For the last seven years, when Americans thought about the presidency of Donald Trump, they thought about him. Just him. Our fixation has been on this single individual as opposed to on the legions who followed where he led.
But in recent weeks – largely because of the January 6 Committee hearings – this has started to change. The hearings feature not Trump himself; instead they focus on his followers. One after another of Trump’s erstwhile disciples have come before the committee to testify to their fealty to the former president – until he betrayed their trust. In fact, so strong was their tie to Trump, that in some cases, such as Arizona Republican Rusty Bowers, they testified that despite his betrayal they would vote for him again.
The other thing that happened in recent weeks is that my own book on Trump’s followers, The Enablers, which was published in 2021, finally does not stand alone. The Enablers focused on how Trump’s followers enabled his wretched performance as it pertained to the pandemic. Who exactly were these followers? It was a large cast of characters, some members of Trump’s tribe; some members, those who enabled him day to day, members of Trump’s team. In other words, The Enablers constructs a mosaic that consists of many pieces, each a person who played a particular part in the pandemic.
The two books that just joined mine – they are also about Trump’s followers – pay no attention to the mosaic that is the whole. Their lens is more narrowly trained, nearly entirely on those among Trump’s followers who are eminent. Tim Miller’s Book, Why We Did It, focuses on a few people, most long time, and top-ranking members of the Republican party. He singles out those who had always seemed to him, a former Republic Party operative himself, reasonably smart and sane, and wonders how it came to pass they sold themselves to the devil.
Somewhat similarly Mark Leibovich’s new book, Thank You for Your Servitude. As its title implies, it also focuses on Trump’s invariably subservient underlings, though again mainly those in the upper ranks, Republican “careerists who catapulted to Trumpism to preserve their livelihoods.”
I am glad to have some company, two other close observers who focus on Trump’s followers. But their canvas is too small.
It’s at least as important we understand a follower who is an ordinary man, like Stephen Ayers, as a follower who is an extraordinary man, like Lindsay Graham. So hats off to the January 6th Committee for having Ayers testify.
Graham’s benefits from Trump-toadying are obvious. He gets to hang out at Mar-a-Lago and play round after round after round of golf with Donald. But what was in it for Ayers? Why did Ayers, an average Joe, sign on with Donald Trump? Why did he head to Washington in January 2021 to support Donald Trump? And why did he end up storming the nation’s Capital in a last-ditch effort to prolong Trump’s presidency? While the January 6th committee did not even try to plumb Ayers’s psyche, we do know that men and, yes, woman get seized by Trumpism for various reasons, including ideology and psychology.
Prominent Republicans (Graham) stand on the Republican base (Ayers). If it cracks, they fall. For years, this base has been comprised of people like Ayers, who describes himself as a family man who worked for the same company for 20 years, and enjoys camping, playing baseball, and spending time on social media. It’s why what he had to say this week in Washington was so important.
Ayers had no reason to worry about being in the company of far-right groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, because he thought,
Hey, they’re on our team; good…. I thought it was a good thing.
Only in retrospect did he get angry about Trump’s promotion of the Big Lie, that he had won the election. Why? Because for months he, Ayers, had believed the Big Lie. That it was correct to claim the election was stolen.
I was hanging on every word he {Trump] was saying. Everything he was putting out, I was following it. I mean if I was doing it, hundreds of thousands or millions of other people were doing it, or maybe even still dong it. It’s like he said about that, you know, you got people still following and doing that.
Finally, is Ayers in retrospect, now all too well aware of how badly his life was damaged by what Trump wrought.
The biggest thing is I consider myself a family man, and I love my country. I don’t think any one man is bigger than either one of those. I thank that’s what needed to be taken, you know. People dive into politics, and for me I felt like I had, you know, like horse-blinders on. I was – I was locked in the whole time. Biggest thing for me is to take the blinders off, make sure you step back and see what’s going on before it’s too late.
There you have it. Finally, public testimony from a follower who was a rank and file member of Trump’s Tribe, explaining how it was this treacherous if not treasonous leader came to pass.