This search trend proves that Trump voters are already having buyer's remorse - INTO
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This search trend proves that Trump voters are already having buyer’s remorse

What do Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” and Trump’s empty campaign promises have in common? They’re both easily misunderstood by people with zero media literacy.

At least that’s the going theory as to why younger conservatives have suddenly embraced the tongue-in-cheek, radically subversive Madonna anthem as somehow being representative of their regressive Christian values.

“I know why Donald Trump was elected,” says TikToker and therapist Jess (@strongtherapy) in a recent video. She goes on to explain what we already knew: that people who voted for Trump were duped, and a recent video of a Gen Z Christian choir proves just how bad we’ve become at reading between the lines.

“Those people probably have no idea what that song was about,” she says of the famous 1989 Madonna single which scandalized listeners with its mix of Catholic imagery and lusty lyrics. “If they did,” she continues, “I don’t think they would be singing it.”

She goes on to say that the same applies to Trump voters. “Most of them have no idea what they voted for.” She then drops a factoid that feels too crazy to be believable. “The most searched phrase the day after the election,” she says, “was ‘can I change my vote.'”

So how true is this claim? Well, it’s true that we saw a spike in the terms “change my vote” and “can I change my vote”, a 700-900% spike to be exact. But there’s some confusion around this: the 700% figure represents the percentage the term spiked in relation to how much it was used previously (i.e., not a lot before the election.) There’s also a possibility that the term spiked due to people talking about the term spiking, which also happens.

But what Jess said is still true: people who voted for Trump, whose campaign traded on vague promises and weird stunts, might still not exactly know what they voted for. One thing is clear: they’re about to find out.

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Henry Giardina (he/they) is the editor of INTO. He lives in Los Angeles. Past publications include the New York Times, The Believer, The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, The Atlantic, Film Comment, and Gizmodo. He is @punkgroucho on Twitter.