It’s not an actual policy statement as much as an entertaining fiction. Conspiracies about her health have not died down.īut it was that comment about the jail that dominated the conversation for the rest of the night and is still going strong this morning. Clinton would have a seizure on camera, even noting every time she sat down. Clinton being dragged away.ĭuring the debate, Trump supporters on Twitter alternated between getting angry at the moderators, who they thought were biased, cheering on Mr. An orange “Trump Card,” fashioned like the one in the board game Monopoly, titled “Go Directly to Jail” with Mrs. Clinton a striped jail suit as a debate souvenir. Trump with cool sunglasses enjoying his triumph. Was a tactic common in authoritarian states making its way to the United States?īut it was the Trump supporters who responded most forcefully, exploding with glee. People from other countries yelped with recognition. Academics were aghast that a presidential candidate would threaten to jail a political opponent. I had been watching last night’s debate the way I’ve been watching all of them this year, with my social media feeds divided into columns on my computer screen: one with the Trump supporters, another with many academics and journalists, another with people around the world.Įveryone lit up at the “jail” moment. Clinton and Republicans whom they consider insufficiently supportive of Mr. The target of the day on Trump twitter moves between Mrs. Trump or one of his high-profile supporters approvingly. Trump’s Twitter faithful.įor more than a year, I have checked a list of Trump supporters on Twitter nearly every day, to see what animated and moved them. Louis last night, but it really caught fire the other place I was watching: among Mr. The line played well with some of the audience in St. Trump’s temperament was not in charge of the law in the United States. Trump came right after Hillary Clinton expressed her relief that someone with Mr.