The question I’ve been asked more than any other during the Trump era is how Trump supporters-including tens of millions of evangelical Christians and Republicans who have long viewed themselves as champions of “family values” and “law and order”-justify their enthusiastic support for the former president. And I received a number of calls saying they had been either leaning towards DeSantis or were firmly in his camp, and they said they have now decided to fully support Trump, based on the town hall.” “I even tried to get people to call me who didn’t think he did well, but no luck. “One hundred percent approval of Trump’s performance,” this individual, who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly, told me. The day after the town hall, I asked a person in the talk-radio world how his listeners had responded. And he spewed lie after lie after lie about the 2020 election and virtually every other topic that came up.Īs the CNN anchor Jake Tapper said of Trump, summing up the night, “He declared war on the truth, and I’m not sure that he didn’t win.” He wouldn’t say whether he hoped that Ukraine would win the war against Russia. Trump defended taking top-secret documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump called the Black police officer who had shot and killed one of the rioters storming the Capitol a “thug,” falsely claiming that the officer had bragged about the incident. Those statements, too, brought applause from the raucous audience. He also described the January 6 insurrection as a “beautiful day” and declared that, if reelected president in 2024, he would pardon a “large portion” of the rioters. His statement elicited applause and laughter from the mostly pro-Trump crowd.

Jean Carroll, who was awarded $5 million in damages because a jury unanimously concluded that Trump had sexually abused and defamed her. He used the phrase “whack job” to describe E.

During a CNN town hall earlier this month, Donald Trump acted as expected.

The darkest minds 4