A simple chart that explains Donald Trump's appeal

Everything is bad.

To listen to Donald Trump talk about America is to get depressed. And fast.

To take just one example, here’s how Trump responded to NBC’s Kristen Welker over the weekend when she asked him why he was running for president again:

Well, it’s a very simple answer, and I can give it very easily. It’s called: “Make America Great Again.” Our country is in serious trouble. I don’t think we’ve ever been so low in terms of, certainly opinion, world opinion and country opinion. People are devastated. They look at what’s happening with millions of people coming in, millions of illegal immigrants coming into our country, flooding our cities, flooding the countryside. I think the number is going to be 15 million people by the time you end this — by the end of this year, I think the real number’s going to be 15 million people. They come from prisons. They come from mental institutions, insane asylums. They say, “Sir, please don’t use that term,” but it’s true. They’re terrorists at a level — you know, it was very interesting, on NBC, I saw a poll, and I saw some statistics, and it said in 2019, there were no terrorists. They caught no terrorists. There was nothing that they saw. There was no anything. And now, this year, it’s a record number like they’ve never seen before. So, we did a great job at the border. We did a great job with the military. We did a great job with inflation. We had essentially no inflation. We had a great economy. And, we didn’t have an Afghanistan disaster. We were getting out, but we were going to get out with dignity and pride, not the way they got out. That was a surrender, and an embarrassment, and horrible. We gave $85 billion worth of equipment to the Taliban. We had death, so much death, and so much horrible destruction. And it was a terrible thing. I think it was the lowest point in the history of our country. Now, with all of that, we can change it, and we can make America great again.

Terrorists! Insane asylums! Surrender! Embarrassment! Death! Destruction!

And that was all in just one answer!

I’ve long been fascinated by Trump’s deeply dark and negative view of the state of the country. It’s a startling break from the way past presidents (and even the candidates Trump is running against in 2024) have talked — and do talk — about America.

Prior to Trump, it was considered political suicide for a president to talk down the U.S. (Remember Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech?). Americans wanted to believe in the idea of a “shining city on a hill” — that our country was unique and always getting better and better.

Trump changed all of that. His vision for America has always been a dark one — a country teetering on the edge of the abyss that only he can save.

And I’ve always wondered how such a pitch could resonate with voters who always seemed in the (recent) past to be drawn to politicians promising lofty concepts like “hope” and “change.”

Then, on Tuesday, Pew published a huge report about how people feel about politics. As part of the report was this chart, in which people offered up a single word to describe their feelings (the bigger the circle, the more people said it):

I dare you to find a SINGLE positive word in there — aside from the small circle that says “good.” You won’t be able to do it.

People feel awful about politics. Just awful. (Two thirds of people told Pew they often or always feel “exhausted” when thinking about politics.)

And that bleeds over into how people feel about the general direction of the country. Large majorities of the public believe we are headed off in the wrong direction. And these numbers, from a New York Times poll conducted last month, show that voters — especially Republicans — view the country on the verge of a literal cataclysm.

Those dire feelings — about politics and the country more generally — play right into Trump’s hands.

He is the only one leveling with us! He’s the only one who gets it! And he is the only one who can save us!

At root, Trump’s appeal is based on a belief that:

a) Politics is fundamentally broken

b) All politicians are cheats and liars

c) Politicians are primarily responsible for the suckiness of the country

d) Trump is different

All of those factors are present with the public right now. People are in a bad mood. They feel increasingly lost and at sea. Change is happening more rapidly than they would like. Politics has failed them.

It’s with this mindset that they turn to Trump. And find his dark and apocalyptic message a match for how they are feeling.

This all should be read as an affirmation that we are living in very, very strange times. What once was considered anathema in politics is now fueling the rise (or re-rise) of Trump.

We are truly in the Upside Down.