I forced myself to watch the debates. Coming in, I despised Trump because I had only heard news about him, not from him. But after 3 hrs of hearing him in debates, I didn't disagree with him so much as I was frustrated that there was nothing of substance to disagree with. He made claims but did not back them up, he deflected rather than addressed questions, and he made judgements so broad that you could interpret them any way you wanted. I went from hating him to just being frustrated at how vacuous he was.

If you watch him critically, you'd see there's more depth than the cartoon character that you typically see. I don't agree with his politics and methods... but he isn't some bumpkin. He is genuine in his fakeness.

Supporters hear the (real) problems he describes and a commitment to fix it. The details are where it breaks down.

Many public people who are good at what they do are amazing at flattening complex problems and making people understand and agree. Bill Clinton in his prime was capable of that -- he had a Steve Jobs like magnetic force.

If you look at some of more right-wing political people, many of them lack charisma, but use speech and body language techniques that are taught to evangelical pastors and others and are really effective in those audiences, but come off creepy to others. Kinda like how Mormons are awesome telemarketers because of skills acquired on missionary work.

Actually I did watch Trump for an hour once and it made me relate to him much more. It did not change my general opinion about him, but it made me understand why people support him.

I think it probably would - Trump is actually a very good persuader.

I showed a clip of him speaking to a bunch of Indians who saw virtually nothing of him except whatever they read in TOI. (TOI and most other Indian English language papers can be thought of as being Indian branches of the cathedral, at least for this purpose.) They started by mocking him, yet they quickly quieted down and watched the video with rapt attention until the end.

After watching this video they were very much against Trump cutting off the rest of the world to Make America Great Again. As in, they were using Trump's language and accepting his premises, in spite of knowing they were wrong.

This is one of the great failings of democracy. People like Trump (or Obama, who had similar abilities) can blatantly lie or just say nothing meaningful, and people will relate to them and follow them.

Since a bunch of people are responding with anecdotes I'll throw in mine: most people I know who hate Trump continue to hate him after watching a bunch of footage of him.

I actually the more I see or hear Trump the more I empathize with his plight. Like Howard Stern I'm concerned the presidency will do serious mental harm to him.

Trump has what best can be called a serious addiction to praise. It his hard to imagine empathizing a narcissist but from an abstract level it isn't much different from many psychological ailments. When Trump is criticized he may appear to be strong to some but I now imagine based on watching him it is extremely painful for him.