Donald Trump would never have been president without rural America. One of the greatest contradictions, or some would say scams, in American history was resolved when a creature from New York City posed as someone relatable and who shared the concerns of rural America.
To anyone with a discerning eye, it was clear that Trump neither understood nor cared about rural America. Even rural Americans admitted this fact on occasion, but they liked Trump because he talked about them, and he played on their distrust of elites by presenting himself as an outsider who had been inside enough to confirm their suspicions about “the swamp.”
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The myths created by Trump caused his support to grow even more among rural America by 2024, to the point where he was able to widen his margin of victory with these voters to 40 points over then-vice-president Kamala Harris.
Many of these people didn’t seem to know what they were voting for. Trump kept talking about tariffs and mass expulsions during the campaign. The Republicans even held up mass expulsion signs and held the Republican National Convention, so these people can’t say they weren’t warned.
There were many signals foretelling what was to come. It’s their fault they chose not to see.
With increasing economic pressure on an economically depressed population, it was only a matter of time before the dam broke, and eventually it did.