Hello from Washington, I'm Chuck Todd, so how did former President Donald Trump,

a billionaire from Queens become the quote- unquote God, king of Heartland

Rural America?

It's the central question of a new book that explores how Trump has successfully wielded

the anti-elite resentment of white rural voters, even as he first announced his campaign

by descending a golden escalator in the nearly 60-story Manhattan Tower that bears his name.

And it's an odd couple, America and Trump to be sure.

Trump has thanked the people of Sioux Falls, South Dakota when he was actually rallying in Sioux City, Iowa.

He congratulated the state of Kansas when the chiefs won the 2020 Super Bowl despite the fact that

Kansas City is in the state of Missouri.

And he cited a popular Bible verse as two Corinthians.

When every evangelical voter and frankly many churchgoers know it's simply pronounced

2 Corinthians this issue of sort of polarized America when people ask me what is the

biggest thing biggest problem with the current, why we're polarized?

And I always say it's because rural America has become 90-10 in its split.

Not quite 9010, I'm a bit exaggerating here, but it is the growing political divide in rural America, this

perception that it is sort of farther and farther away from urban and suburban America,

moving farther apart.

And if you look at democracies that have slipped into

authoritarianism or weak democracies Turkey and Venezuela or two of my favorite

examples to know this.

Both Erdogan and the late Hugo Chavez and Venezuela got to power

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