Whitney Royston, 30, a Republican who works as an event coordinator in Colorado, said the prospect of a Trump presidency scares her because “he’s a side show. He doesn’t have anything to say. All he does is tell other people to shut up. If he were to become president, I fear that our world would come tumbling down.”
To divert herself, Royston said she fantasises that “someone will pop out of left field” to become the Republican nominee.
“Divine intervention, a hail Mary,” Royston said. She acknowledged that she’s not overly optimistic, considering that she hoped for the same kind of miracle to stop Barack Obama in 2008.
Alarmed by another wave of news coverage about Trump’s growing strength, Nancy Lauro, 52, a Brooklyn art teacher, sat at her computer last Saturday and searched Google for information about acquiring Italian citizenship. She also inquired about Ireland, where she has family roots.
“As phobias and fears ago,” Lauro said later of her query, “this is not a pathological response to a normal situation, but a normal response to a pathological situation. Picking up one’s life feels impossible, but I keep flashing on those people who fled Germany when the writing was on the wall and those who didn’t. When do you take action to get out?”