During her presidential campaign, at an LGBT event, Hillary Clinton memorably said that half of Donald Trump's supporters were a "basket of deplorables." She got criticism for the comment, and she issued an apology/clarification, but hey, if the shoe fits, wear it. Here and on the following pages, we take a look at some of the deplorable men (they're all men, and all white, and all straight) who enabled and were enabled by Donald Trump, and will keep trying to roll back the clock on equality. Don't despair or give up hope, say people like Hillary Clinton and Sen.-elect Kamala Harris, but it always helps to know your enemy. 
Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani was once "America's mayor," a moderate, LGBT-friendly Republican with bipartisan support, and a calm, comforting presence after the 9/11 attacks traumatized New York City. OK, his tenure as New York's mayor was actually marked by a lot of controversy, but much was forgiven or forgotten in the aftermath of 9/11, when Giuliani, among other things, reminded the city that Muslims and people of Arab descent were not the enemy. But then in this election season he emerged as one of Donald Trump's most devoted acolytes, insisting that President Obama has plunged the U.S. into a hellish hole that Hillary Clinton would only dig deeper, and Trump is the only one who can save the nation. Oh, and he even seems to have forgotten about 9/11; at one point during the campaign he said, "Before Obama came along, we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the United States." He has contended that Trump is not a racist, called the businessman's tax avoidance "genius," and bragged that the Trump campaign had a "surprise" on the way -- just a few days before news broke of that letter from FBI director James Comey about a further look at Clinton's handling of emails when she was secretary of State. And that may have cost Clinton the election. All that loyalty could be rewarded with a cabinet post; Trump reportedly would like Giuliani, who first made his name as a prosecutor, to be his attorney general.
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity of Fox News was a major Trump defender throughout the campaign, and he even appeared in an ad for the candidate. "Hannity in this election cycle has allowed himself to become, in essence, an arm of the Trump campaign," blogger Erik Wemple wrote in The Washington Post in September. "He has not only given Trump kissy interview after kissy interview after kissy interview. He has not only paid to fly Newt Gingrich to Indiana so that he could interview for the vice presidential nomination. He has not only advised Trump on his campaign. But he has also starred in a video promotion for the Trump campaign." Trump also claimed he argued against the Iraq war early on during a private conversation with Hannity -- something Hannity says is true, although only those two men know for sure. Hannity's softball interviewing of Trump got him criticized by Fox colleague Megyn Kelly, no admirer of the man who is now president-elect. Unfortunately, Hannity's place on the Fox News schedule appears to be secure, and he will undoubtedly continue to kiss up to Trump.
Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich is an exemplar of the adage "be careful what you wish for." In the 1994 the midterm election, Republicans gained a majority in both houses of Congress, and Gingrich, a veteran U.S. representative from Georgia, became speaker of the House. He and his allies sought to push through their "Contract With America" (which some liberals called the "Contract on America"), a platform of cutting taxes and federal spending. But after impasses between the Republicans in Congress and Democratic President Bill Clinton resulted in a government shutdown in late 1995 and early 1996, Gingrich quickly became the most hated man in America. Clinton breezed to reelection in '96. Gingrich didn't help his cause by pushing for Clinton's impeachment in 1998, as the move proved unpopular with voters, and news emerged of Gingrich's ethical and moral sketchiness as well. Some years after leaving Congress in 1999, he rebounded to a degree, making a run (unsuccessful) for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. In this election cycle he's made the rounds of talk shows defending Trump and even accused Fox's Megyn Kelly of being "obsessed with sex" when she brought up the allegations of several women that Trump had sexually assaulted them. (What part of "assault" does Gingrich not understand?) Among other lowlights of the campaign, Gingrich addressed a Log Cabin Republicans event even though he opposes marriage equality and most other LGBT advances; basically, his purpose was to try to drive a wedge between LGBT people and Muslims. This bad penny always returns -- Trump is reportedly considering him for secretary of State. But maybe Gingrich will make as many enemies there as he did as speaker.
Jeff Sessions
U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama is a one of the most conservative and most anti-LGBT members of Congress. He was also the first senator to endorse Trump. He's the senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and if he stays on that committee he'll have a great deal of say about the next member of the Supreme Court. He may get some even more powerful position. "When Mr. Trump wins this election ... I can't imagine in my wildest dreams that he would not be a part of that conversation simply because he has been one of Mr. Trump's closest aides and confidants and helped guide the ship into the White House," Alabama Republican Party chairwoman Terry Lathan told the Associated Press in the days leading up to the election.
Roger Ailes
Roger Ailes, the founding CEO of Fox News, resigned under pressure this year after Gretchen Carlson and other women who'd worked at the network accused him of sexual harassment; Megyn Kelly joined in the accusations afterward. Ailes, who's worked for several Republican presidents, quickly became an adviser to Trump, helping him with debate preparation. There are more reasons to despise Ailes, such as his reportedly frequent use of the word "faggot" and slurs directed at other minority groups -- although Fox anchor Shepard Smith, who came out as gay this year, says he never heard such language from Ailes. With Trump as president, Ailes will undoubtedly continue to be a power.
Alex Jones
Alex Jones, who runs a website called Infowars and has a radio program, is a leading conspiracy theorist of the right. "That is the pilot, the captain of American conspiracy theory mothership, Alex Jones," Rachel Maddow said on a September episode of her MSNBC show. "And Alex Jones has been around forever -- I assume he is going to be around forever. He says Hillary Clinton is going to kill him. He has publicly asked Hillary Clinton not to kill him -- so who knows." Well, Clinton must not have that inclination or power, because she didn't have him killed before the election. On his radio show in October, as Right Wing Watch noted, Jones predicted that Hillary Clinton would start World War III if she became president and that a third of the world's population would be killed. He also predicted there would be a global financial meltdown (now he says such a meltdown will be engineered by "globalists" to undermine Trump). On that same episode, Jones spoke with Curves founder and fellow conspiracy theorist Gary Heavin (by the way, don't work out at Curves), and they predicted we will soon have a cashless society where you will have to have the Mark of the Beast (biblical reference to the Antichrist and the end of the world as we know it) in order to buy or sell anything. Oh, and they think that mark may be the Apple logo. (The company's run by a gay man, you know.) Does Jones actually believe all this, or is he just trying to increase his audience? Could be the latter. He and Trump have long been public admirers of each other, but maybe he'll turn on Trump now that the business mogul is in power. Or maybe he'll just stick to excoriating Trump's opponents.
Roger Stone
Roger Stone is a longtime political pundit and conspiracy theorist. Over the years he has made statements even more outlandish than Trump's -- accusing the Clinton and Bush families of multiple murders, and using racist and sexist slurs most publications would not print, such as the n word and the c word. He was introduced to Trump years ago by the infamous Roy Cohn, and this year he became a frequent Trump surrogate on the campaign trail. On Election Day, he tweeted an image of black people climbing on and vandalizing a police car, calling them "Hillary Supporters." Stone will keep spewing his venom on his StoneColdTruth blog, or maybe he'll be involved in the Trump administration.
Steve Bannon
Breitbart executive Steve Bannon brought with him a history of racist, sexist, and homophobic rhetoric when he became Trump's campaign chairman this summer; he's now been tapped as Trump's chief strategist and senior counselor. Among his greatest hits, he has said that liberal women hate conservative women because the latter have husbands and children and aren't "a bunch of dykes that came from the Seven Sisters schools." A former employee at the conservative website, Kurt Bardella, told The Daily Beast this year that Bannon "made more off-color comments about minorities and homosexuals than I can recount." Bardella left the company because of the toxic atmosphere, he said. Bannon has also been accused of sexual assault by another former employee and of domestic violence by his ex-wife.
