I saw no assumptions in my question. I'll ask the question in simpler terms. How does a loud mouth, overweight, senior citizen command such loyalty? All I see as obvious is that his theme makes it acceptable to hate.
Lets flip the question just to try answer your question.
How is it a president who fosters the first peace deals in the Middle east in 40 years, is the first president in 40 years not to engage our military in new military battles, had a 49 year unemployment low, generated the lowest African-American unemployment has recently achieved the lowest rate ever recorded, lifted more then 3 million people off of food stamps, created better trade deals with Mexico and Canada , is the first president to say screw you to the politically correct / identity politics crowd , does not receive more respect.
Now there are many more things that Trump has done that conservatives think are great that you might disagree with, but I intentionally left those out. But they do effect how conservatives think about him.
My point is not that Trump is in anyway perfect.Most conservatives see the faults. But I do ask myself could some one with out Trumps faults have accomplished the things Trump has .
You appear to have confirmation bias about the good things trump has done. What I personal like most about him is how he has shown a light on the culture war and showed what side most of the media are on in that war by making their heads explode when he refuse to act as they wish.
The other thing some people recognize is the non filter on trump. It is our view that he says what he thinking. In my opinion he uses to much hyperbole,but for many of us after listening to most politicians who always have a hidden agenda and lie straight to you face to try achieve their real goal, I have never seen that in Trump.
When we look at what he promised in his 2016 campaign, we see he did his best to try accomplish all his promises. Biden promised to give free health care to all illegal immigrants , do you believe he really wants to do that?
In 2016 I was not a Trump supporter, I wanted Cruz (my senator) to get the nomination. I had a very bad view of trump for many of the reasons you state. For a month or more after the convention I considered voting 3rd party.But I voted for Trump because my view was that Hillary would take us down a bad path. Trumps promise on the SC nominees was worth the risk. Hence Trump was the less of two evils.
Since he was elected he was trying to accomplish more conservative goals then I had ever thought possible. When I saw this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZAKpjIpLFIOf trump shaking hands with out a break, it gave me a view of what was important to trump. For an hour straight he makes sure he congratulate each an every cadet.
So I do not believe anything I post would turn you into a Trump supporter, but your question was
How does a loud mouth, overweight, senior citizen command such loyalty?
I believe I have layed out many valid reasons ( you might disagree with there weight) for supporting trump if you are a conservative.
But to answer in one phase, Trump was the first president since Regan that earned conservatives trust by constantly fighting for conservative values.
HiTech
