Interviews with Donald Trump's voters reveal a dark truth about the "mandate" his supporters say the president-elect has been granted, a new report reveals.
The truth, according to Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer, is that the mandate doesn't exist — but may be acted upon anyway.
"Many people who voted for him believe he will do only the things they think are good (such as improve the economy) and none of the things they think are bad (such as act as a dictator)," Serwer wrote.
"This is the problem with a political movement rooted in deception and denial; your own supporters may not like it when you end up doing the things you actually want to do."
Serwer spoke with several Trump supporters who revealed alarming confidence that the president-elect will strictly follow their specific moral codes and dismiss his darker pledges as campaign rhetoric.
One Trump voter claimed there was no evidence the president-elect had ever made a racist claim.
"I found this extraordinary," wrote Serwer, "because the list of racist things that Trump has said and done this past year alone is long."
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That list includes lying about Haitians eating pets, questioning Vice President Kamala Harris' race, and claiming immigrants had "bad genes" that made them more likely to murder.
People who say they've heard the president-elect use the n-word include his nephew Fred Trump III, niece Mary Trump and "The Apprentice" producer Bill Pruitt.
In 2016, then-presidential candidate Trump suggested Vladimir Putin had called former President Barack Obama the n-word then said of the Russian president, "I hope he likes me."
This was not the only misconception of Trump's views, Serwer reported.
"There were the day laborers who seemed to think that mass deportations would happen only to people they—as opposed to someone like the Trump adviser Stephen Miller—deemed criminals," he wrote. "There was the restaurant owner and former asylum seeker who told CNN that deporting law-abiding workers 'wouldn’t be fair,' and that Trump would not 'throw [them] away; they don’t kick out, they don’t deport people that are family-oriented.'"
During his first administration,Trump spearheaded a deportation program that separated families — the Washington Post reported in May of this year that 1,400 children remain separated.
Serwer said many voters he interviewed on the campaign trail didn't understand why Democrats compared Trump to Adolf Hitler — seemingly unaware his own former chief of staff had revealed the former president praised the Nazi dicator's generals and actions.
The Atlantic writer credited the right-wing media with Trump's ability to survive what might once have served as career-killing scandals — but warned his voters they might have some unsavory surprises ahead.
The worst would be discovering of the true contents of character only after it is too late, Serwer argued.
"Some may change their minds once they realize Trump’s true intentions," he wrote. But added, "all of this may be moot if Trump successfully implements an authoritarian regime."
