I'm trying to work out how ordinary people can support the worst American ever

We who follow this website spent the whole of 2025 wondering how it’s possible for anyone – much less seemingly a full third of the American populace – to support a literal monster named Donald Trump.

It appears to have little to do with his policy or ideology, both of which are nonexistent. No, this is about the man, a person who utterly lacks sensitivity, compassion, empathy, ethics, integrity, decency, and depth.

He looks to have been biologically denied the gene that produces genuine humanity. When he reacts to his environment with as much cruelty and malice as possible, it’s less an active choice than an impulse.

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, Trump is the worst human being this country has yet produced, a collection of all the worst traits a person can conceivably possess.

Presented with a choice, he will reliably take the lowest possible road. Given an opportunity to correct course and lessen damage, he will double down and ramp it up.

We saw this in his responses to the recent deaths of Rob Reiner and Tatiana Schlossberg, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy, as he went into attack mode mere hours after the passing of each.

This is a man whose loyalty to others isn’t merely conditional but nonexistent. His instinct is to kick and pummel those who are at their most vulnerable. That may be the most grievous of his sins. He has no filter. The depth of his tone-deafness is staggering.

Like all sociopaths, Trump cannot conceive of a world, even a mere situation, in which he is not at the center. This makes him not just inhuman but supremely dangerous. His reaction to a nuclear crisis is likely to be, “Screw it, I’m close to death anyway, let’s blow this little planet up.”

He’s a compulsive liar, a cheat, a thief, a con, a racist, a xenophobe, a misogynist, an egomaniac, a traitor, a narcissist, a moron, and an abuser of the populace over which he presides as the most powerful figure in the country’s history — which he is, when you factor in the impotence of Congress and the support of the Supreme Court.

It’s inconceivable to those of us with any level of insight how anyone can actively choose to support someone as morally bankrupt as this guy, much less cast a vote for him to be the leader of the purported free world.

I don’t buy the argument that Trump’s MAGA supporters are just trying to “own the libs,” or that they buy his bull—- law and order rhetoric, or fall for his lies about everything he touches being great while anything anyone else does sucks. I believe they instead rationalize whatever Trump says or does because they misperceive his cruelty as strength and his menacing tone as honesty.

I am not trying to understand these people. I gave up on that during the first Trump administration. To my mind, they’re like the people who watch Godzilla and root for the monster. There is no reasoning with them. They’re basically brainwashed, in a trance.

My scientific study of them is restricted to my friend Dave.

Dave is a guy I met at the park in Los Angeles where I walk every morning. One day, he asked if I’d like some company. He seemed earnest and friendly, so I said yes. We became walking buddies. I learned he was retired from the sheriff’s department. He had a cop’s straight-arrow bearing.

Inevitably, we talked politics. It turned out Dave is a Republican. And yes, though he’s not conventional MAGA, he voted for Trump in all three presidential elections. This alone almost made me break off our burgeoning friendship. I wasn’t interested then, and I’m not interested now, in any justification.

At the same time, I knew I had to hear Dave out. I just couldn’t figure out how a seemingly decent guy — divorced with three kids and a steady girlfriend, living an upstanding life with a nice nest egg and pension — could possibly see a single thing worth voting for in Trump.

So, I had to ask. This was back in February.

“Don’t misunderstand me,” Dave replied. “I’m not a big Trump fan. He’s not a guy I would want to hang out with. He’s kind of a jackass. But I couldn’t vote for [Joe] Biden. All of that woke bul—- and supporting trans policies, forget it.”

I had so many follow-up questions, all of which started with, “But…”

I decided to portion them out over time, in the interest of maintaining a bond with a dude I found myself caring about despite this massive area of disagreement.

So whenever something comes up that I want to get Dave’s take on, I toss it out. His response is some form of, “Yeah, Trump is being an idiot. He says a lot of stupid crap. I’d rather have someone else calling the shots — but never a Democrat.”

“And you don’t care that he’s a lunatic who’s killing the government and crushing democracy?” I invariably ask.

“I think you’re overreacting,” Dave says. “The system is working. You just don’t know it.”

And that’s where we leave things, entirely unresolved.

Dave has proven to be a caring friend, demonstrably not racist. We grab breakfast once a month or so, and he usually insists on picking up the check. He has in every way shown himself to be a decent guy, just one with, to my mind, a blind spot the size of the Grand Canyon.

Has this experience changed my thinking about the civility and intellect of Trump supporters? Not even a little bit. I still dismiss them as everything horrible that’s plaguing the country.

In making a single exception, I’m left more baffled than ever.

• Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.