Americans voted for no new wars, and especially no new wars in the sandbox, and they got a new war in the sandbox.

Americans really have to be among the most gullible people on the planet.

Not to mention that Trump is a paedophile, the open corruption, attempted coup etc... it's like that Hemingway quote. The decline of the USA has been gradual, and then very sudden.

Isn't that famously a Scott Fitzgerald quote?

You're implying those who voted for Trump believed his pitch.

I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt, that they are effectively merely retarded rather than actually evil.

Why not both?