Everyone Wants To Love Donald Trump

Many Americans Hate Him, But Aspire To Be Him And Need Him To Win

Somewhere, there exists a photo of me, at about seven or eight years old, sitting in a lawn chair on the Fourth of July wearing a baseball cap that read: “Free John,” a reference to mafia don John Gotti. For years, the hat sat on top of the credenza in my parents’ bedroom. It’s not that my parents were fans of the mob boss; we lived in a community where Gotti – known as the “Teflon Don” because of the way he kept skirting legal accountability – was beloved and respected despite his obvious “shortcomings.”

Gotti, one of the last great New York mob bosses, ran his racket from a storefront five blocks from my house, three blocks from my elementary school, and two doors down from our bank. From there, Gotti ordered murders, laundered money, and extorted small business owners. He was unquestionably a bad guy, but if you grew up in Ozone Park in the New York City borough of Queens in the 1980s and 1990s, the world around you worshipped him like a God. After he died in prison in 2002, people came out to watch his funeral procession, applauding the hearse as it went by. It was unnervingly similar to the funeral of Princess Diana.

How was this guy such a beloved figure? The biggest reason people will give you is that “he protected the neighborhood.” Ozone Park was largely white, working class, Italian- and Irish-American until he went to prison. Since then it has become a community of immigrants; West Indian, South Asian, Hispanic, increasingly Chinese, and Bengali. Ask any of the few white residents left and they will lament how the neighborhood used to be or how they rarely see another white person when they walk the streets – if they walk the streets. Very few, if any, white residents will go outside after dark, even though you’re statistically less likely to be a victim of a crime now than when Gotti ruled the roost. If you ask people to describe him, they will use negative words: criminal, vain, narcissistic, ignorant, arrogant, crude, dangerous. Nevertheless, even the liberal-leaning white people in the community, even some of the longtime non-white people who were around during Gotti’s era, will tell you how much they miss how the neighborhood “used to be” when Gotti was around.

Growing up in a world that worshipped a vindictive, cruel mob boss taught me something about Donald Trump. It made me one of the few people who knew as early as 2015 that Trump would be a sustainable force in politics, no matter how low he goes, until he’s either dead or in prison.

The greatest lie in American politics is that Donald Trump is unpopular.

Sure, he lost the last election and has had terrible favorability ratings for most of his political career. Still, his sustainability as a political force is a testament to the reality that many Americans, even those who don’t like him, want him to stick around and have some influence over our society. If anyone outside Ozone Park in 1991 asked someone how they felt about Gotti, they’d tell you something negative about him, but inside the bubble, he was the savior railroaded and denied justice. My next-door neighbor once complained he was being treated worse than “terrorists.”

Like Gotti, Trump is everything every American truly wants to be: Rich, Powerful, Worshipped, Unafraid, Unbowed, and Unaccountable. He became the new “Teflon Don.”

Imagine being so rich that it doesn’t matter if you lose a billion dollars by making bad decisions. The rest of us have to work our asses off to make ends meet and if we make one mistake, it could ruin us. Trump can bankrupt a casino and it won’t hurt him. He still lives in a gold-plated penthouse. As fat and ugly as he is, he still has gorgeous models throwing themselves at him. He can bang a porn star while his hot pregnant wife stays at home and not face any consequences. He can be an obnoxious bastard to people on television and they grovel at his feet. He can brag about sexually assaulting women, having it be broadcast nationwide, and then still win a national election with 62 million votes just a few weeks later. Then, he can be corrupt, incompetent, be impeached, fuck up a multitude of domestic and international crises and still only narrowly lose reelection getting 11 million *more* votes than the first time. He could attempt to stage a coup d’etat, get impeached again, get indicted on 91 counts in four different jurisdictions, and still be the frontrunner for another term as president from his party, and be leading in polls.

No man has ever been more free.

The hope is by giving Trump power, maybe he can alter society so you can have the same liberating experiences he has, and that you believe your ancestors had. Maybe racism and sexism can come back in vogue again and we don’t have to walk on eggshells with our words and actions around black, brown, LGBTQ, and people with disabilities. Maybe we don’t have to suffer the indignity of having women turn us down for sex, cheat on us, or divorce us. Maybe our privileged place in society can be guaranteed to us again.

Trump’s strongest support comes from the generations that were born and raised before or during the Civil Rights Era and the Second Wave of Feminism. If they weren’t old enough to experience not having to share spaces with black people; care about the opinions of women; or respect LGBTQ people, they’ve certainly heard the anecdotes of those happy times from their parents and grandparents. For decades they dreamed of going back to those halcyon days, and it just seemed like that version of America was slipping away, slowly.

Then in 2008, it was gone forever. Obama’s election was a five-alarm fire for cultural conservatism. The following decade included the advancement of LGBTQ rights including marriage equality and what seemed like a national consensus on policing in black communities and respecting women. Cultural change was being forced on people at a breakneck speed. Trump validated those who felt at least uncomfortable if not angry about the cultural shifts. He made them believe they were not alone and perhaps were more representative of the public than they thought.

It’s not just MAGA. Leftists say they hate him, but deep inside they love him; they wish they had someone like him on their side. Progressives, from Chris Hayes in 2016 to The Young Turks’ Ana Kasparian just this week, have all suggested that Trump, because of his lack of principles, could maybe be convinced to implement progressive policies. Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders in 2016 is now doing fundraisers for Trump. Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an icon of leftism in the 2000s, attended the CPAC conference this month where Trump was a keynote speaker. None of this happened to any previous Republican. Everyone wants their own Teflon Don.

It also explains why his 91 felony indictments haven’t changed opinions much. The “Free John” hats were passed around Ozone Park *after* Gotti was finally convicted and sent to prison. Trump is Teflon until he isn’t. If they do manage to nail him, then the fantasy is dead. It means there is no chance for a future where you too could live free of rules and accountability. Many Americans, even those who know he’s corrupt, will want to see him skate, for their own aspirations. They’ll concede he’s committed crimes and broken laws, but then find excuses to not hold him accountable. They’ll clutch their pearls so tight the gems will get embedded into their hands. They’ll argue it hurts the unity of the country. They’ll say he’s being treated unfairly in ways other people in his position wouldn’t be simply because of his politics. Yes, he’s guilty, but do we have to take his properties or put him on trial? In reality, these people just want to know that they have a chance to be just as lawless, and “free.” That’s why Trump regularly uses the phrase “they’re not after me, they’re after you, I’m just in the way” in his campaign speeches.

The Gotti fanaticism in Ozone Park died only after it was clear he would die in prison and never return. Then the hats were regulated to the top of credenzas in private bedrooms and high shelves in forgotten closets. Only after Trump is behind bars, or dead, will he disappear from our lives. Not a moment before that. Everyone wants him, or some version of him, to win.