Why are so many Trump supporters attracted to the JFKA?

[John Corbett]

You are spot on but I don't think the midterms matter.  My best guess is that the Dems take the House.  Perhaps it's not the massacre many predict but enough to flip it.  Trump has relied very little on congress even with republican majority.  The Dems will spend their time trying to impeach Trump.  They have no real policies except opposing Trump.  That is likely good news for Vance or Rubio in '28.  They can blame the Dems for spending their time undermining Trump over the next two years.  The Dems fall into the same trap over and over.  Their only objective is to oppose Trump.  They always overplay that hand.

I agree with most of that. I think the midterms do matter as far as Trump's legacy goes. It will affect what he is able to accomplish. Right now I would put the odds at 60-40 that the Dems will take the House. If the election were held today, I'd put it at 80-20. The Dems would have to run the table in the toss up states to take the Senate. That is the crucial battle because there is a good chance Trump will be appointing one or two SCOTUS justices in his final two years. There's little chance the Dems would approve those unless there's a 51-49 split and Fetterman approves of a Trump nominee.

Right now Trump's approval is being dragged down by the high gas prices which will bleed over into other commodities due to rising transportation costs. If he can wrap up the Iranian war and get the Strait of Hormuz opened, that will not be much of a factor come November. If the economy takes off in the second half of the year, I could see the GOP hanging on to both chambers.

[Michael T. Griffith]

TG--

James DiEugenio and Oliver Stone are not "MAGATs" and people like them are legion on the left-ideology side of the JFKA research base, and they excuse Putin everything.

True. Sad but true. 

They excuse North Vietnam everything, Pol Pot everything, Viet Cong everything, Castro everything, Beijing everything, Hamas everything, the IRGC everything, and so on. On the JFKA left, the bad guys are only Americans and Israelis. Maybe some Brits.

Yes, exactly. You can add Jefferson Morley to the list of JFKA leftists who excuse Communist and Jihadist murderers and who bash Israel while whitewashing Hamas. Morley has sent out several emails that argue for Israeli involvement in JFK's death and that paint Israel as the bad guy and Hamas as the victim of Israeli aggression. Absurd and shameful.

I do not understand the MAGA supporters, or Biden supporters, who tolerate 1 million dead in Ukraine as a passing thought.

No. The vast majority of Trump supporters do not share this view but want to see the Russians expelled from Ukraine.

Trump has failed the Free World on the Ukraine issue. Biden was squishy.

Oh, no, no. Not true. Trump has ramped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, including fighter jets.

Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte established the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, which allows Ukraine's Western partners (like Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands) to pledge funds to purchase U.S.-manufactured arms directly for Ukraine.

Trump has facilitated huge Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Ukraine. For example, Trump authorized a $652 million weapons sale and previously approved $310 million in FMS agreements to provide advanced air defense and munitions to Ukraine.

Trump briefly paused certain direct U.S. military shipments in March 2025 to compel European nations to shoulder more financial responsibility. However, following negotiations—such as the agreement to strengthen protection of Ukraine's skies—supplies were resumed.

Trump has ensured the continuation of support in satellite communications, and American intelligence on Russian troop movements remains highly crucial to Ukraine's defense, though U.S. funding and direct aid allocations are higher than they were under Biden.

[John Corbett]

True. Sad but true. 
 

Yes, exactly. You can add Jefferson Morley to the list of JFKA leftists who excuse Communist and Jihadist murderers and who bash Israel while whitewashing Hamas. Morley has sent out several emails that argue for Israeli involvement in JFK's death and that paint Israel as the bad guy and Hamas as the victim of Israeli aggression. Absurd and shameful.
 

No. The vast majority of Trump supporters do not share this view but want to see the Russians expelled from Ukraine.

Oh, no, no. Not true. Trump has ramped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, including fighter jets.

Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte established the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, which allows Ukraine's Western partners (like Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands) to pledge funds to purchase U.S.-manufactured arms directly for Ukraine.

Trump has facilitated huge Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Ukraine. For example, Trump authorized a $652 million weapons sale and previously approved $310 million in FMS agreements to provide advanced air defense and munitions to Ukraine.

Trump briefly paused certain direct U.S. military shipments in March 2025 to compel European nations to shoulder more financial responsibility. However, following negotiations—such as the agreement to strengthen protection of Ukraine's skies—supplies were resumed.

Trump has ensured the continuation of support in satellite communications, and American intelligence on Russian troop movements remains highly crucial to Ukraine's defense, though U.S. funding and direct aid allocations are higher than they were under Biden.

Based on what I have seen you write about the JFKA over the years, I would have guessed you were part of the TDS crowd. I must say I am pleasantly surprised you are not. It does show what I've said for years. One's political affiliation is not a good indicator of their views on the JFKA. The staunchest defender of the WC was Vincent Bugliosi who was very much a leftist. But there are also many leftists who are CTs and rightists who are LNs. If anything, a CT's political views might be an indication of whom they believe was behind the assassination. LNs don't have that problem. Both the leftist and rightist LNs blame the same guy.

[Lance Payette]

Alas, MTG lives in a fantasy world when it comes to Ukraine, just as with the JFKA. My wife's family is THERE - Russia, Belarus, Ukraine. Ukrainian polls are overwhelmingly negative toward Trump. Trump's "support" of Ukraine has been lukewarm and begrudging at best, and a large portion of the aid has actually been just a percentage of what the Biden administration had already approved. Anyone who can watch The Donald's mastubatory love affair with Putin and tell me with a straight face that he has been supportive of Ukraine is living in a different reality. Article exactly one month ago in the Atlantic: "Ukraine has Finally Given Up on Trump." IMHO, Trump cares literally nothing about Ukraine.

[Richard Smith]

Alas, MTG lives in a fantasy world when it comes to Ukraine, just as with the JFKA. My wife's family is THERE - Russia, Belarus, Ukraine. Ukrainian polls are overwhelmingly negative toward Trump. Trump's "support" of Ukraine has been lukewarm and begrudging at best, and a large portion of the aid has actually been just a percentage of what the Biden administration had already approved. Anyone who can watch The Donald's mastubatory love affair with Putin and tell me with a straight face that he has been supportive of Ukraine is living in a different reality. Article exactly one month ago in the Atlantic: "Ukraine has Finally Given Up on Trump." IMHO, Trump cares literally nothing about Ukraine.

The US has done more than its part in Ukraine.  Of course, there is resentment in Ukraine.  Trump is not just dishing out billions in US taxpayer dollars to them.  Instead he is holding others accountable for doing their part and asking that the US get some compensation.  The policy of just sending them endless billions with no accountability is over.  They don't like it.  Tough.  This is a regional conflict.  Ukraine has the misfortune to be in Russia's sphere of interest.  No one can change that.  There is no magic wand to wave or enough wealth in history to change that.  You know who else is unpopular?  Zelensky.  He has suspended elections to keep himself in power. 

[Lance Payette]

The US has done more than its part in Ukraine.  Of course, there is resentment in Ukraine.  Trump is not just dishing out billions in US taxpayer dollars to them.  Instead he is holding others accountable for doing their part and asking that the US get some compensation.  The policy of just sending them endless billions with no accountability is over.  They don't like it.  Tough.  This is a regional conflict.  Ukraine has the misfortune to be in Russia's sphere of interest.  No one can change that.  There is no magic wand to wave or enough wealth in history to change that.  You know who else is unpopular?  Zelensky.  He has suspended elections to keep himself in power.

No offense, but these are just Trump-speak talking points. A "slightly" more nuanced perspective from the Journal of Democracy, written by two experts on Ukrainian politics:

A year ago, some in government thought that it might be possible to hold the presidential election despite the war, not least because the president would have won easily: According to data collected by MOBILISE (led by Olga Onuch) in partnership with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), Zelensky’s approval was sky-high at 85 percent in July 2023, even with few gains on the battlefield. That number has since dipped — to 77 percent in late 2023. More recent data from February suggest that trust in Zelensky also declined from 77 to 64 percent in February 2024, likely because of Zelensky’s unpopular decision to reshuffle the army leadership. Nonetheless, the president remains the most popular and trusted politician in Ukraine by a wide margin. Only military figures such as former army commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi and army-intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov are more popular than Zelensky.

Ultimately the government chose not to hold elections — a decision that was in line with both the recommendations of local elections-focused NGOs and Ukrainian public opinion: According to a December 2023 survey, 84 percent of Ukrainians opposed holding a presidential election. When asked in February 2024 what should happen in lieu of elections, 69 percent preferred that Zelensky stay in office until the end of martial law. Even among those who dislike the president, it is hard to find anyone in Ukraine who supports holding a vote now. Opposition leaders such as former prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk have publicly recognized that, despite their disagreements with the president on most things, now is not the time to go to the polls and Zelensky’s legitimacy is not in question.

The most fundamental reason for not holding elections is that approximately a third of the country’s population would face enormous challenges participating — including around 6.5 million Ukrainians living abroad (over a million of whom reside in Russia) and five million living in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, as well as nearly four million internally displaced people and a million active military personnel. Finding and registering these displaced Ukrainians would be an enormous undertaking, one that would effectively be impossible in Russia or areas under Russian control, which include Crimea and five Ukrainian provinces. Locating Ukrainian military personnel would not be hard, but arranging a free and fair vote on the frontlines would be. How does one ensure a secret ballot in the trenches? In addition, active warfare in significant parts of Ukrainian-controlled territory creates obvious difficulties: Missile and other attacks occur almost daily in various parts of Ukraine, including large cities such as Kharkiv.

All this means that voter turnout would not only be low, but would systematically underrepresent those Ukrainians most directly affected by the war. Chosen by a rump of the population, winners of such elections might be considered illegitimate by at least some of the population. And Russia would likely make its own accusations of illegitimacy in an effort to polarize Ukrainian voters and cast international doubt on Ukraine’s democracy.

Very few democracies have held elections with an active military conflict on their territory. Among European democracies directly affected by World War II, only Denmark (under German occupation) held elections during the war. Great Britain did not hold elections between 1935 and the war’s end in July 1945. The United States did hold elections in 1864 during the American Civil War, but without the participation of nine Confederate states. This does not seem to be a good model to follow: The systematic exclusion of Southern states almost certainly exacerbated polarization in the country.

...

Thus, while it is certainly possible to hold some kind of elections in Ukraine, it would be nearly impossible to hold ones that are free, fair, and inclusive. Some Ukrainians fear that election campaigning would sow divisions in society at a moment when the country needs to remain united. Moreover, organizing elections now would divert scarce resources and attention away from defending Ukraine against the existential threat from Russia.