I've spent some time reading r/leopardsatemyface, and there's just an unending stream of people who say something like "I didn't vote for this. I voted to inflict this cruelty upon other people, but now that it's coming for me I'm upset. Please redirect this toward people who deserve it. That being said I still support Trump."

This quote from 2019 really sums it up:

  “I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this... I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.” [1]

I've honestly tried to avoid this conclusion for years, thinking there has to be more to it, but at long last it seems there's not. People want to hurt other people, and they see Trump as their vehicle to do so, because that's what he promises; "I am your justice...I am your retribution" was his literal campaign pitch. [2]

[1] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/tr...

[2] https://www.c-span.org/clip/campaign-2024/former-pres-trump-...

What's the quote? "A Republican would happily eat dog shit if he thought a Democrat would have to smell his breath".