In 2016, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton found herself in hot water after declaring that half of Trump's supporters were "a basket of deplorables... racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it."

Ten years later, we've discovered an overflowing, handwoven silk basket of another species of deplorables. They are members of the elite class, the politicians, royal figures, billionaires, intellectual luminaries and media moguls exposed as pedophile predators, compliant cowards and money-motivated mercenaries.

Many of those Trump supporters Clinton pointed to always suspected they were getting the sticky end of the lollipop, and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal shows they were right.

Even after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 for procuring a minor for prostitution, he counted among his coterie of friends and acquaintances the crown princess of Norway, a Dubai sultan, a British prince, the world's richest person, the co-owner of the New York Giants and former presidents of the United States and the U.N. General Assembly.

Those Trump supporters, those deplorables, were not the ones getting plane rides, romantic advice, financial tips, stays at a private Caribbean island or sexual favors. They weren't even getting a fair shot in life. The American dream of pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps has become obsolete. Long-term social mobility has been declining in the United States at least since 1980. In fact, then-presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg stated in 2020 that the "number one place to live out the American dream right now is Denmark." A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found it takes two generations for low income families in Denmark to enter the middle class and five generations in the United States.

The share of the nation's wealth of the top 0.1% of American households has risen nearly 6% to 14.4% since 1990. It's estimated that applicants from families in the top 1% in wealth are 77 times more likely to get one of life's golden tickets, admission to an Ivy League college, than those in the bottom 20%.

Working-class voters understood the deck was stacked against them in a way coastal elites and members of the knowledge economy did not. No wonder that, in return for Donald Trump's promise to drain the swamp for them, they pledged their votes. There was only one problem with doing so.

Voting for Donald Trump to drain the swamp of corruption and favoritism was like voting for a pyromaniac who was running for fire chief.

Donald Trump is mentioned more than 38,000 times in the Epstein files. In his first term, Trump appointed Alexander Acosta to his cabinet, the man who granted Epstein immunity from federal criminal charges in 2008. Epstein continued his sexual predation for another decade. In his second term, Trump appointed Howard Lutnick to his cabinet. While Lutnick claimed he'd ended any contact with Epstein after 2005, revelations in the Epstein papers showed he'd visited the island of the convicted sex criminal seven years later for "a family lunch" that included Lutnick's four daughters. The swamp hadn't been drained. It had just swapped out one crocodile for another.

Juries have found Trump liable for sexual abuse and guilty of 34 felony counts of business fraud. Public health experts estimate hundreds of thousands have died as a result of his cuts in overseas aid for food, medicines and vaccines. He has cut taxes for billionaires and raised medical insurance costs for tens of millions of the less affluent. He covered up an investment by the United Arab Emirates' sovereign wealth fund that the Wall Street Journal estimated was worth $187 million to his family.

Amazon founder and owner of The Washington Post Jeff Bezos squelched the paper's endorsement of Trump's opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, days before the election in November 2024. Eight months later, Trump signed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that ended up reducing annual taxes on Amazon by over 80% even as its profits jumped by 45%.

The Democratic insiders didn't do much to win the trust of disgruntled Trump voters in the 2024 election when they were caught covering up Biden's frailty during the 2024 presidential debate.

Hillary Clinton did say in 2016 that, in addition to the deplorables, Trump supporters included "people who feel that government has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they are just desperate for change."

Here she was spot on. Voters are thirsting for candidates who will indeed level the playing field and provide them with opportunities where hard work is rewarded. They seek someone who will not benefit from the swamp but drain it.

What are we Americans looking for in the 2026 and 2028 elections? A fighter for equality like Abraham Lincoln? A fighter for a new deal like Franklin Roosevelt? Or are we just waiting for the next pyromaniac to offer us another match?

A renaissance man, Keith Raffel has served as the senior counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, started a successful internet software company, and had six books published including five novels and a collection of his columns. He currently spends the academic year as a resident scholar at Harvard. You can learn more about him at keithraffel.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at creators.com

DIST. BY CREATORS

Photo credit: Cullan Smith at Unsplash