Web Video: How an Iowa family helped Dan Balz understand the Trump phenomenon

I met a family in Iowa in January of this year. The husband and wife and their adult son. The Swearingen family. And I was trying to understand, as we all were, what this Trump phenomenon was all about. It turned out that Martha Swearingen was a lifelong Democrat and had voted for Barack Obama but was totally in for Trump, had been totally in for Trump from the moment he got into the campaign. And I said, "Why?" She said, "He tells the truth, which most other people don't. He's not beholden to anyone, particularly people with money. And I think he has the kind of experience that I think would be good." And then I talked to her son named Brent, and one of the things I said to him was, "Does it bother you that Donald Trump says these very controversial things?" And he said, it was a very interesting and revealing answer, he said, "It really doesn't." He said, "We're in the age of social media and in a sense social media is a very course means of communication." He said, "I think you have to do that if you want to be successful." And it began to crystallize to me that Donald Trump was talking to a group of people who were different than many of the people we were used to seeing at political rallies and that he was tapping into something that most other candidates didn't realize was there to be tapped.