From lying about crowd sizes to denying the mountains of evidence that link Donald Trump to Jeffery Epstein’s child sex-trafficking ring, MAGA diehards aren’t exactly known for caring about things like truth and logic. But one widely shared clip of a Trump supporter has shown just how deep some delusions go, while also bringing 3rd party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr back into the news for something that isn’t an embarrassing gaffe (for once).
Reporter Taylor Popierlarz, of Spectrum News, was interviewing Trump supporters at a Florida rally for the former president and convicted felon earlier this week when he spoke to an attendee named Doris Mitchell.
Popierlaz asked Mitchell, who was dressed in MAGA attire, what she thought about Trump’s age and abilities after she had criticized Biden for being slow and his poor performance in a recent debate, as “Trump is only 3.5 years younger.” Showing a level of cognitive ability that makes all three presidential candidates seem like they’re on top of their mental game, Mitchell went on a slow, near-incomprehensible tangent about how John F. Kennedy Jr was still alive.
The clip is equal parts harrowing and hilarious, and as America lurches towards a second Trump term it is fast becoming increasingly obvious that many voters simply cannot distinguish between reality and what they’re fed via their algorithm. This isn’t a case of mistranslation, either (Mitchell appears to speak with an accent that belies non-English speaking ancestry):
“John F. Kennedy is still alive…John F. Kennedy is older [than] a 100 years…our president…this technology is to generate everything…our military they have the technology…so president John F. Kennedy is still alive…and our vice president is John F. Kennedy Jr.”
Although we at WGTC aren’t experts in linguistics, over the years of writing about MAGA we have developed an ability to translate “delusional” relatively well, meaning that we can offer some sort of context as to what Mitchell was trying to say. She is referring to a conspiracy theory that abounds in certain corners of the right-wing internet space, which claims that several historic figures that people believe are dead are actually alive and ready to take over America once Trump is elected, and in the process usher in an era of peace and prosperity for real patriots.
The reaction among those online sums up just what it means for the upcoming elections where the fear of Trump actually winning exists because of such people who blindly believe and spread senseless theories with confidence.
Unsubtantiated and wild conspiracy theories have fast become an unavoidable fact of political life in America, especially among the increasingly extreme MAGA believers. While some of the more famous ones, like Q Anon and Pizzagate, have lost steam, others have picked up.
Much of this has not been helped by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who himself is a massive proponent of multiple conspiracy theories. The third-party candidate has suggested Covid-19 targets white and black people, while not affecting Chinese people and Jewish people of Ashkenazi descent. He is also a long-time advocate for the widely debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. Though even he won’t believe that his uncle, famously and publicly murdered, is somehow being kept alive in some sort of military base, waiting for a second Trump presidency, if JFK was really well and thriving somewhere, just bidding his time for a comeback, it would be particularly bad for RFK. Jr. as his uncle would certainly hate his entire political stance.
John F. Kennedy Jr would have not only despised Trump’s policy platform but also that of his nephew. While the beloved 35th president wasn’t quite as progressive as many like to claim, especially when it came to foreign policy and calling out the racist Southern Democrats in his party, he was definitely not a fan of the extreme conservative groups that were beginning to coalesce in the sixties as a reaction to counter-cultural movements, and which have shaped the current Republican party. With the exception of RFK, the Kennedy family is also vocally anti-MAGA, with almost all of them having also claimed they are not supporting RFK in this election.
Of course, it is a bit unfair to extrapolate the views of all Trump supporters from Mitchell’s clip, which Popielarz was accused of. However, the reporter did put clips up of five other interviewers, so it’s not as if he was focusing entirely on this angle at the expense of showing off the views of more “reasonable” Trump supporters. With that said, this kind of conspiratorial thinking is the norm for MAGA cult members, as evidenced by the fact that they still believe the 2020 election was “stolen.”
This means that one thing cannot be disputed: The only way to ensure Trump doesn’t get his unwashed hands back on power is to go out and vote.
