Since the Trump phenomenon began on that escalator all those months ago, news reporters have often focused on the most outrageous and fanatical members of Trump’s base: the avowed white supremacists who endorsed his candidacy, the Pizzagate conspiracists, the alt-right fanatics at the “Deploraball.”
In reality, Trump’s election was not powered by an alienated fringe of internet trolls, but rather by a majority of America’s predominant ethnic group. As Vox’s Brian Resnick and Sarah Frostenson detailed right after the election, close to 60 percent of US white people — about 62 million of them — voted for Trump.
It was an overwhelmingly white crowd that turned out in Washington on Friday to celebrate Trump’s inauguration — and an overwhelmingly polite one.
These attendees did not grab the headlines amid the chaos, bullhorns, chanting, and fanfare. But they were most representative of the group that brought Trump to power.
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