Why is Trump such a polarizing figure?
🐸 WAG THE FROG 🐸
Think about it. No one is neutral on Trump. People like us are passionate Trump supporters. Many are virulent opponents. But I know of no one who is of the mind "Trump? He's OK, I guess. " What's your experience been?
The reason is two-fold. First is that the US public at large is extremely disgruntled and jaded on how federal politics works in Washington DC, going back many decades. We are sick of all the backroom deals with corporate interests that result in corporations taking in record profits and politicians receiving insanely lucrative kickbacks from whatever lobby they are working with while the common person suffers and is left holding the bag. The idea of a politician who is not part of the system being elected president and restoring power to the people, which is the central idea of Trump's MAGA movement, is something that quite literally everyone should be able to get behind.
But the system, the swamp, the deep state - whatever you want to call it - does not want to give up its power. They recognize that the general public does not like the results of decades of political corruption in DC and would gladly overthrow them if the opportunity presented itself. In general they combat this by turning us all against each other. White vs Not White. Man vs Woman. Straight vs Gay. Normal vs Trans. Middle Class vs Lower Class. This is the game they have been playing since Occupy Wall Street (honestly longer than that, but that OWS is a definitive point on the timeline you can point to when the divisiveness started going off the charts).
The problem with this idea of an outsider hero becoming president and restoring power to the people is the naivete some people have about this idea. They think a commoner, a low to middle class person of humble means will be the only way to achieve the goal. This sounds nice on paper, but it does not consider that the swamp is so deep that the candidate will inevitably become beholden to his largest donors. Effectively, a commoner wouldn't be able to fill this role because they would be controlled. This is why it has to be someone like Trump.
The swamp understands this and recognizes Trump as an actual threat to their survival. That is why they have "all assets deployed" against him. They immediately used a coordinated mainstream media gaslighting campaign to broadcast negative stories on Trump 24/7 on all media platforms the minute it appeared he was seriously running for president in the 2016 campaign.
As Covid has shown us, the number of people on this planet who believe what mainstream sources tell them is staggering. Yes, more and more people wake up every day but the current optics support that the general public is basically a giant flock of sheep. They kept up the gaslighting through Trump's entire first term, never letting up or giving even an inch. People believe he deserved to impeached back then, and they believe he should be prosecuted for all these indictments now. Not because they have looked at the evidence and found him to be guilty of breaking the law, but because the TV told them to.
That's why he is so polarizing. Some see him as the answer the the problem of the swamp, and want to see him achieve his goal of draining. Some believe he Is an evil, mean-tweeting racist demon who would only use the office of president to benefit himself.