Dan Hampton, former defensive tackle during the Chicago Bears heyday, famously said, “Strength has never been my weakness.” The kids on my high school football team loved that quote and some of us still repeat it to this day. I was reminded of that line when I listened to this week’s NPR interview, which Donald Trump ended abruptly after he was pressed on the falsehoods that underpin his Big Lie about election fraud. When Trump was presented with facts associated with his claims, he railed, flailed, and ultimately failed, hanging up several minutes before the interview was scheduled to end.

Your first reaction to this failure, aside from wondering what the hell Donald Trump would be doing on NPR, might be to wonder why anyone in America would be falling for a lie that its originator can’t even defend under light questioning. But here’s another angle to consider. Many of Trump’s backers like him precisely because of his failure to come up with the right answers. After all, in today’s America, being vociferously wrong is a pretty relatable characteristic. Maybe just yelling over the person with the right answer or being able to stop midway during a test for which you are unprepared is exactly what many people wish they had the power to do. Consider the Dan Hampton quote, reworked for Trump: “Weakness has never been my weakness.”

In one of my favorite scenes from the movie Breaking Away, the character Cyril played by Daniel Stern explains to his friend how his dad loves to be understanding whenever he fails, and then explains that maybe he’ll take the college entry exam and flunk it because, “My dad’s got a birthday coming up.” While one part of America sees Donald Trump’s errors and failures as pathetic, another part sees them as the gift that keeps on giving.