Trump supporters (Gage Skidmore)

In 2016, I watched a video of a voter focus group that was a forewarning of the madness that lay ahead. A middle-aged white woman said that she couldn’t wait until Melania Trump became first lady, because she “would bring class back to the White House.”

Let’s analyze that statement. She thought that Melania Trump, a college dropout, trophy wife and part-time softcore porn star, had more class than Michelle Obama, who has two Ivy League degrees. That sounds crazy, but that sums up Trump’s election in a nutshell.

Trump’s election was directly tied to the ascendance of Barack Obama. Obama’s election drove some white people crazy. It made them so angry, they elected the most overtly racist Republican candidate in recent history. CNN commentator Van Jones called this a “whitelash.”

I thought Obama’s election was inevitable, I was aware of the changing demographics of the country and the increasing political might of minorities. So I thought it was just a matter of time before an African American, a Latino, Asian, or a woman was president.

What I failed to factor in was how much rage it would generate among some white people. In Alexander Pelosi’s “Real Time” report on right-wing voters, a Mississippi man said he couldn’t even stand to look at Obama.

Trump’s election was directly tied to the ascendance of Barack Obama. Obama’s election drove some white people crazy. It made them so angry, they elected the most overtly racist Republican candidate in recent history.

This rage at Obama was stoked by the right-wing media, who played up every false story about him. First, he wasn’t born in America, then he was Muslim (a lie more than 50 percent of Republicans still believe,) they even accused of him being gay. Obama became the living embodiment of how the America many people grew up in had radically changed.

Donald Trump also realized this and played into this rage. He began his campaign by railing against Mexicans immigrants. According to a New York magazine article by Gabriel Sherman, Trump prepared for his campaign by telling one of his aides to listen to hours of right-wing talk radio to figure out what the hot button issues were. Of course, if you ever had the misfortune of listening to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity you will find a deep vein of resentment towards the “browning of America.”

But it wasn’t just racism, it was also sexism. Even before FOX News was rocked by its sex scandal, it was pretty clear that many right-wingers preferred the America of the 1950s, where white men ruled the roost and women and minorities were rarely seen and not heard. My brother said the Democrats made a strategic error when they picked Hillary Clinto as their standard bearer. Some right-wingers were already fuming over Obama’s election, and now they wanted to replace him with a woman? That was a bridge too far for many voters.

New York Times columnist Charles Blow calls trumpism a toxic mix of racism and sexism.

“Trumpism is a religion founded on patriarchy and white supremacy. It is the belief that even the least qualified man is a better choice than the most qualified woman and a belief that the most vile, anti-intellectual, scandal-plagued simpleton of a white man is sufficient to follow in the presidential footsteps of the best educated, most eloquent, most affable black man,” said Blow.

Obama also inadvertently played a role in Trump’s rise. In the superhero mythos, the hero often accidentally creates his nemesis. Batman created the Joker by knocking him into a vat of chemicals. Superman accidentally created Lex Luthor when he failed to rescue him from a lab accident, which caused him to lose his hair.

According to the PBS movie “The Choice 2016” which profiled both Trump and Clinton, the reality TV star decided to run for president after Obama mocked him at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

However, Trump continued playing up his message of Making America Great Again and returning to the 1950s during his presidential campaign. And along with help from the Russians, he was able to win the White House.

But two years into his presidency, most Trump voters aren’t doing better. He hasn’t reduced the number of non-white people, because he can’t. Nothing can stop the demographic changes that are taking place. The only thing Trump offers are stunts such as the border wall and locking up children in detention camps.

His tax cuts also haven’t made life better for working Americans and jobs are still being outsourced. And his shutdown, which stops food stamps, tax refunds and other benefits, will also hurt many of his supporters. Some Trump fans are finally beginning to realize that he sold them a lie.

Crystal Minton, a Trump voter from Florida, made a very revealing statement in a New York Times article. She was angry that the shutdown would delay aid for her disabled parents.

“I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this,” said Minton. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

I can only hope in 2020, Americans choose their president based on his policies, not on who he promises to hurt.