A viral message was posted to Facebook in January 2019 by a user named Steve Harvey from Tennessee, but it did not originate with comments made by the popular entertainer of the same name.
In early 2019, a viral Facebook message appeared to indicate that the comedian and broadcaster Steve Harvey had published an unusual defense of President Donald Trump, likening him to a flawed janitor hired to clear a home of raccoons -- which represented the Democratic and Republican parties as well as undocumented immigrants in the analogy:
HOW I FEEL ABOUT TRUMP:
You've been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons.. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement.. You want them gone immediately!.. You call the city and 4 different exterminators, but nobody can handle the job.. But there is this one guy, and he guarantees to get rid of them, so you hire him.. You don't care if the guy smells, you don't care if the guy swears, you don't care if he's an alcoholic, you don't care how many times he's been married, you don't care if he has a plumber's crack, you simply want those raccoons gone!.. You want your problem fixed!.. He's the guy.. He's the best!
Here's why we want Trump: Yes, he's a bit of a jerk; Yes, he's an egomaniac; but we don't care!.. The country is a mess because politicians suck, the Republicans and Democrats can be two-faced and gutless, and illegals are everywhere.. We want it all fixed!.. We don't care that Trump is crude, we don't care that he insults people, we don't care that he has changed positions, we don't care that he's been married 3 times, we don't care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O'Donnell, we don't care that he doesn't know the name of some Muslim terrorist.. This country became weak and bankrupt, our enemies were making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegals, we are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo, and Hasid is a special group with special rights to a point where we don't even recognize the country we were born and raised in; "AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED”.. And Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want..
We're sick of politicians, sick of the Democratic Party, sick of the Republican Party, and sick of illegals!.. We just want this thing fixed.. Trump may not be a Saint, but we didn’t vote for a Pope.. We voted for a man who doesn't have lobbyist money holding him back, a man who doesn't have political correctness restraining him.. We all know that he has been very successful, he’s a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he's also NOT a politician, NOT a cowardly politician.!.. And he says he'll fix it.. And we believe him because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong, or looked at and called a liar.. Also, we don't care if the guy has bad hair.. We just want those raccoons gone, out of our house, NOW!!!
You are welcome to copy/paste/share this.. Thousands of people who haven't voted in 25 years seem to be getting involved.. And the more people get this message, the more that will understand why Trump was elected..The raccoons have got to go!!!
In some cases, the message was simply shared or re-posted without any reference to any author, but in other instances it was attributed to "Steve Harvey." This attribution prompted inquiries from readers about whether the person behind the viral analogy was in fact the well-known and widely-respected host of "Family Feud" and the syndicated talk show "Steve." At least one blog post explicitly claimed the post had been written by Steve Harvey, the public figure.
It's not clear who was the creator of the "raccoons" analogy, which has been making the social media rounds since at least 2016. However, it was shared more than 120,000 times after it was posted on 11 January by Steve Harvey, a Facebook user who appears to live in Tennessee:
Steve Harvey, the popular broadcaster, did not write the message and had not posted it online as of 4 March 2019.
Harvey met with Trump in January 2017, a week before his inauguration, to discuss a potential collaboration with incoming Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson -- a meeting which Harvey said was initiated by the outgoing Obama administration's transition team. (Harvey enjoyed a friendly relationship with Obama and interviewed him on his talk show in 2013.)
Harvey's meeting with Trump prompted outrage among some commentators, a backlash which Harvey himself criticized as unfair and misleading. However, Harvey has since emphasized that he is not "a Trump supporter" and said he should have accepted his wife Marjorie's advice to not meet with the president-elect.
Before the 2018 mid-term elections, Harvey expressed strong support for Democrat candidates including Andrew Gillum (Florida gubernatorial candidate), Stacey Abrams (Georgia gubernatorial candidate) and Beto O'Rourke (Texas Senate candidate), saying voters should elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, in order to create a greater political "balance" within the legislative branch of government.