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What's the Hard Core Bottom of Trump's Support?
Is it the people who watch Lizard People documentaries on Truth Social or is it bigger?
mister mix
May 07, 2025
Sometimes truth is at least as strange as fiction:
“The evidence we are about to present to you has the potential to rewrite thousands of years of human history. It will present evidence that suggests ancient serpent or lizard-like aliens came to earth thousands of years ago,” the narrator says. “We’ll also present evidence that these ancient aliens are still among us today.”
This bizarre narrative echoes a paranoia about shadowy reptilians that has persisted for decades on the absolute fringes of the conspiracy theory movement. However, in this case, the story of “serpent or lizard-like aliens” who are secretly wielding influence over the human race isn’t coming from some pamphlet or dark corner of the internet. It is among the most watched films available for streaming on a service run by a multibillion dollar media company that is owned by the President of the United States.
We all know that, in terms of engagement, Truth Social is a freckle on the ass of Facebook or even X. But I’d say the overlap between the most nutty Trumpers on the planet and Truth Social subscribers is almost 100%. But what about the less-nutty? What’s the 27% of today’s politics? (27% is usually considered the “crazification” factor.)
There’s a new poll out by PRRI, and it has a decent-sized sample (5,397). The net of it is that we’re nowhere near 27% on almost any measure. Trump’s at 43% favorable in this poll, which is around where he is in other big surveys. One thing that most can agree on is that they hate JD Vance and Elon Musk, who are at 35% and 34% approval, respectively. It was interesting that all but 4% of respondents knew who Musk is.
A majority (58%) think he’s a dangerous dictator instead of a strong leader, but that mainly shows the party split, since 81% of Republicans think he’s a strong leader. Trump is now underwater slightly on immigration, with 48% thinking that he’s doing a good job on immigration.
Trump gets his best approval numbers among the silent generation (50%), baby boomers (47%) and Gen X (45%). Gen Z (37%) and Millennials (38%) are the least enamored of Trump.
Anyway, it’s just one poll, but it’s clear that others besides those who believe in lizard people are still fine with Trump after 100 days. I’m in Josh Marshall’s camp on this one:
On all this, you make progress by doing far more than by grand strategizing. Right now the issue is Trump and the damage he is doing on so many fronts. That’s not just Democrats saying that. It’s the majority view. You lean into that. You lead by opposing. Pundits constantly harp on the claim that there’s something cheap about opposing. What’s important is a positive vision. They’re wrong. The positive vision emerges from the outlines of what you oppose. But fundamentally the job of an opposition is to oppose. Don’t overcomplicate it. It’s not simply that you gain more ground from opposing than from grand-strategizing. You learn more from it too.
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