Supporters of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump cheer as election results come in at a GOP election watch party at the Ahern Hotel in Las Vegas, on Nov. 5.Steve Marcus/The Associated Press
After leaving election-night Las Vegas, where the delirious supporters of Donald Trump partied into the wee hours in the lobby bar of the hotel bearing his name, I arrived in this California outpost of sun and fun to contemplate what had just happened to America and the world.
I should say first that it’s easy to sneer at the “Trumpers” when you’re in Canada – to caricature them as white-trash rednecks who’ve been in the sun too long, or as Republicans who sold their souls in deference to a con man. And his boosters certainly do include this crowd.
But they also include others I met at the Trump International Hotel who were, well, actually quite normal. They wouldn’t stick out as odd or extreme or loopy in any of the settings, social or professional, in which Canadians circulate most days.
Yes, some might have been wearing red MAGA hats, and maybe knocking back whiskey at a pace that was anything but normal. But listening to them talk, they were down-to-earth folk who seemed genuinely worried about the direction in which their country was heading.
They weren’t oblivious to Mr. Trump’s deep flaws as a human being – not at all. But when the choice was between him or the Democratic alternative who seemed poised to keep the country on the same path it’s been on the last four years, well, that was easy: Mr. Trump was the only option. To them, not picking him would have been un-American.
They weren’t buying the headlines about the president-elect leading the country down the path of fascism, of him ripping up the Constitution to rule as one of the world’s strongmen he seems to admire so much. Mr. Trump’s core base, these people argued, were American patriots, people who believed the country’s coda – land of the free, home of the brave – was the essence of its being, of its very existence.
Messing with that would be more of a betrayal than anything else he could do.
Arriving here in California, I expected a far different reaction to Mr. Trump’s victory. This is as blue-state as they come. So far, however, I’ve been surprised by what people have had to say about what happened last week.
Most of the Americans I’ve encountered (there are tons of Canadians down here too) with whom I spent any length of time jabbering would identify as Democrats. And most were certainly disheartened by Mr. Trump’s victory. What did electing a notorious felon to lead the U.S. say about the country? So much eye-rolling. But their remarks were said largely out of a sense of shame and embarrassment.
Is this really the best we could do?
Still, many of these same folks also accept that there is a lot wrong with their country at the moment, and Mr. Trump convinced people he was the best person to do something about it.
A majority, some of whom might have plugged their noses before voting, believed he had a stronger sense of what the problem was and how to fix it than Kamala Harris. In fact, many I’ve talked to say she was part of the problem.
This is also interesting: few people I’ve talked to here believe Mr. Trump is the autocrat-in-waiting the media have portrayed him as. Senile, narcissistic, crude, pathetic, a terrible human – yes, to all those. But someone who will soon morph into a 21st-century version of Adolf Hitler? No. Not even those who indicated they despise the man believe that.
Rather, I would say the prevailing sentiment among the anti-Trumpers I’ve spoken to here is a belief that he will not accomplish many of the things he’s promised. Get rid of all the illegal migrants? Fat chance. It’s his 2024 version of “I’m going to build a wall and get Mexico to pay for it.” It’s never going to happen.
Same for his vow to put tariffs on all manner of imports to protect American manufacturing. Again, many people I’ve talked to don’t think it will happen to the degree he’s indicated because it will fuel inflation.
Nor does a single person I talked to believe he’s going to send armed guards to arrest Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney and throw them in jail for treason. A lot of that, they believe, was campaign rhetoric that worked with the dark-MAGA faction of his base.
These Americans might be blissfully ignorant, or they’re blissfully aware and just aren’t sweating things too much. America, they counter, will survive this epoch, as unsettling as it may be, and live to fight another day.
Only time will tell if they were right – or if they were naïve fools.