One of the things I hear from Trump supporters is that he tells it like it is. Whether it is promising to get Mexico to pay for a border fence, or saying that McCain was not a war hero for enduring torture rather than accepting special privileges, or later pretending that his McCain comments were about Trump’s deep interest in the welfare of underserved veterans, it is obvious that Trump doesn’t tell it like it is, and that some of his fans like that about him.
Trump’s rhetoric is about wounding people that his fans despise. It doesn’t have to be true, and, on some level they can accept collateral damage inflicted on others. Trump’s McCain comment was a collective insult against POWs who served honorably, but Trump’ss fans also know it was intended to insult one politician and his media enablers. Nothing personal, all you other POWs. Likewise, his promise to get Mexico to pay for a border fence is the inverse of a bipartisan political establishment that pretends building a border fence is some kind of physical responsibility.
Trump’s telling it like it is (not), can be understood as a way of standing up to a political establishment that ignored and despised Trump’s supporters long before Trump announced for president. Since Trump’s insults and promises work on the level of standing up to the powerful, arrogant, and connected, factual retort only works so well. The literal truth is less important than the defiance (possibly futile defiance) of power. It is like asserting that your, while your mother might not have the ideal figure for a model, she doesn’t have her own zip code.
But, the Trump phenomenon will burn out soon enough.