This man wants to make dating great again for Trump supporters
The aftermath of the U.S. presidential election has already seen familial, marital and even platonic relationships put under strain -- and this extends to the realm of online dating.
But, one man thinks he has a solution for the latter. Well, for Trump supporters, at least.
David Goss in February 2016 founded TrumpSingles.com, a dating site reserved exclusively for Trump supporters after he heard story after story about dates that had gone wrong due to political differences.
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An end to acrimonious dates?
"One female friend of mine went on a date. She’s a Trump supporter. When the man started talking about Hillary, she told him that she’s a Republican. He looked at her in the face, stared at her for a good few minutes and then got up and stormed out without paying," says Goss, who's also a Trump supporter.
Since its launch, the site has seen ebbs and flows in its success, but Goss says the run-up to the inauguration has brought more people to the site than they've ever had. According to Goss, the site has just over 24,000 users, with a gender ratio of 44 percent female and 56 percent male.
"When you start ridiculing people for their views then you undermine the democracy of free thought."
The site is free to sign up and send one message a day, and unlimited service costs $5.
Goss says he's saddened that people's political views are impacting on their ability to find happiness. "People are set in their ways at this point. This is like a civil war. It’s very sad to see," says Goss.
"When you start ridiculing and looking down on people for their views then you undermine the democracy of free thought," he says.
A place where Trump supporters won't be harassed
Goss says the situation for Trump supporters in the dating world goes beyond ridiculing people: they're also being harassed by people who do not share their political views. He describes the site as a space where Trump supporters can be free from harassment.
Asked how he'd describe the site to Democrats, Goss said he'd describe it as "a regular dating site where people who are fans of Donald Trump can go and meet each other".
"I'd say the reason why we’re doing it is because there’s so much hatred from people like you [Democrats], people spewing hatred about terrible things that haven’t happened yet. It’s all hypothetical at this stage," he says.
(It's worth pointing out that the aftermath of Trump's election win has seen a surge in harassment and hate crimes across the nation.)
Goss says there are security measures in place to ensure that only Trump supporters have access to the site. "Most of the time, we go through an analogue verification process which means looking through every profile. It's very tedious. But we're doing that so people don’t get harassed," says Goss.
"We don’t want to be harassed. That’s just human nature," he continues.
Goss also has a warning to anyone attempting to enter the site to sway people's political views.
"If they [Democrats] wanna try and get on the site, it’s not gonna work. If that person’s views were gonna be swayed they would have been swayed by now," he says.
Is segregation really the best solution?
"I want everyone to come together and be peaceful."
Despite Goss's intentions to "make dating great again" for Trump supporters, there's also a danger that segregated dating sites could add fuel to the fire in an already-divisive climate. Goss says he hopes his solution to dating doesn't create further divisions. "We shouldn't have to put dating on hold just because some people can’t get along with others. We need to keep life moving along while we are figuring this out," he says.
"I want everyone to come together and be peaceful," Goss continues. Goss also says he "wouldn't be opposed" to creating a similar site for Democrats. "I just wish that everyone could respect people’s views. I want everyone to be happy," he says.
Not everyone's a fan
Not everyone has enjoyed Goss's efforts to create a space for Trump supporters. "I’ve had people call me every name under the sun," says Goss. "There are some people that are just pissed off because it’s Trump-related. Some people are just jealous because it’s successful. There are some people who believe that Donald Trump is gonna destroy the world and we’re advocating that," says Goss. Indeed, at the time of interviewing Goss, the site was undergoing a Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack from hackers. But Goss is upbeat about the future of the site.
The long-term effects of Goss's strategy remains to be seen. Segregated dating could spell disaster in further alienating daters with differing views. But, for the time being, he wants fellow Trump supporters to feel reassured that a dedicated dating space exists for them. "We really need to come together to make America great again," says Goss.
Topics Donald Trump Politics
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
