Tipping point for Donald Trump: Will his (alleged) crimes finally drive away his supporters?

[DonViejo]

Donald Trump’s supporters will never admit they were wrong. But they may soon be too embarrassed to defend him

AMANDA MARCOTTE
JULY 30, 2018 12:00PM (UTC)

Where is the tipping point, that magical point of no return when Donald Trump's various scandals finally catch up with him? It's almost certainly something we will only know in retrospect. In response to the daily tide of stories chronicling new lows from the administration, pundits on TV and ordinary people in their living rooms keep asking, "Is this it? What about this? Will this be the moment that turns the tide against him?" But we can't know, not until it's over -- and even then most of what we will tell ourselves will be myth-making instead of the complex, nuanced truth.

And yet, I found myself feeling a flicker of hope last Thursday night. That was when CNN released a blockbuster report indicating that Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney -- who appears to be cooperating with federal investigators -- is willing to testify to special prosecutor Robert Mueller that Trump knew beforehand of the June 2016 meeting between his son, Donald Trump Jr., and Russian officials who seemed to be hinting that they were willing to commit computer crimes to help get Trump elected.

If that pans out, it could be the missing puzzle piece that creates a larger portrait of the extent of Trump's collusion with Russian bad actors. It could be the kind of evidence that will derail continuing efforts by his supporters to paint Trump as an innocent babe whose unshakable love for Vladimir Putin is merely a peculiar coincidence.

That said, and liberals, gird your loins now for this inevitability, that doesn't necessarily mean Trump's supporters will abandon their orange idol. But there is a crack of hope this time for the possibility that their enthusiasm for the guy may be drastically diminished.

Last summer, when I wrote a feature article for Salon about the psychological research showing that Trump voters would stand by their man, there seemed to be a much stronger belief, or at least hope, among liberals that the accumulation of evidence of Trump's venality and corruption would eventually cause his base to experience buyer's remorse. Since then, it seems the scientific research — and frankly, the tedious drumbeat of mainstream newspapers interviewing unshakable Trump voters in Midwestern diners — has made an impression. In social-media circles anyway, it's well understood that the words one will never hear from a Trump voter are, "I was wrong."

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https://www.salon.com/2018/07/30/will-donald-trumps-alleged-crimes-finally-drive-away-his-supporters/

[Squinch]

1. His bad-mouthing the entire intelligence community and the USA in general while standing next

to the despot who rigged an American presidential election did not turn them.

They're not going to turn. Stop looking for it.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. " Will his (alleged) crimes finally drive away his supporters? "

No, it will only further endear them to him.

[Wounded Bear]

3. His real hard core base is only 15-25% of the populace anyway...

We just need to outnumber them.

[steve2470]

14. exactly

At the very end, Nixon was left with about 20%. It will probably be the same for Trump.

[Iliyah]

4. NO.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Nah, you'd need a "Lonesome Rhodes" moment for that.

Trump talking, thinking he's not being recorded/broadcast where he denigrates and ridicules his followers, esp. the Evangelicals. Followed up by indifference to their causes. No new laws that gives Born Again Christians rights over all others. Abortion tolerated. Indifference to selecting a Supreme Court justice who will tear down the Establishment Clause.

When Trump doesn't deliver, that's when they will stop showing up to rallies, and if they do, they will seriously catcall.

[Hugin]

6. The Trumpanzees will stay true until they find their next strong man and...

they feel Trump can no longer do anything for them. It will be internally driven and not due to any scandal, investigation, or corruption.

Then his fall will be breathtaking. 60 to zero in nothing flat. I look forward to when it occurs. Schadenfreude for all.

[CatMor]

7. The stock answer I hear from his base and why they back him

is "he did everything he said he would". When I ask what is it he's done their only answer is "tax cuts". They are so brain washed by Fox there is no hope for them.

[dalton99a]

8. They don't need understanding. They need to be overwhelmed at the polls

[unc70]

9. Helsinki was last straw for some

I sense Trump is losing support by groups of voters being carved away, one slice at a time. His performance in Helsinki left some traditional Repubs aghast and there went another slice. (Anecdotally from Repubs I know)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. I think we're down to the hard core now.

Those who were ever going to fall away from supporting him probably already have (and there have been some - probably mostly independents who just didn't like Hillary and voted for Trump in "protest" but didn't really expect him to win). But don't forget, even after the "smoking gun" tape was released and Nixon resigned, there was a remaining hard core of support of about 23%. These were people who now knew, along with everybody else, that Nixon had ordered the cover-up of the Watergate burglary and tried to get the FBI to stop its investigation. But they stuck with him anyway. (My great-aunt was one of them; she kept a framed photo of him on her wall for the rest of her life).

So we can expect that ultimately there will be some similar percentage that either won't believe the results of the investigation or that won't care what Trump did. They'll never be persuaded, just like my great aunt.

[TreasonousBastard]

12. And Nixon won re-election with over 60% of the vote...

He was far more popular than Trump.

So, it's not so much the tipping point for Trump supporters, it's the point at which everyone else has had enough.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Exactly. He has the support of 88% of GOPers now,

but self-identified GOPers are only about 1/4 of the voters. He's also got a small percentage of independents, but the two groups together aren't nearly enough to keep him above water. What has to be done is get everybody else to vote.

[ooky]

18. I believe this is correct.

The remaining are your true Trumptards, who appear to care less what Cohen says or anyone else says. Unless they start losing something themselves, i.e. their own social security or their Medicare, they are happy as pigs in squaller (and have about the same IQ as pigs in squaller) because they are driven by their hate and hate the same people Trump hates and attacks. Trump is gasoline on their fire. They join right into the lying, knowing its all lies, because they are selfish, greedy, dishonest people getting what THEY want. They are the worst of our American society.

[LonePirate]

11. His deplorable base will never abandon him. They believe every word his says.

So he continues to lie as they lap it up.

[gratuitous]

15. They have begun to flake away

But we've got to keep up the pressure. Do you think a hard core Trump supporter who has seen enough at long last is going to proclaim his change of heart from the rooftops? Not likely. They have invested a lot of themselves in supporting Trump, followed him through some pretty murky and stinky swamps and bogs, and they're not going to admit that they were wrong or duped. Some might make a clean breast of it, those with an audience and a platform. But the rank-and-file folks who so gleefully pwned the libs aren't going to make a public confession

Keep the pressure on. Keep pointing out Trump's feckless policy schwerves and hapless contradictory tweets. We don't need Trump supporters to make a public expiation of their sins, and they won't do it anyway, we just need to keep eroding his support base, a few voters at a time.

[irisblue]

16. Naah. They will be trumpers always & forever.

[Turbineguy]

17. I think he's good

as long as he doesn't say something nasty about NASCAR racing. Harming children, veterans, women, economy, environment, international relations, no problem.

[0rganism]

19. for his support to drop, he would need to appear weak

and no, i don't mean weak-of-mind or physically unfit, which he has already amply displayed.

i mean weak in purpose, doubting his convictions, appearing conciliatory or compromising (with liberals) or considerate of basic facts which don't support his positions. ETA: this doesn't mean he needs consistency, but rather whatever position he embraces on a given day he does so with complete confidence and reckless abandon.

as long as he comes before the cameras and bellows about how good his ideas are and how corrupt his opposition is, his support among the authoritarian followers will continue unabated.

[Stuart G]

20. I think some have already changed there ideas on Trump and now are anti-Trump.

Yes, somewhere around 25 to 28/9 percent will never leave Trump..But when it gets to 65 percent against Trump, and it is getting there, then things will change. We are not there yet, but we will get there.

[rusty fender]

21. Nope. Even Nixon had 40% approval

at the end. Diehards die hard

[Recursion]

22. No (nt)

[Saboburns]

23. No. They will NEVER turn on Donald Trump

Never ever.

Twenty years from from now, long after Donald Trump has died in prison, his acolytes will still be found, and heard on twitter and facebook, they will sound as loud and as foolish then as they do now.

Their conditioning, for them, is unbreakable. It would take long-term abstinence from the propaganda they are
so addicted to. They will not seek to break their addiction, they do not want to break their addiction. No therapy programs are available, and none are being developed that can de-program them.

My thought is that until this propaganda and conditioning is addressed head on, this country will continue to suffer it's effects. More ignorance, more racism, more reaction of truth will come.