“All across the [American Great] Plains,” wrote Dayton Duncan in 1993, “[Frank and Deborah] Popper have become as well known a couple as Donald and Ivana Trump — and about as well liked.” 

That a progressive Democrat like Duncan, who worked for the failed presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis and later served two positions in President Bill Clinton’s administration, might go out of his way to ridicule Mr. Trump does not surprise. What shocks is that Duncan would believe most folks on the Great Plains knew or felt strongly about a Manhattan real estate developer and Atlantic City hotel and casino owner half a continent away.

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After all, the Great Plains is as large as Spain and stretches from the Rocky Mountains east to the 100th meridian, from the Dakotas to Texas, includes part of ten largely rural states, and, except for the Colorado Front Range and Texas Panhandle, includes no major cities. In 1993, almost no one in this vast region knew about Trump and his wife. They, however, had heard of and loathed the Poppers.

They were reviled because Frank and Deborah Popper, professors at Rutgers University and New York University, respectively, were the........

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