Trump voters ignored the warnings—and now they face a reckoning

Around this time last year, I talked to someone who prefers to be known by her handle on Bluesky: “The Angry Black Woman.” I interviewed her because she criticized a piece I wrote about Kamala Harris. Her criticism was so insightful that I wanted her to expound on it for readers and subscribers of the Editorial Board. She accepted my invitation and the result was, I think, one of the best interviews I have published. The Angry Black Woman touched on an essential truth about these United States and did so in plain English.

What essential truth? That white people got us into this mess and that they, and only they, must choose to get us out of it. We are still the majority, and a majority of that majority chose Donald Trump. Twice. By April of last year, it did not believe he was “a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy,” according to a poll at the time.

If a majority of the majority in America is unbothered by dictatorship, I asked the Angry Black Woman, where’s hope? “That concept of ‘hope’ sits with the white community,” she replied, “and I know they will blow up the world before they admit they were wrong or actually try to save our country.”

But a lot has happened since last spring. The Trump regime has sabotaged democratic institutions, murdered citizens, violated state sovereignty, stolen from federal taxpayers in the form of corruption and criminal taxes, and started an illegal war whose effects are burning up the American middle class. The reaction has not been mixed. Months of polling suggest a wipeout is coming while millions have declared their rejection of Trump as their king.

Are these signs of hope for American democracy? In this follow-up interview with the Angry Black Woman, the first of two parts, I ask that question.

“They don’t care about bodies in the streets as long as the shareholders are happy. Don’t forget that America was created, and subsidized, by selling stolen bodies. We need to make them feel our anger in their pockets and shares. Until then, they will continue to take our money and our freedom.”

The last time we spoke, in April of last year, there was a note of despair in our conversation. You said if there’s hope for democracy, it’s hope among white Americans, which means there’s not much hope. As I type, No Kings protesters are marching. Most are white. Are you seeing signs of hope?

No.

When we last spoke, that despair was a foretelling of what would come. White America showed us exactly who they are. I stand by that. People could have made different choices and they didn’t. While it has come to light that nefarious things may have happened with the presidential election, folks in non-swing states still could have made better decisions. They didn’t.

When we are talking about the No Kings protest, this is the third iteration and I am still asking why. What is the point? I get the point of peaceful protesting, but it has to be followed by concrete action. That didn’t happen after the first two protests. What makes this one different? What is the plan?

Yes, I acknowledge that mostly white people are out in the streets, as they should be. But I believe that is only because they recognize that they aren’t safe. I don’t believe their protest is for all people, and history backs this up.

Moreover, this round of protests had minimal media coverage. What had been broadcast to the world with the other protests are now blips on social media. There were global marches that took place but most of America will know nothing about them. We had protests throughout Europe, but we have a compromised media so these efforts won’t yield the results they should.

Here’s the thing. Americans, especially white and white-adjacent Americans, do not understand how to be uncomfortable. Single-day marching, while it gives a feeling of community, is not what we need. The Montgomery bus boycott was effective because it lasted for a long time. The Target boycott was effective because we were able to show how taking our spending power to other establishments hurt their bottom line – so much so that they had to replace the CEO and still came crawling back. The difference is, we won’t go back. That is where our true power lies, economics. When we can hit the bottom lines of these corporations, we send a clear message. But in order to do this, you need plans, you need community, you need a village. I believe Black people have been creating this because we know how this plays out.

They don’t care about bodies in the streets as long as the shareholders are happy. Don’t forget that America was created, and subsidized, by selling stolen bodies. We need to make them feel our anger in their pockets and shares. Until then, they will continue to take our money and our freedom.

So, no.

I do not feel these are signs of hope.

I may be jaded (which is possible), but Trump voters really should have listened to us when we said all of this was going to happen. We were not being hyperbolic, fear-mongering, ridiculous, yet here we are: living inside Project 2025, guided by white Christian nationalists. It didn’t have to be this way. We need to be ready to face the devil that is in front of us. We are not.

Turns out there is a maga schism. It’s over antisemitism, not economics. Maganites who accuse Trump of betrayal cite Epstein or Israel. Given the evil, it seems unwise to celebrate. That said, did you see cracks coming?

No and yes.

The Republicans are very good at messaging. So if things went south with the economics, it was clear that they would blame Joe Biden. And their supporters would believe it. However, the Epstein issue surprised me.

Let me explain.

I believe that the maganites wanted everything about the Epstein files to come out because they thought, as they had been told, it would be chock full of Democratic lawmakers. Their leader ran on releasing them, but as soon as he got the job, he was like “psych” – and that left them confused. Will this create “cracks” in maga? Perhaps. I just saw a video of a man handing out parts of the Epstein files at CPAC and people literally called it propaganda. Let that sink in. So I am not betting on the global trafficking, torture and murder of children, and the raping of girls to move them.

But the antisemitism piece is fascinating to me. He is an antisemite and his supporters are antisemites yet he has sold them snake oil because of his “partnership” with Israel. We have seen some of his most staunch supporters publicly call him out. The same with the issue of Israel. Now you know hell has frozen over and pigs are flying when I am agreeing with Tucker, Candace, Madge-three-names, and Megyn. These are people I fundamentally disagree with and yet they are saying the things that maga needs to hear.

Aside from this narrow alliance sending me to therapy, I am worried that they will then use these positions to suck people in thinking they are “good” and we will repeat the cycle, just with less bloviating. We can’t normalize them.

Sadly, I think we will see more cracks with the war we illegally waged on Iran than we would with Epstein. We aren’t known for caring about women and children, even though we use both as talking points. We lose countless children to gun violence damn near daily and they won’t protect them.

But war? That’s a different beast.

Trump ran on not getting into forever wars for other countries and yet he has bombed Nigeria for “white Christians,” kidnapped the leader of Venezuela for a regime change, murdered 120-plus little girls in Iran – not to mention the countless Iranian lives lost along with American lives, and is threatening the lives, and sovereignty, of Cubans. And let us not forget about how he has threatened to take Canada and Greenland. His own words have been that if he wants it, he can just take it. All of this is going to lead to the economics coming into play – and cue James Carville – and the Democrats are going to see that as a way to get to these folks. It’s already begun.

None of this is a surprise, though. They told us – he told us – exactly what he was going to do. Their plan was laid out in Project 2025. I think that if they try to reimplement the draft, that’s what will break maga. They will have to put their lives on the line for him to fatten his coffers. It’s not sustainable.

Donald Trump said recently: "I always like to hang around with losers because it makes me feel better. I hate guys that are very, very successful and you have to listen to their success stories. I like people that like to listen to my success. ... I'm only kidding, sorta." What’s your reaction?

Welp, birds of a feather? He is a loser. He is going to surround himself with the same “quality” of people. He doesn’t want to be around people that are better than him because it reminds him of how small and insignificant he is.

Hearing how other people were able to do amazing things, despite their circumstances, doesn’t resonate with him, because he lacks the very basic skills of being an actual human being. We have seen him talk with leaders of nations and he sounds like a 2-year-old that needs a time out. He is stupid and being in the presence of anyone who knows things scares him.

I mean he is proud of having to take three cognitive tests. Three!

Make it make sense.

He uses hubris and bullying tactics to cover his stupidity, but here’s the thing: everybody knows how dumb he is. Think about it, his very own origin story is draped in criminality and lies. He was raised by parents who never gave a damn about him. He is a psychopath, a misogynistic narcissist and a pathological liar. The only “genius” he was able to tap into was that of a conman who could exacerbate those same qualities in the people who voted for him. He made it OK for them to be horrible people. They are losers, too.

He knows it and they know it.

The only thing he has been consistent and honest about is how he intends to fleece you. From day one, he told us who he is and what he stands for.

He has clearly hated Black people for his entire life: from denying housing to calling for execution of the innocent Central Park 5. He proclaimed he could kill somebody on 5th Avenue and not lose a single vote. He bragged about sexually assaulting women. (He was found liable for sexual assault.) From proclaiming that Obama was not a citizen to every policy he has pushed since being in office two times, Donald Trump has been very clear about who he is.

During the 2024 election, he literally told people how immigrants were garbage and he was going to violently get rid of them. People cheered and made T-shirts. He even simulated a b--- j-- with a microphone, which I think we should have been really focused on more – especially in light of the Epstein files – but people still rolled up to the voting booth and chose him. They were OK with that, because, as I said, white people will happily destroy the world so long as they are still white and have the illusion of privilege.

So yeah, he is being honest about who his supporters are and they are going to stand behind him. Again, birds of a feather flock together.