Category: News

Donald Trump’s supporters are not cultists, but “patriotic Americans who believe the country is at a tipping point politically and culturally” and view him as their “last, best hope” to right the ship of state, admits Washington Post columnist Gary Abernathy.

“I was immediately ready to move on [in 2020]. He meant nothing to me on a personal or sentimental level,” Abernathy wrote in his WaPo column. He thought other Republican voters would do the same, but now concedes he underestimated the former president’s personal role in connecting with conservatives who “would not be civically engaged at all” without him.

A former John McCain advisor, Abernathy did not hide his personal bias against Trump, claiming he “incited an attack on the Capitol” and “hoard[ed] classified material” after the 2020 election – but acknowledged his record in office was “more impressive than critics admit.”

“That’s not to say Trump’s legion of admirers is a “cult,” as critics like to claim. They are not mindlessly mesmerized by Trump. They are also not enemies of democracy. To the contrary, the Trump supporters I know are patriotic Americans who believe the country is at a tipping point politically and culturally, and that no other candidate is sufficiently impervious to the pull of “the swamp” to effect a rescue.”

— Gary Abernathy

“Trump tapped into a sense of abandonment felt by large swaths of the population, but I still don’t think those who are confounded by Trump fully appreciate how profound and widespread that feeling was — and remains,” Abernathy wrote, highlighting West Virginia’s transformation from “deep blue” to “bright-red Trump Country” by way of example.

“A political swing that dramatic does not occur unless it is driven by a powerful sense of alienation from the status quo,” he observed, noting how Trump’s supporters say he “inspires them to hope and assures them, without apologies, that they still matter.”