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Comment by OgsyedIE | Hacker News Reader

The electoral strength of the Trump base is their ability to identify with Trump, which makes the political component of open defiance a guaranteed loser. None of Trump's presumptive successors have his advanced age, imagery of an unregimented approach to self-care, comfortable ease with crude mannerisms or showmanship.

A USA where the economy is poor and the Gen X and older cohorts have returned to 2010 levels of apathy is one where Newsom, Walz, Kelly, Booker, Ocasio-Cortez etc openly directing anybody they have authority over to disregard all instructions of federal personnel up to indefinitely detaining federal personnel does not stop them from sweeping in 2028.

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I've never understood how there's a cult of personality around Trump when he's not got any redeeming qualities.

I don’t either, but he does.

A big part of his draw is that there are a lot of truly reprehensible people out there, and Trump gives his base permission to say and act out their worst instincts.

For example, before Trump, it was slowly becoming increasingly unacceptable to openly espouse racist and sexist beliefs in public and among your peers. Now, we have official government communications and executive orders including blood and soil rhetoric.

He's loud and annoying, which many perceive as confidence. He's not confident, make no mistake, but people think he is. Someone smarter and better spoken will perform worse. They want a "simple man". Of course Trump is not actually simple, but because of how stupid he sounds they think he is.

However, he tries to portray himself as smart and knowledgable but is clearly quite stupid. That doesn't track with his supporters both believing what he says and also thinking that he is stupid.

In contrast, Boris Johnson (ex-UK Prime Minister) deliberately made himself look like a blundering fool (messy hair, stumbling over words etc.) whilst being very smart. Unfortunately, he lied a lot and abused his power, so we eventually got rid of him - not the kind of person you want to have power, but the type of person who seeks power.

He's funny as hell. I don't like him as a politician but he's an extremely effective showman.

Is he? He comes across as an overbearing, bossy boor. Do you have to be the right kind of person to find him funny or something?

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