# Dealing with your Trump supporter friends **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 17, 2019, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272 "2019-03-17T19:27:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/41 "2019-03-18T20:49:05Z")
Think about the Trump voters you know, are any of them happy people? Politics aside, they just are pretty miserable people to be around. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/42 "2019-03-18T20:52:40Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Think about the Trump voters you know, are any of them happy people? Politics aside, they just are pretty miserable people to be around. I know quite a few. I’d call many of them “happy”. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/43 "2019-03-18T21:57:27Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > 😕 Working class white people vote Republican because they think republicans will increase stress and suffering on non-whites, liberals, immigrants, muslims, gays, etc. But then some realize republicans intend to increase stress and suffering on anyone who isn’t rich. And they aren’t rich, and their white skin and christian beliefs won’t protect them. > **["He’s not hurting the people he needs to be": a Trump voter says the quiet...](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/trump-shutdown-voter-florida)** > > A Trump voter hurt by the shutdown reveals the real reason the president attracts hardcore supporters. > [@](#): > > Most Marianna residents support Trump’s border wall, his key demand in the shutdown fight, and don’t blame him for the fight. But Crystal Minton, a secretary at the prison who is also a single mother caring for disabled parents, had a somewhat different reaction — one that reveals an essential truth about the core Trump’s political appeal. > > “I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this,” Minton told Mazzei. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.” ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/44 "2019-03-18T21:57:48Z")
Recently, my MIL pointed her finger at me, and told me that I was ‘bad’, because I don’t like TheOrangeGoblin _(Yes. I’ve stooped to his immaturity level of name-calling)_. Immediately before that, she pointed her finger at my husband, and told him that he was ‘good’, because he agreed with TheOrangeGoblin. That stung a bit. I’m going to avoid them from now on. They can’t function without praising all his deeds. I’m done. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/45 "2019-03-18T21:59:29Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Working class white people vote Republican because they think republicans will increase stress and suffering on non-whites, liberals, immigrants, muslims, gays, etc. … Cite? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/46 "2019-03-18T22:05:02Z")
Look at the accommodations people describe in this thread for Trump supporters: making sure Fox isn’t on so that they don’t get over-stimulated, avoiding certain topics so they don’t have a tantrum, and putting up with bad behavior just to keep the peace. Who else gets treated this way? Children that’s who. If I have to treat an adult like he’s a child just so they don’t have a meltdown, I don’t need that relationship. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/47 "2019-03-18T22:11:47Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > When you enthusiastically support someone, that person is a reflection of your own values. That’s all I needed to know, so I simply got rid of them. I now have no friends who are Trump supporters. That’s pretty much where I am now. It’s also the reason I quit Facebook. In closing that account, I let go of a few other people I did like, but the contact with them over the years was sporadic and if I really want to contact them (and vice versa) we know how to find each other. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/48 "2019-03-18T22:19:14Z")
I _try_ to have a 'no discussing politics at the dinner table" policy. It doesn’t really work that well, because _certain people_ _love_ talking about politics and think I should grow a thicker skin, and any topic, no matter how innocuous, has six degrees of separation from politics anyway\*. When my father has friends or my grandmother over, I go into the basement and shut the door. Because between the house acoustics and their loud voices, it’s the only place in the house I can not overhear them. \*“political”, by _certain people_’s standards, includes acknowledging the existence of LGBT people, so that’s usually where the fight breaks out. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/49 "2019-03-18T22:21:57Z")
> [@nonacetone](#): > > Recently, my MIL pointed her finger at me, and told me that I was ‘bad’, because I don’t like TheOrangeGoblin _(Yes. I’ve stooped to his immaturity level of name-calling)_. Immediately before that, she pointed her finger at my husband, and told him that he was ‘good’, because he agreed with TheOrangeGoblin. That stung a bit. I’m going to avoid them from now on. They can’t function without praising all his deeds. I’m done. You’re going to avoid your husband? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/50 "2019-03-18T22:22:42Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > A good portion of my office are Trump supporters. I try to avoid talking about politics, and usually succeed. Maybe once or twice a year, someone says something so egregiously stupid and factually false that I can’t help myself. Well I’m glad you’re around to hit them on the back when they forget to breathe. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/51 "2019-03-18T22:24:24Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Cite? See post #43. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/52 "2019-03-18T22:24:34Z")
[quote=“HurricaneDitka, post:40, topic:831272”] It sounds like your colleague is not “looking to Hollywood for advice on how to vote” (hopefully nobody is), but that doesn’t seem to have put any dent in Hollywood’s desire to tell people how to vote: [/QUOTE] You do realize that trump really wants to be a Hollywood big wig, right? He has a fucking star on hwood blvd, fer fuck’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/53 "2019-03-18T22:29:37Z")
> [@pool](#): > > You’re going to avoid your husband? Ha! No. He usually can control himself. But, when it comes to mummy and daddy, well, he’s among his own kind, and, we know how _that_ goes. So, I’m obviously not liked by his family, and I will avoid them. It’s my only way to keep myself from going off on them, and their silly, unremarkable, and uneducated, sheep-like shenanigans. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/54 "2019-03-18T22:43:51Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > See post #43. There’s one anecdote about Crystal Minton there. I was hoping for _data_ (although I suspect you guys don’t actually have any). ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/55 "2019-03-18T23:28:17Z")
I have a dearly-loved uncle who’s always been a staunch conservative. He’s a Trump supporter, which surprises me, as he’s also a conservative Christian, who was appalled by Bill Clinton’s adultery. How he feels about a president who paid Russian hookers to piss on a bed, and has cheated on every woman he’s ever married, I don’t know; I don’t see him often and we avoid politics and religion when I do. My parents are life-long Republicans, but they absolutely despise Trump for his mean-spiritedness and vulgarity. Neither plans to vote Republican in 2020. It’s partly personal, with my mother; her favorite nephew is a former high official in the FBI, and his integrity personally attacked by Trump on Twitter. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/56 "2019-03-18T23:33:59Z")
I honestly don’t know my family’s political affiliations, and am in no hurry to find out. For all my life I was the odd one - a person who didn’t vote republican out of reflex/habit. I mostly approached this by not voting at all (I’m in Idaho - not a swing state, and pre-GW it seemed to matter less), and gradually developing increasingly liberal ideas as I matured into an adult. This gradual shift towards maturity made conversations about politics less and less appealing - if I wanted a fun heated argument where I was completely outnumbered, religion was always better entertainment. Then Trump happened, and to my shock some of my relatives have sporadically expressed displeasure and/or dismissive mockery of him. I’m not quite brave enough to plumb the depths of this, though, as I prefer any arguments I get into to be fun. My dad still is constantly reading shit books about how America is being attacked by deep states and eaten alive in pizza place basements and such, so I’m pretty sure he at least is still a hardcore (read: lunatic) conservative. Oddly enough though he seems in no hurry to discuss it, at least not with me. It’s a bit surprising because he has opinions and isn’t afraid to use them; perhaps he realizes at some level that that shit is moronic and doesn’t want to shine a light on it. He can be quite intelligent when he doesn’t get an opinion on something stuck sideways in his craw. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/57 "2019-03-19T00:06:56Z")
I really don’t understand all the observations in this thread. My experience is the exact opposite. I have friends who are staunch Trump supporters. I have friends who are Trump-hating Republicans. And I have mouth-foaming liberal friends who won’t even say Trump’s real name. We all get along. We occasionally discuss issues, and usually disagree, but we all realize that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and there are more important things in friendship than voting the same way. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/58 "2019-03-19T00:14:30Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I really don’t understand all the observations in this thread. My experience is the exact opposite. > > I have friends who are staunch Trump supporters. I have friends who are Trump-hating Republicans. And I have mouth-foaming liberal friends who won’t even say Trump’s real name. We all get along. We occasionally discuss issues, and usually disagree, but we all realize that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and there are more important things in friendship than voting the same way. If only it was just about voting the same way, I’d agree with you for once. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/59 "2019-03-19T00:18:25Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I really don’t understand all the observations in this thread. My experience is the exact opposite. > > I have friends who are staunch Trump supporters. I have friends who are Trump-hating Republicans. And I have mouth-foaming liberal friends who won’t even say Trump’s real name. We all get along. We occasionally discuss issues, and usually disagree, but we all realize that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and there are more important things in friendship than voting the same way. Same. The only time I get into it with people are when I chose to do so with people that I don’t know. There are two that pop into my head who are obnoxious about that support of Trump. But both would literally lay down their life for me if it came to that so I’ll give them a pass. ---
**Author:** ![Kelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@Kelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelby)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272/60 "2019-03-19T00:26:59Z")
I live in a red state and find myself surrounded by Trump supporters, including family members. My daughter is about to married to a man whose family are Trump supporters. I’ve learned to simply avoid the topic of politics with them and to decline to discuss it when they make overtures. My close friends I am able to vent my spleen with. I’m simply gobsmacked by the people who \*continue \*to support him…I think they simply choose to ignore/avoid learning about his day-to-day idiocies by focusing on certain information outlets and continuing to ally themselves with similar thinkers to help rally support for their “team”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-your-trump-supporter-friends/831272.md?page=4)