If you don’t live in a deep blue area, you might not understand just how hostile most of the population in some of those places has been to Trump—even the idea of Trump—since the moment he walked down the golden escalator in 2015. Wear a MAGA hat in a place like Los Angeles, and you might lose friends, your family, your job, and you’d face constant confrontation. Put a Trump sticker on your car, and start saving up for all the repairs you’ll soon be facing because it will be vandalized as soon as you walk away.
But that could be changing since President-elect Donald Trump cruised to a landslide victory over far-left Vice President Kamala Harris. Even in blue states, the red wave materialized.
The times they are a-changin’:
They’re donning MAGA hats in cafes, celebrating on social media and flying Trump flags: Supporters of President-elect Trump in deep blue cities and states are no longer keeping it to themselves.
Why it matters: Trump improved on his 2016 and 2020 margins in almost every state, including in most big, blue cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
- Many Trump voters in those cities saw his victory as validation, and are acting accordingly.
- Some residents of liberal enclaves tell Axios they’ve seen more Trump yard signs go up after the election than before it.
- And many supporters of Vice President Harris are grappling with the fact that their neighbors might not have voted the way they did.
How did I get here? What happened in my life that led me to a point where I’ll wear a MAGA hat, and listen to Trump speak not 20’ from me.
I was told MAGA is racist. I was told Trump hates brown people. I was told MAGA is filled with hateful and resentful people. Uneducated… pic.twitter.com/Om0qmbeaKG
— 🪶Native Patriot 🇺🇸 (@LaNativePatriot) August 24, 2024
One reason the polls are often so spectacularly wrong is because many voters don’t tell the truth:
The “secret” Trump vote has been a phenomenon for the past few election cycles.
- A study from Columbia Business School found that among those who kept their choice a secret leading up to the 2016 election, two out of three went for Trump.
- “I think people recognize that that there is some kind of reputational cost of supporting Trump,” says Columbia’s Michael Slepian, who co-authored the study.
Related: Pants on Fire: Huge Number of Gen Zers Regularly Lie About Who They Vote For
After Getting Election Polling Spectacularly Wrong, Top-Rated Pollster Quits the Business
Me and the boys rolling in to Erehwon wearing MAGA hats pic.twitter.com/7U1WBrxWDk
— joshua steinman (🇺🇸,🇺🇸) (@JoshuaSteinman) November 17, 2024
San Francisco 49ers star Nick Bosa doesn’t care who Taylor Swift endorsed:
Yesterday: fined $11,255 for wearing a MAGA hat
Today: celebrates with the iconic Trump dance after a sack
In a world of Colin Kaepernicks, be a Nick Bosa pic.twitter.com/eUBoZ6cXzI
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) November 10, 2024
It’s a beautiful thing:
“All of these undercover Trump people are out,” says Robert Cahaly, a pollster and strategist at the right-leaning Trafalgar Group. “People that would have hidden a week or so ago aren’t hiding anymore.”
- On TikTok, Instagram and beyond, some influencers who’d kept their political preferences hidden are going full MAGA, The Cut reports.
- And social media has been full of photos of Trump paraphernalia on display in the most unlikely neighborhoods.
I know, for one, I’ve got my MAGA hat out. In fact, I’m going to put it on right now. Here’s my green throwback cap:
And @Bob_Hoge_CA has been waiting to wear this hat since 2020!! pic.twitter.com/e73rbmcJ7H
— Roxanne Hoge (@RoxanneHoge) November 6, 2024
