Author: Julia Delene
Posted January 5th, 2025
Opinion Piece
Donald J. Trump is the poster child for fear-mongering. He uses verbiage that invokes fear in his loyal followers, giving him the support he craves.
It is not just the white evangelical Americans who vote for him, but the CEOs, the High School educated, and even the Hispanic immigrants who fear job instability.
White Evangelicals Idolize Donald Trump
Since the election of Bill Clinton and especially Barack Obama, white evangelicals have feared the end of traditionalist America, focusing on defined gender roles, the traditional American family, and education geared towards the teaching of the Bible, when Trump, a lifelong Democrat entered the 2016 presidential race as a Republican, White Evangelicals idolized him immediately. For them, Trump had become the modern-day savior of traditionalism.
When Trump entered the debate stage, Americans waited with bated breath, ready to hear what a businessman had to say about politics. The draw for many Americans was simple: Donald Trump was not a politician, which is how he amassed such a devout following. He would talk about their fears as if they were his own. His 2016 presidential campaign was based on immigration. For many blue-collar workers who feared that illegal immigrants were going to take their jobs, Trump gave those Americans an answer that they understood, and that was to build a wall. Trump’s border wall was not just a physical wall; it was a metaphorical way of foreshadowing his isolationist policies in the future.
His isolation of America continued until the Covid-19 breakout, which no one in politics could have predicted. For Trump, a global pandemic wreaked havoc on his isolated America. COVID exemplified the embroiled racism that Trump supported felt. For them, Covid showed them that isolation was good and integration was bad.
Donald Trump’s response to COVID-19 was delayed, to say the least, Throughout his first presidency he could not listen to constructive criticisms because he too feared failure. Trump used fear throughout his first presidency to control the narrative. When the election of 2020 shocked the MAGA agenda, he once again used his fear to control his followers. As we come up on the fourth anniversary of January 6th, we can see clearly how Trump’s words influenced and incited a mob to attack our nation’s capital. Fear is a catalyst that Trump has utilized and will continue to as his means of controlling the people who follow him.
Fear Controls the Narrative
In more recent times, with the 2024 election, the Trump Train is full steam ahead on fear-mongering. We can see how Trump has moved away from the blue-collar vote, which he still dominates, but more towards the votes of the 1 percent. This time, he ran his platform on the economy and how, under the Biden Administration, he had reached all-time highs around 2021 and 2022. For the regular Americans, higher prices meant their hard-earned money did not go as far. Trump turned this into an opportunity to regain a foothold in America. He vowed to lower grocery prices, which he later admitted in an interview that he could not do; he also stated no tax on tips, which for restaurant workers who typically live below the poverty level seemed to resonate with them.
CEO’s have become Trump henchmen
Trump did announce that his plan for the economy is trickle-down economics. Trickle-down economics means that the top 1 percent of earners in America, aka the CEOs of the world, would get the most tax breaks, while the low and middle classes would bring up the rear with fewer tax cuts. CEOs like Elon Musk, the owner of Telsa and X (formerly known as Twitter), become a puppets for Trump because they fear the repercussions of not supporting Trump and B he is protecting those who become his cash cow. As we have seen, Trump has made the 1 percent part of his campaign and future presidency, most notably Elon Musk’s role in the proposed Department of Government Efficiency. The 1 percent benefits directly from supporting the Trump presidency because they get the tax breaks and the allowance to do frankly whatever they want.
Trump Uses American Ignorance to His Advantage
This is the point in the blog where I quickly become opinionated. Die-hard Trump supports believing whatever comes out of his mouth because it follows exactly what they had already believed. For his support, they live in a world of ignorance, which, for them, allows Trump to remain a savior regardless of his numerous convictions and concerning language. I understand why people voted for Trump; for them, he is the image of unchanging America. For many, his politics reflect a time when they were young. Supporters of Trump believe that rationality is the unchanged. It. can be said that people who do not pursue higher education are more fearful of substantial change because it often leaves them behind, and they have no way of catching up; Trump offers them a utopia of unchanged traditionalism.
After the 2024 election, I cannot say I was shocked because I knew deep down that Americans were not ready for women to be president. It was not Kamala Harris’s policies that killed her presidency. It was simply the internalized misogyny that Americans have. Regardless of its desire to change, America lacks the accountability to accept change. Donald Trump’s re-election is a prime example of this.
What shocked me the most, however, was the percentage of the Latin American vote he received, around 43% of the Latino men’s vote. The only real reason I can see him receiving that much of the Latino vote is because they believe that illegal immigrants are taking jobs that they need, so with Trump’s anti-immigration policies, they feel as though he is protecting the Latino community. However, I find it difficult to believe he is “protecting” legal immigrants when he states that there are roughly 2-20 million illegal immigrants in the United States, which he plans on expunging on his first day in office. It makes me question how he plans on doing this because America has seen this before time and time again when we send groups such as Asian Americans during WWII to internment camps. I can, unfortunately, see American history repeating itself in this case.
Another point I want to make regarding Trump’s immigration policies is his desire to remove US-born citizenship for children of immigrants. I fear this is a terrible and horrific idea that will hopefully never happen and is only just Donald Trump’s wet dream.
Final Thoughts
Trump’s presidencies have been and will continue to be rooted in anti-immigration and isolation. He uses fear as his main way of controlling the masses because Trump has no real traction without fear. No community will support him until the end of the day because they rely on fear to feel connected. Fear keeps his supporters under his watchful control. America will continue to remain unchanged unless we as a collective identify the problem, which has always been fear controlling the masses.
That was a lot! For my first post it may seem a little unorganized but it will improve over time. I want to remind readers that this is an opinion piece, and you do not have to like what I have to say or agree with it. I want a platform to talk freely about my opinions. Additionally, this blog is not dedicated to politics. It is a blog about whatever thoughts and ideas I feel like ranting about.
Resources
Etebari, Mehrun. “Trickle-Down Economics: Four Reasons Why It Just Doesn’t Work.” United for a Fair Economy, 17 July 2003, https://www.faireconomy.org/trickle_down_economics_four_reasons.
“Monthly Inflation Rate U.S. 2024.” Statista, n.d., https://www.statista.com/statistics/273418/unadjusted-monthly-inflation-rate-in-the-us/.
Sanchez. Gabriel. “A Deep Dive into the 2024 Latino Male Electorate.” Brookings Institution, 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/a-deep-dive-into-the-2024-latino-male-electorate/.
United States, Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food and Energy.” Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SA0L1E?output_view=pct_12mths.