Union neighbor shocked me with Trump approval. [View all]

I have a neighbor. He's a retired union guy—union through and through, and very proud of his affiliation.
I hang out at his parties and have a few beers from time to time. I don't know him real well, just a friendly neighbor relationship.
We were talking about how corporations /companies buy out other companies and do massive layoffs, and we got around to how the unions have been dwindling over the years.
I brought up that the Reagan years was when it all started. He agreed.
I then brought up Trump and I made a snide comment about the freak (Trump). My neighbor grabbed his empty can of beer and headed back to get another and said, "I kinda wanna see what he will be able do for the country."

I was dumbfounded. I'm thinking maybe it was peer-pressure from some neighbor friends—that he sees more often than me. He "parties" a lot, and we have a lot of tea bag types around the complex.

Why are so many people blinded by Trump's idiocy? I'm thinking tv has created a dumbed-down America. I never watched any shows Trump was on (I guess I saw him in Home Alone). I was never a big reality tv fan. But I'm thinking that's part of what's going on here...why otherwise rational people are so forgiving of someone who should, in my opinion, be in prison.