to slam a fist on the bar and declare: Something is rotten here, and undoubtedly, that n****** in Philadelphia and Georgia were stuffing the ballot boxes!”

Since then, let’s look at the “ideas” and “concepts” most Americans seem ready to vote for. I will just stream-of-consciousness it. 

Trump has declared that he wishes his generals had been like Nazi generals. Trump has no plan other than to cut taxes for the super-rich. Trump openly says that Putin and other dictators are good people and mocks our allies. Trump says he will use the military to punish his political opponents. Trump wants to fire the federal bureaucracy and replace it with people loyal to him and not the Constitution. Trump wants to gut funding for Obamacare. Trump wants to end the price caps for insulin (currently $35, thanks to Biden). Trump wants to put massive tariffs on imports, which will explode inflation and cost the U.S. economy $3.9 trillion. Trump created a commotion at Arlington Cemetery and mocked the fallen heroes. Trump supports banning abortion everywhere, even though he lies and says he doesn’t. Trump did nothing in office, yet claims “they say I was most effective president ever.” 

The list goes on and on. You all know the horror stories, and if you have ever listened to his rallies or watched Fox News, then you will be fed the WWF bullshit 24/7. Tens of millions of Americans, many of whom voted against him in 2020 because they thought he was the worst president in our history, are voting for him again because they believe he will somehow be better and more effective than eight years ago. What could lead them to believe this if not ignorance? If not an inherent need for the bluster and hyperbole of things like the WWF?

Another comment that many of these clueless, under-educated men and women make that blows my mind is the following: Under Trump, I had more money left over from my paycheck than I do today.  

What is wrong with these people that they are incapable of understanding that from 2017 to 2020, the policies of Trump laid a foundation that screwed them over big time? The Trump tax cuts of 2017 were the most significant transfer of wealth from the bottom 95 percent to the top five percent in our nation’s history. Trump accomplished nothing, frittering away every chance he had to improve the plight of the working and middle classes by making infrastructural improvements because he was forever having Twitter fights or breaking the law.

What is wrong with these under-educated men and women that they can’t see Trump’s criminal mismanagement during COVID? His mismanagement led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths and prolonged the recovery, which led to more inflation.

Because this cohort of not-so-smart people is so terrifically gullible, the Biden administration missed an opportunity. From the moment Biden took office, the message should have been that a great mess left by Trump’s corrupt presidency is being cleaned up, and the going will be long and tough. In the ethos of the WWF, had Biden and Harris been trash-talking the failed president unrelentingly while also accomplishing all that they did, Trump would be sitting in Mar-a-Lago right now watching some other Republican getting his ass handed to him.

Democrats were yet too nice and too clueless when it comes to how to communicate with the tens of millions of men who grew up watching WWF, and that is why Trump seems poised to be elected again.