Any astute political observer could have told you there was zero chance of Donald Trump’s diehard base abandoning him over an indictment. Now, two indictments have arrived, and an even more fascinating trend has emerged: Donald Trump isn’t just holding his support but gaining it. Republicans who in November or January were leaning toward a fresh face for 2024 have rallied back to Trump’s banner.
In fact, Trump’s average support for the Republican nomination bottomed out in the second week of March, just days before news broke that Alvin Bragg planned to turn the Stormy Daniels hush money case into “novel legal theory” to bring the first ever criminal indictment against an American president. That week, Trump’s support within the GOP dipped to 43 percent on the RealClearPolitics polling average.
The most recent GOP poll, conducted by CBS just as news of Trump’s second, federal indictment broke last week, shows Trump at his highest support yet – 61 percent.
What happened? Why does Trump appeal to the GOP most when the corporate media would have you believe he’s at his weakest and most vulnerable?
It didn’t begin this way. When Trump started his campaign in 2015, it was as a “winner,” a successful businessman and dealmaker who would use those skills to make America great again, and who was bold enough to call out lies and state unspeakable truths that other candidates simply would not.
But eight years later, Trump’s appeal has evolved, as has the experience of the Republican voter.
For rank-and-file conservatives, Donald Trump is the politician who most directly experiences what it’s like to be them. Just like they are under siege, so is he. They know that the justifications given for the indictments in New York and in Florida are shams. They know that charges of the same type would never be brought against a top Democratic presidential contender, or against any Republican who avoided saying the things Trump has said. They know the real reason for the prosecution of Trump are the things he did as president and the things they expect him to do if he becomes president again. They see through the regime’s hateful fury towards Trump, and glimpse what it really is: Hateful contempt for them.
I sometimes ask students at events whether they feel that they’ve been persecuted for their own political beliefs. Countless hands always go up. Students regale me with stories of having their grades docked because they don’t rigidly adhere to the secular theology teachers and professors have injected into the classroom. They’ve directly experienced having their student organizations treated differently for being avowedly conservative or Christian. They’ve seen their events disrupted by violent protesters or shut down before they could even be held.
Even far away from college campuses, conservatives accurately perceive that their values and way of life are under siege. Christian teachers are ordered to use trans pronouns and keep their beliefs off social media, or lose their jobs. Their workplaces and public spaces are inundated with obnoxious Pride Month materials, and insufficient enthusiasm can endanger one’s career or even basic livelihood. Parents have to raise their children with the grim knowledge that when they apply for colleges, internships, and jobs, they will be treated as representatives of a skin color rather than as individuals. Pro-life activists, traditional Catholics, and parents who want politics out of elementary school classes are all treated by the FBI as domestic terrorists in waiting.
Although the billionaire Trump at first glance appears to have nothing in common with his constituency, Trump’s willingness to fight for them has formed an unbreakable bond with his supporters. And now that he has experienced the heavy hand of government and its mobs just like his constituents, the bond is all the stronger.
Charlie Kirk is the Founder and CEO of Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action, he’s also the host of The Charlie Kirk Show.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.