She was used to being isolated. She was one of only a few women in a fire department of about 100 employees, and even though she tried to fit in by sleeping at the firehouse two nights each week — even though she had won E.M.T. of the Year, passed all the fitness tests, registered as a Republican, collected guns and voted for Trump in 2016 — she was always defined by the ways she stood apart. A vegetarian. A bisexual. A single woman with dyed pink hair and facial piercings among a sea of mostly white, Christian, conservative men.
Trump’s appeal was that he was unqualified, that he instead campaigned by bringing reality show tactics into politics full-scale, winning endless free airtime (“all exposure is good exposure”) for exactly the reasons you mentioned. Back then this idea had a sheen, like how “We’re going to build a wall” resonated with those close to Mexico. I agree that in hindsight everything seems obvious.
I don’t think we did. That seems to be first reported in 2018 and 2021.
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, that you live in places that Trump has not marked with his greasy mitts. People who lived in places where “Trump” buildings were planted, and thus he was part of local news, knew he was a dickhead. The average person just didn’t know how much he failed because most don’t go digging into the financial history of celebrities.
If you lived anywhere near NYC you knew he was a dickhead.