Opinion | To Watch a Trump Town Hall on Fox Is to Enter a Different World

Every so often, it’s vital to observe Fox Information in prime time. No, not as a result of the packages are significantly good or as a result of the hosts inform their viewers the reality. Fox is writing Dominion Voting Programs a $787.5 million examine for excellent causes, and it nonetheless faces a multibillion-dollar lawsuit from Smartmatic over the channel’s election reporting. However to observe Fox Information is to start to know hundreds of thousands of your fellow Individuals. And there was no higher time to start out understanding the 2024 Republican major contest than Thursday evening, throughout Donald Trump’s city corridor in Iowa, hosted by Sean Hannity.

To look at the city corridor was to start out studying the reply to a key query: After all the things, how can Republicans nonetheless be so loyal to Trump? However that phrase, “all the things,” is loaded with completely different meanings in numerous American communities.

For those who watched the city corridor, nevertheless, you entered a wholly completely different world. Based on Trump’s narrative, all the things he did was good. His time period was a time of financial prosperity, vitality independence, fiscal duty, a rejuvenated army, a locked-down border and worry and respect from international regimes. The one issues that marred his 4 years have been a stolen election and his unjust persecution by the corrupt Democratic Get together and its allies within the F.B.I.

In Trumpworld, the Trump previous is golden, and the Trump future vivid, however the current is a time of distress and darkness. It’s President Biden, not Trump, who mishandles categorized paperwork. It’s Biden’s household, not Trump’s, that corruptly income off international regimes. Trump would have prevented the Ukraine conflict. Trump would have withdrawn from Afghanistan extra easily. As for Biden himself, he’s an object of derision and pity — far too bodily and mentally impaired to be president of the USA.

False narratives are sometimes sustained by just a few kernels of reality, and so it’s in MAGA America. The financial system was robust earlier than Covid, and there have been fewer southern border crossings annually throughout Trump’s presidency than there have been throughout Biden’s. The ISIS caliphate fell. And I don’t know a single Republican who isn’t happy with Trump’s judicial nominees.

Furthermore, not all of Trump’s opponents possess the cleanest of palms. There have been, actually, Division of Justice excesses throughout its investigation of his marketing campaign’s potential ties to Russia. A particular counsel is investigating Biden’s mishandling of categorized paperwork. Hunter Biden is below legal investigation, and his abroad enterprise dealings are certainly unsavory, even when there’s not but proof of legal wrongdoing. The withdrawal from Afghanistan became a chaotic and bloody rout of allied forces. Inflation stays too excessive.

Briefly, there’s sufficient truthful criticism of the Biden administration to make it weak to an election loss. And there stays ample false Trump administration nostalgia to make Trump the G.O.P. nominee. Put each realities collectively, and the nation is going through RealClearPolitics polling averages that present Trump to be the overwhelming favourite for the G.O.P. nomination and a slight chief in a possible basic election matchup towards Biden.

Given these info — and Thursday evening’s peek at MAGA America — my colleague Frank Bruni’s warning to Democrats on Thursday was well timed and vital: Democrats mustn’t hope to face Trump in 2024. Rooting for him isn’t simply harmful; it’s primarily based on misunderstandings. All too many Trump opponents — in each events — have spent so lengthy constructing their voluminous instances towards him that they’ve forgotten how he seems to the opposite facet. They’ll’t conceive of a coherent case for his candidacy.

The 2 most telling moments on Thursday got here from Trump’s viewers. First, they booed Mike Pence on the very point out of his title. Second, they shouted derisively at Hannity on the mere thought that Trump ought to maybe tone down his rhetoric. Each moments emphasised the ferocity of their assist for Trump. Whenever you see that public response, you’ll be able to start to see his opponents’ dilemma. Given the dimensions of Trump’s base, a successful Republican rival should peel away at the least some members of audiences like Thursday’s — the very individuals who see him as a persecuted hero.

That problem is compounded by each occasion like Thursday’s city corridor, through which a relaxed Trump was “questioned” by a supine host in entrance of an adoring crowd. Hannity’s efficiency was fairly a distinction to Kaitlan Collins’s pointed challenges to Trump throughout final month’s CNN city corridor. But each occasions superior Trump’s narrative. CNN’s robust questions reminded MAGA of his alleged persecution. Hannity’s coddling reminded MAGA of Trump’s alleged triumphs. Each in the end helped Trump deepen his bond with the individuals who love him probably the most.