Very often, in op-eds and think pieces published in response to some new Trumpian ridiculousness, the bigoted policies and attitudes of Trump and his followers are described as un-American. The use of that word in this context always strikes me as great for dramatic effect, but not so great in terms of facing reality. Trump’s America is bigger than a lot of people would like to admit, and while it is bigoted and paranoid and entitled and angry, it is no less American for any of those reasons. If anything, it’s all the more true-blue American in some ways because of them. The irony of this repeated “unAmerican” line is that Trump’s followers consider themselves the last real Americans: a slowly but surely dying breed that in its collective hands clutches what remains of good, ol’ fashioned, ass-backward American values.
The Trump people—and there are many of them—may mostly exist in America’s white working class, but they’re not only there. Plenty of them are rich; some of them are also famous. Bernie and Hillary may have a far easier time getting A-listers to speak about them in glowing tones, but Trump has celebrities who love him, too. They are, perhaps, a more rag-tag group, many noted for their idiosyncrasies, but they’re no less down for the cause. American stars of music, politics, stage and screen (that includes computer monitors), they likely consider themselves far more patriotic than you’ll ever be. That’s how the thinking in Trump’s America goes.
So who are the famous lining up for Trump? Here’s a list of 15 of them, and boy is it ever a doozy. Have a look.
1. Hulk Hogan.
Like so many racists, in 2015 Hulk Hogan was profusely apologetic that he got caught saying the kind of racist stuff he later told an interviewer he says all the time. That brief scandal has since been eclipsed by his recent winning day in court, when a jury granted him $140 million against Gawker Media for a totally different secret recording, this one featuring the wrestling star engaging in coitus with a friend’s wife. Hogan has previously been a swing voter, meaning he supported different party candidates in different years (Obama in 2008, Romney in 2012), but he is now firmly in the Trump camp.* When asked which presidential candidate he’d choose to wrestle, Hogan replied, "I don't want to be in the ring with any candidates, I want to be Trump's running mate.” He then floated the idea of being the billionaire’s number two, calling himself "Vice President Hogan."
*Yes, he can be a racist and have voted for Obama.
2. Rudy Giuliani.
Plenty of people used 9/11 for their own political profit, but Rudy Giuliani could give any of those slimeballs a run for their money. As Joe Biden once astutely pointed out, "There's only three things [Giuliani] mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb and 9/11." Had Biden updated his now-famous quote all these years later, he could’ve added “black-on-black crime,” “Obama doesn’t love America,” “torture is good” and “Muslims are bad.” Always on the lookout for a way to keep his name in the papers, Giuliani just announced he’s backing Trump, stating, “I support Trump. I’m gonna vote for Trump.” It’s a match made in Hades.
3. David Duke.
Trump has the support of a lot of white nationalists and white supremacist types, but they’re mostly small potatoes compared to David Duke, one of the old school grand poobahs of the highly fractured movement. (In the world of racists, Duke is a celeb, hence his appearance on this list.) Trump refused to condemn either the KKK—a terrorist organization that has killed more Americans than ISIL— or Duke when they lined up behind him, feigning ignorance about both, a move that was both dumb and easily disproved. Trump finally disavowed Duke when enough time had passed his supporters didn’t have to worry he actually meant it. On his radio show, Duke noted that Trump is getting “the same kind of votes” that were cast for him, Pat Buchanan and George Wallace, an all-star lineup of racist predecessors. He then told listeners that “voting for these people”—Cruz and Rubio, who I bet Duke considers “Mexican illegals” or some garbage—“[and] voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage.”
4. Jon Voight.
Angelina Jolie's dad has become the kind of hardline conservative who angrily goes around calling people “Marxists” and “socialists” as if the words are synonymous with “puppy kicker” and “kitten strangler.” In the leadup to the 2008 elections, he penned an open letter warning that Obama was raised on the teachings of “very angry, militant white and black people” and accused the Democratic party of sending out “subliminal messages” which presumably he alone could detect thanks to his tin foil hat. Last year, Voight told Mediaite that “the word ‘progressive’ is a very devious term” because we should actually be calling liberals what they are: communists trying to take the country from good, greedy capitalist Americans. This is all to say it’s no surprise that Voight is supporting Trump, whom he recently suggested will “go in and reconstruct us in a sort of way, get us back to where we were,” presumably the Stone Age.
5. Dennis Rodman.
Two-time Celebrity Apprentice Dennis Rodman is all in for the Donald, and has mostly been lauding his former “boss” via Twitter. Rodman got on the Trump train early, way back in July 2015, before the rest of us fully understood the enormity of the shitshow descending upon us, and he has been enthusiastically tweeting for the guy ever since. “@realDonaldTrump has been a great friend for many years,” he wrote. “We don't need another politician, we need a businessman like Mr. Trump! Trump 2016.” He's also come for Ted Cruz, after Cruz mentioned Rodman in a joke about Trump’s reality star status and lack of political qualifications. “Yes @tedcruz; @realdonaldtrump did fire me on Celebrity Apprentice. But he's about to fire your ass too!” Rodman tweeted. Clearly Rodman, who is also BFFs with Kim Jong Un (Anderson Cooper called him “deeply stupid” for his stance on North Korea), has a soft spot for demagogues.
6. Stephen Baldwin.
Some people give themselves nicknames and some people refer to themselves in the third person. Stevie B does both. Back in 2008, the born-again actor challenged Obama to a boxing match, calling the then-presidential candidate “a wuss” and saying it “might be kind of fun to slap Barack around.” He also joked he would “be moving out of the country” if Barack Obama won—a riff on a thing his brother Alec Baldwin never actually said about George W. Bush’s presidency, but don’t worry, Stevie B hasn’t gone anywhere. Baldwin has said the man who fired him from two different versions of Celebrity Apprentice is “fantastic,” “refreshing” and a potential “great president.” (Stevie B has also said: “[O]ut of nowhere, somebody can become very angry for no reason. That's not just an emotion. That's a demon.” Also, “Evolution isn't true, because if we evolved from monkeys, how can they still be here?”) Baldwin’s most recent starring role is in a brand-new film about a public school Bible club that’s persecuted by the godless and freedom-loathing. The trailer, below, features him uttering the destined to become a classic line, “A separation of church and state was never intended to be a separation from god.”
7. Willie Robertson.
Whether Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson is a real good ol’ boy or a rich preppie who has been farming body hair for a TV contract seems kind of immaterial, considering the amount of money and fame his family has managed to accrue just by saying totally offensive stuff. After his dad offered his homophobic and racist (and don’t forget sexist!) thoughts on the world in 2013, Willie defended his father and said unlike his old man, he was still “trying to figure out” if being gay is a choice or not. Breathe a sigh of relief knowing that question is actually being mulled by our greatest thinkers! Anyway, Robertson—who Fox News couldn’t offer a podcast fast enough—endorsed Trump earlier this year. In a statement, he called the candidate “a real leader” and just what the “country needs.”
8. Jesse James.
Celebrity Apprentice alum and reality TV star Jesse James became famous beyond his wildest nightmares in 2010 when he found himself at the center of a couple of scandals. There was the cheating-on-his-wife scandal, which ended with his divorce from Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock. There was also the Nazi photo scandal, when Us Weekly published a 2004 picture of James doing a Hitler impersonation while wearing an SS officer’s hat. Whatever else he’s been up to since, James made time to get on Facebook and write a long letter about how Donald Trump is awesome and should be our next president. According to the post, James bases this notion on observations made while shooting Celebrity Apprentice, when he witnessed “[Trump] and his kids in their day to day routine.” James says that Trump “treated everyone with respect. Even the (Hispanic) guys in the mailroom.”
9. Tila Tequila.
It’s easy to forget how into MySpace we all were until Tila Tequila’s public existence brings it all flooding back. Tequila’s original claim to fame was having more MySpace friends than anyone else. She parlayed the hell out of that for a pretty good while (let’s not get too into it, okay?), and has spent the waning-fame recent years just being inflammatory to get attention. She posted a Facebook picture of herself dressed as a Nazi, started called herself “Hit-tila,” made a bunch of anti-Semitic “music,” put a Hitler moustache on her infant daughter in an Instagram photo, got kicked off a UK reality show for being a Nazi sympathizer, apologized, and set up a GoFundMe asking for money to pay her rent and bills. (This, by the way, all followed her 2012 conversion to Judaism. Really.) The whole thing just seems so dark and sad and like a deafeningly loud cry for help. The point is, Tequila says she’s a Trump devotee, which seems like it fits nicely with the rest of this horrific story.
10. Ted Nugent.
Ted Nugent is a terrible person and listing all the reasons why would require its own Wiki. Early this year, he said in an interview that “Donald Trump is as close to Ted Nugent as you are going to get in politics," a statement only Trump, Nugent and the awful people who love them would confuse with a compliment.
11. Gary Busey.
By now, we are all familiar with the infinite non sequitur that is Gary Busey, and that's all that needs to be said on the topic. (If you are not familiar, the Internet will tell you all about it.) Suffice it to say that Busey, a two-time Celebrity Apprentice, is perhaps the country’s most earnest supporter of candidate Trump. Or as Busey puts it, “TRUMP: Taking Redirection Understanding Massive Power.”
12. Kid Rock.
#NeverForget the blemish on the late 1990s that was rap-rock. Kid Rock, who was on the frontlines of the rap-metal assault we somehow endured, has been a pretty consistent right-winger, endorsing Mitt Romney back in 2012. In a Rolling Stone interview, Rock—who graciously admits he is “not an expert at political science or anything”—said he is “digging Trump” and that we should “let the motherfucking business guy run it like a fucking business.” Maybe that means Donald Trump can use Kid Rock’s music (everyone else has already said no), which is just what his followers deserve.
13. Mike Tyson.
Donald Trump and Mike Tyson go way back to the 1980s, when many of Tyson’s fights were staged in the billionaire’s various hotel and casino holdings. A Mother Jones piece titled, “The Time Donald Trump Tried to Get Mike Tyson Out of Going to Prison for Rape” looks back on this period, offering a bit of possible insight into the reason the two have had such an enduring friendship. (Spoiler alert: Trump’s scheme apparently involved a large purse boxing match that would’ve made him yet more millions and a plan to throw wads of cash to shut up Tyson’s accuser and rape survivor advocates, thereby keeping Tyson from going to jail.) Trump’s strategy didn’t work, and Tyson served three years of a six-year term. The ex-boxer says he supports Trump because they’re “the same guy,” motivated by the same thing: “A thrust for power, a drive for power. That’s just who we are.” Double ugh.
14. Scott Baio.
A few years ago, Scott Baio tweeted an unflattering picture of Michelle Obama along with a message meant to insult both the first lady and her husband. The Internet responded by calling him a racist, a charge he deflected by essentially stating, “Some of my wife’s best friends are black.” During our current election season, he has spent more time than can ever be justified at Starbucks pretending his name is Donald Trump and advising other supporters to do the same, as if baristas get paid enough to deal with such assholery. He recently posted a tweet that began “Dear Global Warming” and stated he “spent 4 days in Palm Desert playing golf, getting a tan while looking at the snow on the mountains,” so obviously, you climate change nerds can just take your “science” and “non-delusion reality” and shove it. Baio has said Trump offers a welcome relief from Republicans who won’t “get down in the dirt” and “want to be above the fray,” which I’m 100 positive is Scott Baio’s way of saying he wants to vote for a bigot who doesn’t pretend to be a decent person.
15. Roger Stone.
There are lots of terrible people in politics, but none are as proud of it as Roger Stone. A long-time Republican operative completely unhampered by morals or the truth, Stone has won most of his political battles through lies and subterfuge, which he’d be the first to boastfully admit. That’s won him enemies (Reagan adviser Ed Rollins in 2008 told the New Yorker, “Roger was always a little rat”) and covert friends who rely on Stone to do whatever dirty work is required. Though he and Trump have had a dysfunctional relationship over the years (in that same New Yorker piece, Trump called him a “a stone-cold loser”), Stone had an official role in the billionaire’s campaign until fairly recently when, depending on who you believe, he was fired (according to Trump) or quit (according to Stone). But he continues to aid in an unofficial capacity, which might explain why he’s been trying to erase all his incredibly, almost comically over-the-top racist and sexist tweets. As Media Matters notes:
Stone deleted tweets in which he wrote that commentator Roland Martin is a "stupid negro" and a "fat negro," Allen West is an "arrogant know-it-all negro," New York Times columnist Gail Collins is an "elitist c*nt," NBC's Tom Brokaw is "senile," and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow is "Rachel the muff-diver." He also deleted tweets in which he tweeted "DIE BITCH" at former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, wondered "Which female Politico Reporter goes commando regularly," and offered a cash reward to anyone who "punches out" MSNBC host Chris Matthews...Stone...co-authored The Clintons' War on Women. The 2015 book is dedicated to—and cites research from—a Holocaust denier who blames a "Jewish plot" for the 9/11 attacks. Stone's history includes forming an anti-Hillary Clinton group named "C.U.N.T." during the 2008 election.
Stone was recently banned from both CNN and MSNBC, but remains welcome at Fox, of course. Perhaps in a desperate bid to keep the welcome mat out, he’s been erasing nasty tweets he wrote about Fox figures as well.
Stone [also] deleted many of his tweets targeting Fox News personalities following news of his MSNBC ban. Stone mocked contributor Charles Krauthammer—who was paralyzed in a diving accident when he was in medical school—by telling him to "stand the fuck up," suggested he wants "to bash Bill O'Reilly's head in," called contributor Herman Cain "Mandingo," and said anchor Megyn Kelly has a "nice set of cans."
Why erase them? They’ll only make Trump’s base love him more. Should they ever make a movie about these two, I hope it’s called: “Trump and Stone: Never Have Two People Deserved Each Other More."
