The year was 2015, and a charismatic, no-nonsense, highly successful New York businessman named Donald Trump took the Republican presidential primary race by storm.
Though I had friends and family members who supported him, I did not jump on board, a position I'd held since my one and only CPAC trip in 2011, where Trump was a featured speaker in what ended up being a preview of what was to come for him - and the GOP, and America - a few years later when he ran for president. He was a very different kind of political figure, and one who I wasn't convinced was genuinely conservative.
When the presidential primary rolled around in North Carolina in March 2016, my selection was then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). But Trump ended up winning it, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) being his only serious competition in my beloved home state. In the fall election, I wrote in Rubio's name as a protest vote of sorts, knowing it wouldn't count.
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But the night of the election, when my dad and I sat up and watched the results come in into the wee hours of the morning, with Trump stunning Hillary Clinton and the mainstream media by winning the necessary electoral votes, was the start of my realization of his appeal and what drew voters with whom I normally agreed to him.
I gradually went from being a conservative idealist to a realist when it came to Trump. More and more, I understood the arguments people who did enthusiastically support him were making about how he was a conservative leader befitting of the times in which we were living, where the left, the media, and the "NeverTrump" right were actively colluding against conservative values, and where Trump was like a one-man wrecking crew against all of them.
I went from being a Trump critic to a Trump explainer to a Trump defender over the course of the next year or so, and never looked back.
What has kept a lot of Trump backers in his camp over the years, beyond the courses of action he's taken on issues like DEI, transgender "rights," and illegal immigration, has been Trump's unorthodox approach to just about everything, including ordering fast food feasts for championship athletic teams who visit the White House, as well as his afternoon as a fry cook at a McDonald's drive-thru in 2024, and his legendary ride in a garbage truck that same year after then-President Joe Biden infamously referred to Trump supporters as "garbage."
READ MORE: Orange Vest-Wearing Trump Tells WI Crowd Hilarious Story of How Garbage Truck Ride Came to Happen
And he's still doing it, as evidenced during his appearance at the Monday Easter Egg Roll at the White House, where he casually taunted the Iranian regime while the Easter bunny looked on:
Trump taunting the IRGC while standing next to the Easter Bunny pic.twitter.com/5pRzoejWEq
— Tousi TV (@TousiTVOfficial) April 6, 2026
One of the many iconic photos of Trump was also taken at the event, with this one being Exhibit A of something another politician would be viewed as "weird" for doing, but Trump can come out smelling like a rose because this is just who he is:
again: *normal professional politicians just do not take wonderfully weird and memorable pictures like this* https://t.co/vl3OoNps3S
— David Hines (@hradzka) April 6, 2026
Trump also can get away with this because, as I noted above, he's just a different kind of leader, which is exactly what America needs at this critical time in our country's history, where the left and their media allies continue to try to claim right is wrong, wrong is right, bad is good, good is bad, and that America is the real enemy in foreign conflicts.
There will never be anyone else like him, so let's enjoy it while we can.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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