Why is Trump still popular? | The outlaw candidate

Candidate Donald Trump defies logic and common sense, and we must admit this unpleasant truth about him: everything that would normally bring him down helps to strengthen him.

Despite the irresponsible and outrageous statements, the financial fraud, the sexual assaults, the attempts to manipulate the vote, the obstruction of justice and the repeated lies, not only is enthusiasm for his candidacy not collapsing, it is growing. A sign of the times, for several weeks, the oddsmakers in Las Vegas have given him the favorite against Joe Biden: if you want to bet a few dollars, know that Trump now has a 44% chance of winning, compared to 27% for Biden^⁠1. To the point where we must now seriously consider the possibility of his return to the head of the United States.

How can we explain Trump’s success, other than by emphasizing the (very real) weakness of his opponent and the (partly real) madness of his electorate?

Here is my hypothesis: Trump’s candidacy resonates with a myth deeply rooted in the imagination of the United States, a myth that the Americans themselves invented and which continues to operate in their cultural and political life, that of the rebellious cowboy . There is in fact only one country in the world where outlaws have become legendary, where they are the object of a cult, where their adventures continue to be celebrated: the United States. .

Trump behaves in politics as if he lived in the time of the Wild West, among the bullies and the gangsters, the Billy the Kid, Calamity Jane and Wyatt Earp. And against all expectations, this behavior pleases his electorate.

When Trump traveled to Fulton County, Georgia, on August 24 to answer 91 counts of election fraud and manipulation filed against him, he was caught on camera by the sheriff’s department of the place. His legal identity photo (the mugshot) went around the world: it was the first time in the history of the United States that a former president was the subject of such a procedure.

Trump’s dark and sullen expression reveals an angry man, who has decided to play his role of outlaw to the end. It is enough to add above his portrait the word “Wanted” as well as the promise of a generous bonus, and the hunt for the renegade can begin, as in the time of Jesse James. Except that in this story, it’s Trump who receives the reward: in the five days following the release of this photo, his campaign raised $7.1 million in donations. Since then, the image has also been the subject of lucrative and carefully orchestrated marketing (t-shirts, posters, coffee mugs, non-fungible tokens (NFT), etc.).

For many Americans, rightly or wrongly, Trump appears as a strong and independent individual, who is not bothered by any of the usual rules and unabashedly asserts his uniqueness. Within the New York elite where he grew up, he was always made fun of because he didn’t master the codes, didn’t have the “right” education, and he got used to doing a solo rider, to view his life and career according to the principle of “me against everyone”. He behaves like a maladjusted person, misfitwhose brutal ways force everyone to bow to him.

Even his exaggeratedly tanned complexion recalls the sun-burnt faces of lonesome cowboys (think of John Wayne, star of western films), as if it were a reminder that he was always on the run, about to fight a duel and draw his weapon. His behavior during the debate with Hillary Clinton on Fox in 2016, odious by normal standards, becomes clearer if we follow this logic: Trump acts like a bandit without honor, like a brute impossible to restrain, ready for any baseness to ‘take away.

Such asocial individualism has the merit of pleasing the richest, some of whom like to think, like Elon Musk, that normal rules do not apply to them, that the quest for profit transcends state laws.

But Trump’s individualism also appeals to the most disadvantaged, crushed by a system that makes no room for them, who believe they recognize in their candidate a victim similar to them, in revolt against the establishment.

Through his bravado and his ostentatious virility, Trump also plays the merciless vigilante, who promises to clean up Washington and bring its institutions into line (“ clean the swamp »). In his rallies, Trump places great emphasis on his ability to protect Americans, which reminds us that the cowboy is (almost) always a white man, ready to fight the “foreign” threat, wherever it comes from. Distrust of immigrants and members of minorities fuels a racism that Trump himself encourages in his speeches. And it is no coincidence that he was elected just after Barack Obama, the first black president in the history of the United States, when for many whites, it was urgently necessary to “reconquer” the House- White…

Americans have always maintained a form of distrust towards the State. By mocking the electoral process and justice, by breaking one law after another, Trump gives them the opportunity to express this distrust at a level never seen before. The question now is how far Americans will want to follow him on this dangerous ride.

1. Check the betting odds for the presidential election in the United States (in English)

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