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This Arizona Sheriff Thinks Millennials Love Trump

by Erin Corbett

The 2016 Republican National Convention to introduce Donald Trump as the party's nominee is in full swing as delegates, politicians, law enforcement officers, and, of course, the anti-Trump demonstrators come together in Cleveland, Ohio. On Tuesday, Bustle spoke with Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio about Trump's trouble reaching millennials throughout the primaries. Interestingly, Sheriff Arpaio thinks that millennials do support Trump, but that they're just not telling anyone about their support for The Donald.

In April, a Harvard Institute of Politics poll showed that 60 percent of surveyed millennials preferred a Democratic candidate taking the White House in the fall. A more recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll that surveyed registered voters in May showed that 25 percent of young voters (specifically, people under 30) said they would vote for Trump in the fall if they had to choose between Trump and Hillary Clinton. The support for Trump is likely due to a distrust in Clinton and the DNC. Even so, Trump has still not succeeded at garnering significant support from millennial voters.

Bustle spoke with Arpaio about his thoughts on voters in their 20s and 30s who are, by and large, opposed to a Trump presidency. But the Arizona sheriff was unconvinced. He tells Bustle: "Well, I don't know who said they're not for him. I mean, the problem is there's a silent majority out there. People come to me all the time, they whisper 'I'm for Trump, thank you.' But they don't want to go out front because they worry about all the hassle, all the media."

Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Arpaio made sure to warn us all about those quiet millennials when it comes time to vote this fall, suggesting that young voters are going to surprise us all in the voting booth. "When they get in that voting booth, watch out, including the young people because the young people are going to love Trump," Arpaio says.

Arpaio first endorsed Trump earlier this year in Marshalltown, Iowa, where he told reporters, "Everything I believe in he's doing and he's going to do it when he becomes president." He has been a proponent of building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and is known for his anti-immigration policies and alleged racial profiling of Latinos in Arizona. Arpaio tells Bustle of his views on the border wall: "[Trump's wall] is not symbolic. He means it. ... The wall is worth it just to keep the drugs out of our country. Forget the illegal immigration." (The United States' War on Drugs has actually assisted Mexican drug cartels and fueled violence.)

But Arpaio's message to young people? He sees you, and he thinks you're voting for Trump.