I was born in 1976, and I’m pretty sure I knew who he was by 1987. I saw copies of Art of the Deal at bookstores and by 1989 or 1990 Trump the Game. All I knew was that he was some rich guy who did “business,” maybe something to do with New York, but if I knew about some fuddy duddy businessman when I was eleven it’s probably safe to say Americans were also familiar with him. I don’t think he would have gotten on The Apprentice if Americans weren’t already somewhat familiar with him. I don’t think most Americans grasped what kind of a man he really was. I know I didn’t grasp it even as I voted against him in 2016.
Bolding mine (mods, hope that’s Ok).
Disagree. A sizeable chunk of the country knew and knows just exactly what he is (Not necessarily you @Joey_P. ) A sizeable ‘chunk’ voted for him twice. There is NO excuse for not knowing what he represents.
What that sizeable chunk did not realize, is that if you drill holes in the boat, you will sink with all those people that you dislike.
The big reveal wasn’t about Trump, because you would have to be an idiot not to know what he was about. The big reveal was about the true nature of those who wanted him in power.
Being aware of someone, and knowing a lot of details about them, their personal lives, and their business acumen, really aren’t the same. There’s tonnes of celebrities I’ve heard about, but couldn’t tell you much about without googling. The Kardashians? Heard of them, know their weird connection to the O.J. Trial, but beyond that? Not much. We could name dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of others like that.
Of course, if the Kardashians started running for President*, I’d probably do that googling.
*Yes, the entire family all at once. I’m sure there’s no rule against a family being President! Airbud Rules Apply!
We had that in his first term. Then the family started to bail on him because SOME of them understand that actions have consequences.
Trump, D.J. Is pushing that envelope. Some of his family is smart enough to get out while the goings good.
I did, but then I follow business news and the Georgia Bulldogs, so I knew of Trump in 1982 when he lured Herschel Walker away from his senior year at UGA to go pro for the NJ Genitals, er, Generals of the USFL (which Trump also destroyed).
Cites on that last:
I DID NOT KNOW THAT THE $1 BILL WAS HANDED TO TRUMP, 
(The USFL won an anti-trust case against the NFL, but the jury awarded the USFL 1 whole dollar in damages.)
I was born in 1982, and was raised in a fiscally conservative/socially liberal household. Dad actually went out of his way to point out examples of who he thought of as good businesspeople, or - even if they had failed - businesspeople you could learn from. Trump was never held up as an example of either. When I saw him in Home Alone 2,** I think I vaguely knew of him as some sort of sleazy New York guy.
In North Carolina, charter schools aren’t supposed to have a religious affiliation. I’ve looked up a few religious schools that I thought were charter, but it turns out they’re private. (These schools are eligible for vouchers, which also use tax dollars…ick.) That said, there are some charter schools that have an akwardly-stated emphasis on “morals,” so I’m guessing that’s where religion gets shoehorned in.
We’re quite well-prepared if they start building nuclear plants again! 
Hey, the guy i found on Instagram isn’t the right one, but I found the real Davis X. Machina, and he’s on Bluesky
Can we include Democrats who suck up to the leopards in this thread? Because if so, here’s a doozy;
Hey Senator Kelly, Elmo just called one of your ISS colleagues a slur. What kind of accomplishment is that???
I know most people won’t know Niall but he’s a historian who has been a professor at Oxford and Harvard and has been Knighted.
I knew he was conservative but didn’t know to what extent he’s sympathetic to trump’s views. And, on googling, he has pretty far right views on things like colonialism, Islam, whether Britain should have resisted the Germans…
This is one of the weird aspects of this era. It’s not just seeing lots of bigots around. It’s seeing people you thought of as bright, or decent, turn out to be, well, “ultra Maga”.
It feels like I’m in a bodysnatchers movie.
(Sorry for hijacking a bit; these threads are kinda blurring together)
He and Fetterman can cuddle up.
NC State does (or did) have a very good nukular engineering department. The high schools are still of a distinctly lesser quality.
Absent more context, I wouldn’t automatically assume sucking up. Could easily just be sarcastic bemusement. Not that I would be shocked if he was being a suck-ass, but I really can’t tell from just that.
There are certainly Tesla-owning SpaceX fans out there that now nonetheless despise Musk.
They still do! I think it’s the only engineering department still located on the main campus, since they would pretty much have to decomission the reactor in order to relocate. And I agree with you about the public high schools in the state, since I graduated from one. 
No physics, not much in the way of math, and I was headed into a college engineering program. I did have amazing teachers for history and English/composition though.
The surprises now arriving for the LEF party are only surprises because of an unfathomable degree of willful ignorance. I spent as much time on Trump as I did on the Kardashians before he ran for office, which is to say zero. Once he declared his candidacy it took me between five and ten seconds to understand he was a colossal liar and gold plated jerk ass. I also, of course, thought his run for office was a joke.
The surprise is like the surprise of someone standing on train tracks watching the locomotive heading toward them.
Tammy Faye Bakker was not an example “80’s wealth and glitz”.
Robin Leach, Leona Helmsley and the exteriors shown in Miami Vice I’ll happily grant you.
Until he started getting into politics, I always saw Trump as New York local color - tacky and a bit of a buffoon, but essentially harmless. In other words, just another Manhattan weirdo among many.
Very well said.
And all they had to do to avoid certain death, was to step off the tracks.
Yeah. It’s why I have zero sympathy for them; it’s not like the awful qualities of Trump and company weren’t obvious, or that we hadn’t already had him inflicted on us as President once. But they decided they wanted to deny reality and walked in front of that train.
I’m only sorry that they’ve dragged the rest of us there with them.