Donald Trump.

I’ve been speechless at how offensive some of the things he’s said are. But I don’t think the complaints really matter all that much. Donald Trump’s voters only intensify the more offensive he gets. It’s fascinatingly disturbing.

And Trump knows how loyal his voters are. He knows that they are willing to blindly follow his lead. And even this statement — even something as insulting as him saying that he knows people will blindly follow him if he shoots someone in cold blood– even laying that bare will not deter his base.

He is so confident that he can say, to applause from his audience, while he’s being recorded, that he could shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose votes. As CBS News reports:

According to Republican presidential contender Donald Trump, his supporters are a staunchly loyal bunch — so loyal, in fact, that the billionaire could get away with some pretty drastic acts and his fanbase wouldn’t bat an eye. “My people are so smart — and you know what else they say about my people? The polls?” Trump asked a crowd at a Sioux Center, Iowa, rally. “I have the most loyal people — did you ever see that?” “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” he said, referring to the major street in New York City that cuts through Manhattan’s large commercial district. “It’s, like, incredible.”

Notice how he says two things: that his people are smart, and that they’ll follow him even if he shoots somebody on the busiest street of New York City.

How is that smart? How are those two statements compatible?

Even Donald Trump is saying what we’re all saying and calling his followers (who are numerous enough to make him the Republican nominee for President of the United States) blind to their faces, and they’re still going to blindly following him.

To say this is a sad commentary on the intelligence and judgement of the Republican Party is an understatement.