The childhood propaganda game is strong for the US. Most of those people lived through the height of an empire, which further reinforced the propaganda they were fed in their youths. They see Trump as the only one that isn’t too weak to keep the empire going.

So, Trump is grifting them. He’s a snake oil salesman selling continued relevance with no sacrifice from his faithful. These people are unable to admit they are wrong and that their childhood history lessons were sanitized.