In discussions on social media responding to a April 26, 2025 article in the Guardian, by Adam Gabbatt, titled "Americans, including Republicans, losing faith in Trump, new polls reveal", I questioned why would anyone have had faith in such an amoral, unintelligent, narcissistic windbag in the first place. One writer thought it was because "he hates they hate". I don't think that fully accounts for all the deviance and so I have attempted to create a model that I believe better accommodates the variants.

Hate Groupies

Probably the most obvious group of die-hard supporters are members of hate groups, like KKK or Nazis. Trump is himself a very hateful person; no doubt stemming from his delicate ego. Insecurity breeds fear and resentment of others. Hate groups flock to Trump and the Republican Party like flies to manure. In his first term, Trump presided over a white supremacy rally and signaled his support for this hate group after they screeched anti-Semitic, Nazi-associated phrases and committed acts of violence against counter-protestors. Instead of condemning them, Trump said, "You also had some very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name. You had people – and I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists; they should be condemned totally – you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists."^[1] Trump's team, including Elon Musk and Steve Bannon, have given overt Nazis salutes during Republican events, including CPAC.

Cause Opportunists

This group reflects the people who know that Trump is a degenerate clown, but they're willing to hold their nose to his depravity because he has promised them action on their causes in exchange for their support of him and his corruption projects. This includes Evangelicals and other perverters of Christianity who wanted abortion outlawed, tax payer money diverted from public schools to private schools, and forced religious instruction and symbology onto public school children. These are just a few of their hate-religion projects; currently they're working on censoring books that acknowledge or celebrate the existence of non-white or LGBTQ+ people from school and municipal libraries by falsely calling them pornography. The insanity of this set of people is that they have abandoned every principle of actual Christianity in order to fulfill their hate projects. If there is a Hell, these people have earned a spot regardless of how many hands they shake or dollars they put in the collection plate at their churches.

Also included in this group are those who support Netanyahu's genocide of Palestinians in Israel, like Bill Ackman.

A final example of this group are billionnaires, who are looking to remove the little taxation that is even currently due from them, but mostly to remove any regulations that keep them from exploiting the environment, fair trade rules, and any regulations that might help their laborers.

Criminals

Trump is himself a 34-count felon and that number is small compared to the actual number he's committed in plain daylight. If we knew everything behind the scenes, we would like need to use a logarithmic scale. Criminals flock on their own because they know that there is plenty of room for them to pull their own scams and sex offence projects. But Trump also actively courts thieves and sex offenders because they make him look not quite so bad, but also because it binds their loyalty (in the beginning, at least). Trump has abused the pardon privilege of the president to free countless criminals from accountability: Joe Arpaio (running a concentration camp, disobeying judicial orders), Steve Bannon (thief), Chris Collins (thief), Rod Blagoyevich (corruption), Michael Flynn (treason), January 6th traitors, including several with sex offences, Ross Ulbricht (murder), and countless others.^[2]

Perpetual Victims

I felt like there was something missing from solely the previous three categories. I have members of my own family that support him and they don't fall into the other categories. I believe they're just so angry and bitter about their lot in life: some who actually do struggle to make ends meet and others solely because they have been convinced they're the victims by right-wing media and/or their trashy social groups.

Some of these people might also have an awareness that Trump is a piece of shit, but even if they do, they don't care because they're glad to see the society that "abused" them burnt to the ground.

But mostly, I think this group includes the true believers. They actually believe that Trump is a "stable genyus" and he's going to save them from the groups that are attacking them and their way of life. They are afraid of everything and everyone outside of their social group and think that Trump is strong man who will save them. You can easily identify this group by asking them to list their grievances - they will tell you!

Stubborn Assholes

This is more of a transitional category; each Trump supporter began in one of the earlier categories, but this group of people discovered at some point that Trump is a shameless grifter whose only business "genyus" is a willingness to lie, cheat, and steal. It is no act of business genius to accumulate wealth if you are willing to cheat and steal. What makes a person a business genius is achieving extraordinary success WHILE ALSO following all the rules. In the same way that a common thief is no genius for accumulating a mass of electronics because he stole them from the Best Buy.

This group of people learned that he is a fraud, but they're so ashamed and stubborn to admit to others that they fell into the cult of this truly worthless human being that they continue to support him. As their cult-world crumbles around them, more and more people are transitioning to this category.

Summary

All the groups share one thing in common: a total lack of empathy for the people that are harmed by the greedy, chaotic, and evil activities of Trump and his minions. Some people fall into several categories, like Elon Musk, who easily fits into all four groups.

If you have suggestions for improving my model, feel free to leave comments below!