ABSTRACT
It was summer after whirlwind of Donald Trump's initial months as president. He and his surrogates–rejecting everything related to his predecessor–had come out swinging. They picked fights with reporters, with allies, with Democrats and Republicans. Samar Ali orbit includes liberal-leaning friends, Republicans, immigrants and native born, world travelers and homebodies, city dwellers and rural residents, black and white, Latino and Arab–all of whom are figuring out how to survive and thrive in Trump's America. After a bloody Civil War, through Jim Crow and Civil Rights, the nation settled into an uneasy detente, one that eventually allowed the first American of African descent to ascend to the US presidency. As evidence of the emotional strain of today's new civil war, a Pew Research Center survey released in June found that the hate associated with the election and new White House administration extends far beyond Trump himself and his policies to the actual intent of his supporters.
