Katie Couric to Bill Maher: Trump Support Comes From 'Anti-Intellectualism' and Class Resentment

National Geographic/Rebecca Hale

Once upon a time, Katie Couric was a well-known morning show host. She became a celebrity and made a lot of money doing interviews and giving her opinions freely to the viewers. 

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Couric is long gone from that show. Now she does podcasts. She spoke with Bill Maher on the Sunday edition of his podcast, Club Random. One topic was the polarization in society and the motivations of Trump supporters. 

Katie fancies herself as an intellectual and so she spewed forth on how it is that Trump supporters show "anti-intellectualism" and harbor class resentment. You might say that Couric had a deplorables moment or two. 

Katie Couric doesn't understand Trump supporters because she has never bothered to try. She lives in a liberal elite bubble and none of her fellow bubble-dwellers have anything good to say about Trump. They all thought he was ok before he ran for president in 2015. His wildly successful television show, The Apprentice, and then Celebrity Apprentice, were top dollar-makers for her former network. 


Couric argued that the wealth gap in America was wider than ever before and had spurred class resentment in the culture. She argued this was driving the MAGA movement.

"The socioeconomic disparities are a lot and class resentment is a lot and anti-intellectualism and elitism is what is driving many of these anti-establishment — which are Trump voters — so, I think that is a huge problem that we have to address," Couric said.

She went on to double down on her argument that class resentment and jealousy drove voters to support Trump.

"I mean globalization and the transition from an industrial to a technological society — I don’t know if you’ve ever been jealous of someone else or resentful — it is such a corroding and bitter, almost bile feeling," she told Maher

"I think that when people who are really struggling see people who have everything, and are on top of that, looking down on them, it is just a recipe for such anger and resentment and grievance," she continued.

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I wonder if she has ever seen a Trump rally and observed the people who attend them. Those are not people filled with anger and resentment. They are happy people who are eager to vote for Trump again. They want the peace and prosperity his policies brought to them. To everyone. Couric may relish looking down her nose at Trump supporters but I imagine she appreciated the booming economy during his term in office as much as anyone else. 

Democrats think Trump supporters are their intellectual inferiors. Trump supporters are no different than any other voter groups, though. There are intellectuals and those who are not intellectuals in both parties. It's projection on the part of people like Couric to point a finger at Trump voters and blame their support for him on ignorance. I don't recall Couric blaming the Cult of Obama on ignorance and to a lesser extent, the same is true with Bill Clinton. 

If Couric was intellectually honest, she would marvel at the fact that the Democrat Party is now the party to millionaires and billionaires while the Republican Party is largely comprised of working-class people. That is the real story in politics since 2015. Trump captured the imagination of disaffected voters who no longer sit at home. They get out and vote for Trump to go to Washington and shake things up. He resonates with them. 

Has Joe Biden reached out to MAGA World? No. He's courting Nikki Haley voters. Biden caused discomfort in everyday voters' lives. Sixty percent of voters say they live paycheck to paycheck. Retired Americans are going back to work because they can't afford to pay their bills. First-time home buyers can't afford a home and renters are struggling to pay rent. The world is on fire. A war in Ukraine and in Gaza started during Biden's watch. The southern border is wide open, with about 9 million illegal aliens who have entered the United States during Biden's term in office. 

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Biden's America is a mess. We are living in a bizarre upside-down world. Biden promised a return to normal but that was a lie, too. Now there are daily protests in the streets with demonstrators chanting "Death to America, Death to Israel." This was unimaginable four years ago. 

Trump projects the air of an alpha male. Biden is a weak old man suffering from dementia. That's the truth. America deserves better than Joe Biden. 

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