'It's like a black mark': Donald Trump supporters complain their political views are RUINING their love lives and making it impossible for them to find dates online

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Young, single Donald Trump voters are just looking for love — but they're having a hard time finding it.

Since the 2016 election, conservatives who cast votes for the current President have reported that navigating dating apps has become harder than before, since many liberals and Trump critics refuse to date them. 

In fact, one publication has even compared declaring support for Trump to having herpes in terms of dating turn-offs.

Lonely? Several Trump supporters have complained that online dating has become difficult for them (other supporters pictured on Election night)

The problem has proven especially difficult in more liberal cities like Washington D.C., where 90.9 per cent of voters cast ballots for Hillary Clinton.

For the 4.1 per cent of those who voted for Trump — and the staffers and conservative operatives who have moved there since the election — dating is no easy feat.

Though TimeOut reports that D.C. has the highest percentage of singles using dating apps (about 40 per cent), right-wingers are a real minority — and they feel it. 

The Washingtonian interviewed several singles in the city about their love struggles.

'A lot of times you'll connect with someone [on an app] and they'll Google you, find out you worked for Trump's campaign, and then it's pretty much all downhill from there,' a Trump Administration official told the paper.  

'The policies and these things that are attached to the right whether or not you're a supporter of Trump have been pre-supposed on you, and it's like a black mark,' added a self-described 'moderate conservative'.

Preferences: Trump voters and staffers (not pictured) have said people rule them out based on politics

Tough time: On dating apps, people typically choose to go out with someone based on looks and common interests

Sometimes, the differences means a date goes downhill at the first mention of politics, or else two people who match never even go our once party affiliations are declared. 

Yet much of the time, Trump supporters don't even match in the first place. Some progressives told the paper that they make judgement calls based on pictures: Someone wearing a MAGA hat will be ruled out, as will those with subtler clues in their snaps like US flag paraphernalia or hunting gear.

People often look for others who share their values when it comes to dating, and politics and values can go hand in hand. 

In fact, one White House staffer told The Washingtonian that she rules out anyone who might be a Democrat, swiping left (or 'no') on anyone who went to a small liberal arts college or has a picture from the Women's March.

And D.C. is not the only place where Trump voters and employees are having dating problems.

Uh-oh: The problem appears to be the worst for conservatives in more liberal cities like Washington, D.C., where their dating pools are much smaller

In December, CNN talked to a handful of New York City conservatives who admitted to similar issues. A few voiced that they are upset that their opinions have narrowed their dating pools.

Some mentioned difficulty getting a date at all, while one named Mike Lagana recalled a woman he'd matched with ending a conversation when politics came up. 

'I think it's nonsense,' he told CNN, adding that something similar has happened on several other occasions. 'Just because I voted for someone does not mean I'm this stuff. Oh, he's racist, or he's a Nazi or whatever the case may be. I'm not any of that. I take offense to it. You know nothing about me.' 

The Sacramento Bee reported similar findings in June of 2017. Like several other publications, the California paper noted that several online profiles specifically tell Trump supporters to swipe left.

'It really does suck,' a 22-year-old woman named Alexandra Gonzalez, who voted for Trump, said. 'It's something that I don't necessarily say on a first date or even a second date. ... With such a controversial topic, it's something that I tend to veer away from.' 

Gone: In January, alt-right activist and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec (who, incidentally, is married) was banned from Bumble when his profile was flagged to the app

The app explained that it 'was founded on the core values of kindness, respect, integrity, and equality, and we do not tolerate anyone who does not hold these values on our platform'

Steve Ward, the CEO of matchmaking firm Master Matchmakers, told The Inquierer that dating has become 'much more polarizing' since the election.

'There was always a rule that you shouldn’t talk about politics on a first date, but now it’s almost impossible for people not to express themselves and not know what the other person believes,' he said. 

'[Trump's] presidency has created this new deal-breaker, Laurie Davis Edwards, a relationship coach and founder of the website eflirtexpert.com, told the Sacramento Bee.

'I've never seen it like this before, where people say "no" to Trump supporters, or they only want to date other Trump supporters,' she went on. 'It tells me that people are valuing politics much higher as a preference than they were before.'

Gregory Huber, a political science professor at Yale University who has studied how partisanship impacts online dating, told CNN that political opinions can definitely affect attraction.

'There is evidence that shared politics affects your interest in dating someone,' he said. 'Politics matters. That is to say — shared partisanship or shared ideology.' 

Seek them out: Just after the election, TrumpSingles.com popped up for supporters

MDGA: Another site, Trump.dating, also brings together like-minded singles

The people behind the dating apps have noticed this too. In 2017, OkCupid introduced the option to find matches based on politics, while PlentyOfFish, Tinder, and Match.com have all studied how users' political preferences affect their dating habits.

'Political views are more than just current topics, sometimes entire value sets can be tied to political views. It tells you a lot about a person,' Whitney Wolfe, the creator and CEO of Bumble, told Mashable in 2016. 

In fact, at least one Trump supporter has been banned from a dating app — and not just because he is, in fact, married.

In January, alt-right activist and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec was discovered to have a profile on Bumble. When a female Bumble user flagged his profile to the app on Twitter, Bumble removed him immediately.

'Bumble was founded on the core values of kindness, respect, integrity, and equality,' they wrote, 'and we do not tolerate anyone who does not hold these values on our platform.' 

Luckily for Trump supporters, though, there are now two online dating sites devoted to their kind.

TrumpSingles.com was launched by David Goss from Southern California soon after Trump won the election. Around Inauguration Day, the site had 18,000 active users.

Trump.Dating, meanwhile, launched this year under the comapny Friends Worldwide. 

'Make dating great again!' the site reads. 'Dating in 2018 is more of a challenge than ever before, thanks in part to today's polarizing political landscape. 

'While searching for a potential partner on other dating sites, it's not uncommon to see messages like No Trump supporters or Proud liberal. We're wrecking the dating game and giving like-minded Americans a chance to meet without the awkwardness that comes with the first conversation about politics. Wouldn't it be refreshing to already know that your date roots for the same team?'