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Michael Steele calls Trump 'mad king' reflecting his 'mad people', Internet says POTUS is 'scab you helped create'

'I like you a lot n believe in what you say now Michael Steele but weren’t you the head of the RNC at some point? Or do I have the wrong guy completely possible,' a user said

President Donald Trump was called a  reflection of his supporters who are “angry, frustrated, suffering victimhood" by former Republican Party chairman Michael Steele. 

Stelle made the comments on MSNBC’s 'Deadline' Monday, November 30. When anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “It is always dangerous when he (Trump) lies to his voters, but it is creating an unprecedented and perhaps unsustainable instability to make his supporters, to make half of this country doubt the validity of Joe Biden’s victory," Steele replied, “It is always dangerous when he lies to his voters, but it is creating an unprecedented and perhaps unsustainable instability to make his supporters, to make half of this country doubt the validity of Joe Biden’s victory."

He added, “I think we have to step back a moment and say that Donald Trump didn’t have to do a lot of convincing here. Donald Trump didn’t have to do a lot of lying to his supporters. He picked a scab in which they already believed a lot of this. It was beneath the surface. It has been there for a long time, this overwhelming sense of mistrust of our institutions and our executive and political leadership. It’s been there. We’ve seen it. It manifests itself during my watch during the RNC."

Stelle said that feeling of mistrust dated decades back to the days of former GOP leaders. "It was in place during the Bush years. It goes back to Newt Gingrich’s uprising in the House of Representatives back in 1994 and even before that. So, what Donald Trump was able to do was to give it legitimacy, to give it voice, to give it an actual voice in the body of the president, in the body of the presidency. I think we have to understand that this is so much less the work of the mad king than the mad king actually reflecting his mad people," Steele said. 

He added: “By that, I mean angry, frustrated, suffering victimhood and all of that. So, there’s a lot that we want to put on Donald Trump’s doorstep and deservedly so, but I think we also have to contextualize where a lot of that originated from, not with him, but what makes what he’s done so bad is that he is the president and most presidents, all presidents, up to him, understood that this was there, but still guided the country away from that. Did not give in to those feelings and tried to address them in other ways. This president said ‘to hell with that,’ we’re all in on it. And here we are, 70-plus million votes later.”

When the clip of the interview was shared on Twitter, people reacted to Steele's words. While some agreed with the sentiment he expressed, others blamed the Republican Party for handing the ultimate power to someone like Trump. "I’ve never been a Steele fan but in the past year I’ve been impressed by his willingness to speak truth to his party. If only more were like him. And yes, I believe racism is foundational to DJT support. Not all his voters are racist but his core certainly must be," one person noted, while another said, "I like you a lot n believe in what you say now Michael Steele but weren’t you the head of the RNC at some point? Or do I have the wrong guy, completely possible".

A third said, "I am tired of the Trump this Trump that, where the heck are the people that ran on the GOP ticket in 2016? Is this their idea of democracy? Is this what they ran on?" Someone else quipped, "All due respect to Mr Steele, but Trump has been laying the groundwork for lying about this election for at least 4 years and Fox and the RW echo chamber media have been spreading and normalizing those lies."

One more commented, "Trump began the infection about 'rigged elections' in the summer, and had it at fever pitch by the time of the election." Somebody else opined, "I hold the Republican party responsible for this monster and what he's done. I'm happy that a lot of you have left the party but it will be a long time before this party has any credibility whatsoever in any form. Not just his supporters. The party. And some are still doing it." One more said, "A scab that Michael helped to create."