People laughed at Trump. They didn't take him seriously. I didn't. Then he started getting followers, support, POWER. He started saying things - dangerous things - and people started to cheer. He started to pack stadiums. He started holding rallies, spewing rhetoric of violence and intolerance. It was bigotry so toxic I thought nobody else would buy into it, but they did. And they got him elected.
And things got bad. Hate crimes skyrocketed. Anti-immigrant ideology became government action. Long-lasting damage to national allies happened. Systems in place to combat climate change were reversed. Children were torn from their parents and locked in cages. HUNDREDS were lost forever. We saw inaction when hurricanes decimated Puerto Rico, costing 3,000 lives. We saw daily acts of violence and oppression as Trump rallied behind supporters who actively sought out to harm protesters and dissenters. We saw the Republican party abandon all principles and fall in line to enable and support him.
We saw the bedrock of our liberties attacked in plain sight in broad daylight, as Trump boasted about how amazing it all was. How solicit a foreign power to interfere with an election. How he could threaten GOP congressman by sending his attack dogs after them. How he could attack the media as "the enemy" for reporting the truth around him.
So, on one hand, these people and their leader are clowns.
But nobody should be laughing at this point. Because THESE clowns - the ones that got caught - are only the tip of a massive iceberg of millions that look at the last 4 years of Trump's rhetoric and action and stand by him because that's what they want. And they're still insanely dangerous and they are far from done causing trouble.
"Trumpism" will likely outlive Trump himself.