For better or worse, Donald Trump supporters might be the most passionate voters in American politics today. They bring costumes, spit in the faces of protesters and sneer at the reporters in the press pen. “That kind of stuff only adds to the excitement,” Trump said at a Worcester, Massachusetts, rally in November as police dragged away a protester.



Their signs might say it all: The Silent Majority Stands with Trump. Trump events are electrified by the feeling that these people, too—many white, working- and middle-class—can be marginalized, and they’re tired of the muzzling effect of political correctness that keeps them from saying so. They believe in the Trump promise of making America great again—and there are enough of them to drive record Republican turnout this primary season. Photographer M. Scott Mahaskey traveled the country talking with them, and this is his inside look at Trump's passionate following.



Above, Kraig Moss, 57, from Owego, New York, at a Trump event at Radford University in Virginia in late February. The voters are “angry with the system, they’re angry with the lies,” Moss says.

M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO