It’s impossible to go a week without hearing about one of Donald Trump’s Twitter rants, him spewing hatred in public or, at the very least, deeply insensitive comments on the news.
Yet one of his main methods of communication often goes ignored; the e-mails he sends his supporters contain deeply unsettling content that usually does not surface.
These e-mails are the propaganda only his supporters see, and they brainwash these Americans with fake news.
One of my friends was signed up to Trump’s mailing list as a stupid joke among his buddies. Instead of unsubscribing, he decided to keep receiving the e-mails, as it gave him a look into the psyche of Trump’s supporters that you cannot get anywhere else.
The e-mails contain countless messages of American Nationalism, slander against the Democratic Party and condemnation of “liberal” news sources. However, to someone who doesn’t buy into Trump’s narrative, there is also a clear and present sense of desperation in the e-mails.
When the e-mails speak of collusion (which they do frequently), they mention them in quotes like this one directly from his e-mail: “Now is our chance to show the biased media how STRONGLY Americans support our America First movement, even while they try to keep pushing the phony ‘collusion’ narrative.”
In the same e-mail, Trump says “The liberals are embarrassing themselves, pretending that Russian bots lost Hillary the election, when in reality it was YOU, the patriotic men and women of this nation.” He even made the subject of the e-mail “NO COLLUSION.”
To me, it feels as if Trump is on the ropes, and he’s grasping desperately at his supporters, hoping that these e-mails will keep them on his side, and keep them denying the truth: that Russia really did have something to do with his victory, that the media isn’t just spewing lies about him and that he truly is a monster of a man.
Everything in these e-mails is pushing his denial of any wrongdoing further and further down the throats of his followers.
The e-mails are littered with declarations of witch-hunts against his people, biased media and “cowards writ[ing] fake books.”
Trump wants his supporters to completely buy into his narrative that anything that against Trump is anti-American and dishonest. It would be laughable if it weren’t so effective.
Die-hard Trump supporters are just as committed as ever to his lies and his propaganda. They read these e-mails from him and immediately write off anything against him as liberal propaganda.
They believe they are victims to “BRUTAL fake news” and “rabid Democrats” and that they are the true “America First patriots.” Trump’s propaganda machine is so shockingly effective that his fans have become impossible to reason with.
Conservatives believe him when he says that “There is NOTHING they can do to stop us from our mission to SAVE America” in bold lettering.
Trump’s supporters truly believe that “building the wall” and the financially damning tax plan will help them to “save” America from some unknown liberal threat – but it won’t, because there is no threat.
There is no unknown cultural Marxist enemy, no conspiracy against working-class white America.
The only real threat is Trump and his divisiveness. Trump will be remembered as a horrendous president, and some day, hopefully soon, his supporters will realize that this propaganda blinded them from the truth.
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