I've talked to hundreds, or what feels like thousands,
of Trump supporters, and there have been
a few folks who truly stand out, like Edward.
- I'm literally making four times as much
as I was making when Obama was president.
- What do you do?
- I work for a debt relief company.
- (laughing) Yeah.
It's good to be a white debt relief collector!
Besides being first in line at the Harrisburg PA rally,
he spent the better part of last year at rallies,
on the local news, and in the papers
preaching the MAGA gospel.
- I truly believe that Donald Trump was sent by God.
- I wanted to see if the ultimate rally-head
had any misgivings post-January 6th,
and if there was any common ground we could stand on.
Edward.
- Good afternoon. - I see you dressed down.
- I figured you'd want me fully decked out.
- Yeah, we were gonna ask you to bring your Trump apparel,
but I guess you didn't get the email, huh?
- (laughing)
- I'm gonna sit six feet away, if you don't mind.
- That's all right, I've got something under the mask.
- Do you? - Yes.
- What's under the mask?
- My vampire fangs.
- You have... vampire fangs? - Yes. (muttering)
- You literally have fangs.
- I got these fangs made for me professionally.
- It's been a chaotic year.
So much anger, and I wanted to come back,
kind of close that loop,
connect with somebody who I had seen before
and get some sanity again...
and you showed up with fangs.
- I'm a Bengal tiger.
So then I started bringing the fangs around to the rallies,
telling people I'm a-- I'm a tiger.
- He sees himself as an endangered species,
which makes it remarkable that Eric or Don Jr.
haven't sniped him in a trophy hunt.
- I have been to 50 Trump rallies.
- You went to 50 Trump rallies? - 50.
That, and I have spoken to the president
from the stage a few times.
It was really great, I mean, he has recognized the beard.
And at one of the rallies, I forget which one it was,
I was near the front and he pointed me out.
And he said, "There's that guy."
- "There's that guy"? That's how he talks--
talks to his children. - He said-- He said,
"I see this guy at all the rallies.
He gets in the news a lot."
- Do you stay in touch with the old MAGA crew?
People you run into the rallies? - Oh, of course.
I've developed some lifelong friendships
with the MAGA crew.
- What's the MAGA crew up to now?
Avoiding subpoenas? - (laughing)
I'm jonesing. I'm jonesing, you know?
Those Trump rallies were great. I was depending on them.
It was the high point of my life.
It was a lot of fun.
- I was at the last Trump rally,
and it was definitely not a lot of fun.
What does he think about what happened
at the Capitol on January 6th?
- Well, I don't support-- let me put it to you this way.
I don't think the way it's reported is--
is what actually went down.
I saw a different perspective.
Nobody I knew was going there to overthrow the government
or break into the Capitol Building.
- What does your shirt say? - What?
- "Million MAGA March." - Yes.
- "Be there. We'll be wild."
- Yeah, well, we had a fun-- Look, we-- listen...
- (stammering) But-- I--
You're literally wearing a shirt that has intention on it.
And the intention is it being wild.
- Well, I can sell-- I can sell it--
Okay, but we had a wild time the first two.
We didn't cause any trouble. We had a lot of fun.
- So then when a president stands up and says,
"You need to fight for me,"
that they might literally go and fight?
- We're playing semantic games now?
- You went there with the...
- Yes. - ...complete intention
to disregard what Donald Trump said?
- Yes. Whoever went into the Capitol Building,
these were not Trump fans 'cause nobody
would have walked out on his speech.
They broke in, he was still speaking for half an hour.
- Who were those people?
- Uh, well, you know, I've heard news reports
that one of them was an integral member of antifa.
Whatever happened on January 6th, they--
meaning the people who don't like President Trump,
the Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, allowed this to happen.
- They were trying to kill Nancy Pelosi.
Was she say-- saying, "Bring it on"?
- Let me tell you, some of them, I think,
maybe are being... unfairly persecuted.
- Really? - Yeah.
The FBI came to my house after the rally.
- (chuckles) Well, at least they're doing their job.
- (laughing) - Gives me a little bit of hope.
Did you flip on anybody?
- I don't flip on anybody. - Did you turn somebody in?
You're running around free right now.
- No, no, no, of course I wouldn't, I--
First of all, I had nothing to flip
because my point of view is peaceful.
As the FBI asked me, they wanted to know if
I breached the Capitol Building.
I said, "Of course I didn't."
I said, that would have been the stupidest thing in the world.
- But the guy that you pledged your life and your wardrobe to
told you to, essentially, do exactly that.
So, what's next after the violent insurrection that
he doesn't think Donald Trump told them to do?
Well, turns out they're just waiting for Donald Trump
to tell them what to do.
- We're not giving up. You know, it's not over.
We're coming back. - In what way?
- Uh, it depends on what the boss tells us to do.
(laughing)
- Uh, "donate," I think, was the last thing from up on high.
- I've donated a lot to him, you know, I hope he--
- Purposefully, or you look at your bank account
and realize, "Oh, shit, I guess it happened again."
I didn't want to leave without finding
some common ground with Edward.
He previously described Trump as a superhero, a rock star.
But had Edward come back to the reality that
the President of the United States is mortal,
who's not impervious to criticism,
and technically works for us.
- You've seen "Braveheart," of course?
Everybody's seen "Braveheart."
- I-I have seen "Braveheart." - Yes.
Donald Trump is our William Wallace.
- (laughing) - That's right. I mean, maybe--
- They both do wear a lot of makeup.
- Maybe they drew him and quartered him metaphorically
but he left behind a very strong,
vocal, and patriotic force of people.
- You know what? I-I want to find
a middle ground here, I-- How about this?
Donald Trump, I don't see him as your William Wallace,
but he is a lot like Mel Gibson.
- (laughing)
All right, I-- I--
- Can we agree on that? - I'll give you that.
- There we go! - I'll give you that.
(both laughing)
- I knew we'd find some common ground.
I guess some ground is better than no ground.