"The truth about Trump is sinking in for his MAGA followers" [View all]

The truth about Trump is sinking in for his MAGA followers

https://www.salon.com/2025/11/23/the-truth-about-trump-is-sinking-in-for-his-maga-followers/

But in a way, Trump did have the common touch. He liked fast food and sports and, most importantly, he shared all their gripes and complaints and articulated them in the same terms some used themselves. For all his crowing about his money and showing off, he really didn’t put on airs. He was just like them.

He wasn’t, of course, and he reportedly had nothing but contempt for his followers. But for all of Trump’s flashy displays of wealth, he was never really a member of the Billionaire Boys club either. He was a climber, always on the outside looking in.

But since he won the presidency the second time, it’s different. He’s one of the Big Money Boys now, and that club loves him as much as any MAGA redhat.

So far, the most indelible image of Trump’s second term is the line up of wealthy tech oligarchs standing right behind him at his inauguration: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, Amazon CEO and Washington Post publisher Jeff Bezos and his then-fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and, of course, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world. All of them were there to demonstrate their fealty to the man who would be king. And why not? After fomenting an attempted coup, inspiring an insurrection and being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and massive fraud, Trump’s ballsy reelection was the most impressive act of legerdemain they had ever seen, proving once again that rich men can do whatever they want.