People Feel Negative Because Donald Trump Wants It That Way. By Brian Beutler

Read time: 5 minutes

People Feel Negative Because Donald Trump Wants It That Way

He’s a big source of the bad vibes, and if you give in to dread, you're playing into his hands

(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

The liberal political world is abuzz about vibes.

What are vibes? Are the vibes bad? Can they be controlled? Shifted? For the most part, the vibes discourse has centered around perceptions of the economy, posited as an explanation of why the relationship between economic sentiment and economic fundamentals has broken down. But the bad vibes aren’t limited to perceptions of the economy. 

The broader vibes are almost as bad now as when inflation peaked over a year ago, hovering close to where they were in mid-2020, when Donald Trump’s COVID-19 failures had killed tens of thousands of Americans and confined tens of millions of people to their homes for months. Something significant is clearly at work on the national psyche if people feel no more optimistic now than they did in the depths of the pandemic. 

But even that observation is enough to divide left of center. Many feel the whole concept of vibes is fatally imprecise; others think it’s the most important one in politics right now. Everyone is probably, to some extent, tired of hearing the word. 

In the interest of bringing the conversation back down to Earth, and of reaching those who want a clearer sense of how non-material things can affect people’s relationship with the material world, I’m going to posit a simple hypothesis that can at least partially explain why people feel so bad that isn’t primarily material. 

The hypothesis is: Donald Trump is still a very important public figure; for different reasons this upsets people in ways that bleed into other aspects of our lives; and that is his design.

Obviously Trump doesn’t upset his supporters the way he does the rest of the country. They love him! But his effect on their attitude toward society is obvious and uncontroversial. Republican voters have been heavily primed by Trump and right-wing media to believe (or to tell pollsters) that everything about the world sucks the instant a Democrat takes power. Some of them are surely just good soldiers, and will say whatever they believe is helpful to the cause. But others are genuinely agitated because they believe Democrats stole the 2020 election or that deep-state sabotage unraveled his presidency. Others know he lost but are simply sore losers. Many in both camps believe Joe Biden has presided over a bunch of disastrous failures, because Trump, in his capacity as a high-profile public figure whom they trust and worship, keeps telling them that. 

Republicans may be energized to vote the bums out, but the vibes are still bad because Biden is president and they imagine threats to their way of life lurking everywhere.

But Trump’s continued dominance of the GOP is also very distressing to the 55-60 percent of Americans who see him rightly as a blight on the country and believe he should be a national pariah. 

They mobilized the largest protest movement in American history to resist the depredations of his presidency;

They voted in record numbers to end his governing trifecta in 2018, and did the same thing in 2020 to drive him from power;

They did these things successfully, in large part because life in Trump’s America felt to them like being trapped in a house with an abusive family member;

Then Trumped literally trapped them in their houses, including those who lived with actual abusers. 

And yet: 

Trump got more votes in 2020 than in 2016 and increased his share of the two-party vote;

In defeat, Trump attempted a coup d’etat, and nearly succeeded;

He was not swiftly brought to justice;

Senate Republicans refused to disqualify from seeking the presidency again;

His imitators were not chastened;

They continued to subvert elections and heap abuse upon his non-supporters, including leading Democrats, election workers, judges, and jurors; 

The Supreme Court, which he stole, eliminated the right to abortion;

On his orders, Republicans in Congress have subjected Biden to bitter obstruction, hostage taking, and slander, poisoning public opinion and bringing the country repeatedly to the brink of disaster.

The Trump resistance was called upon to end Trump’s fascist threat, and having done all they could with their diffuse power, Trump remains poised to overthrow U.S. democracy in a comeback.

Now, ask yourself: Do you feel good reflecting on that? Does it improve your vibe?

Much has been made of the fact that Biden fares most poorly among young people, who inhabit media milieus like TikTok where gloom goes viral and Biden is a constant source of mockery. What’s that got to do with Trump? Not much directly, but consider also: 

Trump and his online loyalists (domestic and foreign) feed and echo these same viral ideas constantly; 

Biden’s election created only short- to medium-run progress on issues like democracy protection, student loans, and climate change, all of which, young people are constantly reminded, will grind to a halt if Trump comes back to power. 

Donald Trump loves this more than anyone. He and his Republican allies don’t really try to hide that fomenting chaos and engaging in subterfuge and sabotage are their means. They’re quite open about the fact that making right-wing Americans feel besieged, and liberal Americans feel hopeless, are potent sources of their political viability.

Think one man couldn’t possibly have that much sway over the national mood? Well, imagine Donald Trump felt so betrayed by the official Republican Party that he decided to sabotage it, and he resolved to do this simply by dropping out of the race for president and turning his ire on Nikki Haley: “Joe Biden has been a disaster for the economy, but Republicans would be so much worse!” Nothing about material conditions would have changed. You’d probably feel better about things though. Who’d deny that such a development would have no effect on public opinion?

Trump is a blight on the United States. If he makes you feel dread every time he darkens your door, you probably already have an intuitive sense of how a specter can affect your sentiment about day-to-day life.