I really think there’s something to the theory that Trump voters are actually fully aware of how terrible he is. They know and they don’t care. Some chalk it up to the fact that the policies he proposes benefit them personally, but some are just happy to “own the libs,” as they say.

A recent edition of CNN’s Inside Politics saw host Dana Bash highlighting a trio of women who switched camps from Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024. Most of them cited border and law enforcement issues, with one of them saying she appreciates his authenticity: “He does tend to get people pretty angry and pretty worked up, but on the other side of that coin is, he is who he is, he’s not fake.”

The next voter cited immigration issues as the reason she switched sides between election years: “That’s the only reason why I voted for Trump: Border and law.”

The third, however, had a pretty interesting take that showcased exactly what I’m talking about here:

“I think that he’s a piece of sh*t. I think he’s crazy, I think he lies, I think he’s just a horrible human being. But like, I have to admit, like as much as I hate Donald Trump, when he was in office, I saw more in my paycheck.”

I know, it’s hard to believe that someone actually said that out loud. And what’s most disturbing to me about it is the fact that I honestly believed that most people wouldn’t vote for someone who they saw as morally reprehensible, and I was proven wrong. Many people — Trump voters specifically — really truly have set aside all of their values for short term gain.

The sad part is, the reason that the woman saw more in her paycheck likely has nothing to do with Trump’s economic policies. The policies of any given president take at least until the term after they’re implemented to show the effects of economic change.

That means that the increase in pay came from Barack Obama’s final term, and the decrease during Biden’s presidency came from Trump’s first term. His economic policies hadn’t yet taken hold, and Trump’s were beginning to drag the economy down.

The evidence for that is in the fact that the stock market is now higher than it’s ever been under Trump, inflation is back down drastically after the pandemic, unemployment is doing great — but prices are still sky-high. All those other factors come from non-economic policies implemented by Biden that show right away, and the prices are from the economic policies or the prior administration.

“There you go. If you want to understand the election, there it is,” said CNN’s David Chalian. “The economy, inflation, border, crime, uh… That is the stuff that lots of people who had been resistant to Donald Trump, and don’t really like Donald Trump, and don’t have a lot of faith in Donald Trump’s personality or things like that, or is not part of that sensibility that everything Trump does is great… Those things, you just heard it out of the voters’ mouths, is what allowed them to cast their ballot for Trump this time.”

Unfortunately for America, it’s a lot more nuanced than that. In addition to the fact that the economy they were feeling then and the changes to the border and law that they’re hoping for now are two different aspects of Trump, many of the things they experienced before, during, and after Trump’s first term were the product of things that Trump had nothing to do with.

So in short, they sacrificed their honor and values for something they thought they were getting from Trump, but which came from other factors. It’s amazing what ignoring a pandemic to the point that the economy will collapse if you don’t give people free money does to the human brain — especially if it’s followed by an administration that handles the pandemic properly, and removes the need for stimulus checks.

Of COURSE she had more money under Trump and less under Biden. Trump was signing stimulus checks and Biden was bearing the brunt of Trump’s economic policies finally taking effect.

It’s my hope that people, once they see that Trump will not deliver the same results again, since Biden had to spend his entire four years in office cleaning up Trump’s mess, will go back to valuing a candidate’s personality and morals.

If they don’t, we can expect more Trumps, and worse versions of him. No focus group wants to come on and take responsibility for that.

Watch the video below:

Voter says she pulled the lever for Trump despite the fact that he’s a “piece of sh*t” because her paycheck was bigger. pic.twitter.com/pFZlYizdrv

— Drewbear (@infuzi0n) December 18, 2024