"Sour liberals" and "stupid democrats" against "Trumpanaries" and "go to Russia": this is what the comments in the largest Facebook group of Bulgarians in the US have been saying in recent months. The Bulgarian community overseas is like a mock-up of American society - divided and intolerant of different opinions.
Despite the polarization, the impression remains that most commenters support the new American administration. But why? Donald Trump has declared war on illegal immigration, and a significant portion of Bulgarians in the US reside or have resided illegally. In addition, the imposition of tariffs will complicate imports and make basic goods from Europe more expensive. So what is it about the current Republican Party and the MAGA movement ("Make America great again" - in translation: "Let's make America great again") that attracts Bulgarians overseas?
"Good" and "bad" migrants
"Many of Trump's loudest Bulgarian fans are people without official status or have relatives without documents and will be the most vulnerable if he carries out his threat to deport all illegal immigrants. If that weren't ironic!", commented journalist Vanya Kramer, who has lived in the US for 25 years.
Unlike most of her compatriots, she actively opposes the policies of the White House and even participated in the mass protests on April 5. "The most tragicomic thing is that the changes that Trump is planning will severely affect many Bulgarians. His intention to eliminate social assistance, federal health benefits, educational programs, scholarships for needy students will be disastrous for many of those who praise him now, she says.
"The majority of people here have used different, let's call them creative, ways to legalize their status. They know how difficult it is," explains Yasen Darakov, publisher of BG VOICE, the largest Bulgarian media outlet in the US. "And yet we see this high support for Trump and his anti-immigration ideas. Maybe they believe that illegal immigrants are to blame for the economic problems here, which, of course, is not true," he adds. Darakov recalls that in the US "everyone is for themselves", so accusations that migrants, for example, "drain the social system" are very far from reality. Because there is simply no social system like the one in Europe.
Among Bulgarians there is "the same polarization that we have in principle in the US", says Professor Hristofor Karadjov, a lecturer at the University of California. "There is certainly much more aggression than before and I have personally come into conflict with many more people through social media", adds Karadjov, who has been in the US since 1996. "I know Bulgarians with undetermined immigration status who, by virtue of some cognitive dissonance, believe that they are the "good illegals", unlike the "Mexicans", says the journalist and lecturer.
"There is a joke about Cubans: A boat arrives on the US coast, the first one gets off, steps on the shore, turns around and says: There is no more room, that's enough", says Mihail Mihaylov. The same applies to Bulgarians, believes the rapper, better known as Misho Shamara or Big Sha.
Conservatism, prejudice, xenophobia
"In my opinion, there are several reasons for this mass support for Trump", Mihaylov said in an interview with DW. "Bulgarians believe in messiahs - whether it's Bai Tosho, Boyko or Putin. They are looking for a strong savior." Donald Trump also fits this profile, believes the rapper, who immigrated to the US more than 10 years ago. "By having a savior or some such leader, you justify every failure, because nothing depends on you."
Vanya Kramer agrees with him. "Many Bulgarians in the US support Donald Trump for the same reason that Bulgarians at home support Vladimir Putin - because of their admiration for demagogues and dictators", she says.
"Trump is what we in the Balkans and the East understand as a strong leader", adds Yasen Darakov. "On the other hand, Bulgarians in the US are part of the working class, which has suffered the most economically in the US in recent years and is sharply reorienting itself from the Democratic Party to the Republicans. And we are much more conservative on social issues." It is precisely such groups in society that were targeted by Trump's campaign, which often demonized the fight for social and public rights.
Mikhail Mihaylov says that Eastern European societies, even when abroad, remain more closed. And this fuels xenophobia. "Eastern Europeans are largely racist and homophobic because they lived in closed societies where there is no diversity of people. And these things are instilled from a young age - "I'll give you to the gypsies", "Hey, you f*ck". Similar expressions are used on a daily basis", he believes.
This is also one of the reasons why he has become alienated from some of the Bulgarians he knows in the US, who, according to him, are only present in America, but live in Bulgaria in spirit. "They watch Bulgarian television, listen to their own chalga, don't go to American concerts, don't integrate. The only people they can get along with are the poorly educated from small towns", he believes.
According to Professor Hristofor Karadjov, voting in the Bulgarian elections abroad - where in recent years populist, far-right and pro-Russian parties have received serious support - gives a clear indication of the moods and understandings of part of the diaspora. "Bulgarians in the US carry more or less the same prejudices as in Bulgaria", he says. Among them are "xenophobia - strange as it may be in a country where everyone is from somewhere, rejection of diversity - also strange in America, which is so colorful - and homophobia, albeit in a slightly milder form than in Bulgaria".
Hatred for everything "left"
According to the American embassy in Sofia, about 250,000 Bulgarians live in the United States. Hristofor Karadjov notes that we do not know how many of them really sympathize with Trump. "Trump supporters are certainly quite vocal", he says, but "there are no reliable studies on the subject".
The journalist and lecturer talks about his acquaintances who are from the older generation and have rather sympathized with the Republicans because of their anti-communist rhetoric, but "among them I also see a shift in the anti-Trump direction, although not necessarily a fundamental shift to the Democratic camp".
"Many people think that socialism in the West is the same as this slave-owning communist system that we lived in before. They have no idea that the northern countries, even Germany and Great Britain, are much more social than Russia", says Mikhail Mikhailov. Republicans in the US have been waving "socialism" as a scarecrow for years. Politicians like Bernie Sanders, who calls himself a "socialist", actively oppose this and fight for affordable healthcare, education and higher taxes for the rich.
According to Vanya Kramer, education, integration into American society and media literacy are key. "Many of them (Trump supporters - editor's note) do not read English well and are informed about the situation here from Bulgarian media of dubious origin. From this lack of understanding come the confused ideas about democratic values," she believes. "Bulgarians also have a rather low media culture to distinguish truth from lies, news from opinion, they are more inclined to believe in conspiracies," adds Yasen Darakov.
Are Bulgarians afraid of deportations?
Darakov sees how some immigrants pay for their own choices. An acquaintance of his entered the US illegally 20 years ago. "At the end of his term, Biden made a program for such people to receive green cards. Despite this, he and his wife were Trump supporters", the journalist says. Now people are afraid of deportation. "I think that at this point he has come to terms that if he is arrested and deported, his family will go back to Bulgaria. But his parents and sister will remain here - forever separated."
Darakov emphasizes, however, that there is a great deal of populism in instilling the fear of deportations. "Obama and Biden deported more people during their first terms than Trump did during his", he recalls. According to data from the US Department of Homeland Security, Trump deported 37,660 people in the first month of his second term. Under Biden, the average number of deportations per month over the past year is 57,000. "Now there is much more PR, ostentatious actions, photos and videos that the services share on social networks, but at this point the real number of deportees is not a record", explains Yasen Darakov.
"The strong are the ones who help the weak"
Sympathy for the "hard hand", symbolized by Putin and Russia, but also denial of everything "left" because of traumas from Bulgaria's past, hatred of migrants, and from people who are also like that - the reasons why Bulgarians in the US sympathize with Trump are many and often sound paradoxical. But among all of them, there is a sense of insecurity and dissatisfaction with the life and principles of American society, in which many Bulgarians, despite having lived in the US for a long time, cannot fully fit in.
"I take my children to Indian temples, to Nigerian restaurants, I try to learn and understand the world, I want my children to do the same - to see people by character, not by skin color", says Mihail Mihaylov. And he has the following message to his compatriots: "The strong man is the one who helps the weak, not the one who beats him."
Author: Alexander Detev