I Wouldn’t Have My Son Without the Help of a Trump Superfan

Updated at 6:45 p.m. ET on November 1, 2020.

There was a hint of his Trumpism in our very first conversation. In August 2019, Reg responded via email to our online ad seeking a baby to adopt, and a few hours later he and I were on the phone. His pregnant 20-year-old niece had recently left home after a period of family strife and come to live with him. He wanted to help her get her life together, by providing room and board while she got a job and maybe an education. The first step toward those goals, both he and his niece felt, would be finding a family to adopt the baby, who would arrive in less than two months.

During that first call, Reg mentioned that he owned a small construction company in New England, where he lived. He groused about how hard it was to find good employees. When I asked whether the crackdowns on immigration and rise in deportations had caused this problem, he reflexively replied: “No, we just have a country where people don’t believe in working hard.”

That’s not enough to deduce someone’s political affiliation, of course—and what did it matter? Reg was enthusiastic about connecting us,