Many political observers have found themselves baffled at how many people could support a billionaire like President Donald Trump even while claiming to be against America's ruling elites.
In a conversation with Slate's Virginia Heffernan, author Joel Stein explains why there are actually two categories of elites in the United States, intellectual elites and economic elites, and that Trump supporters really only hate the former group while admiring the latter.
"[Trump is] railing against the kind of like intellectual leaders who control everything with their sneaky laws and work against the hard working Americans," he said. "Where the people who care about power and money, even if they don’t have any power or money, respect those who are able to get it."
He also said that Trump connects with some blue-collar voters because he lives the kind of life they'd imagine living if they were ever rich.
"He's just... doing what they would do if they had money, which is like getting a hot wife with a boob job, and painting everything gold, and, like, eating McDonald's," he explained. "That’s exactly how most people would spend their money. And they don’t find that to be elite."