They're not dumb, and they know what "politics" are. But it's possible they think support of, say, Trump is no different from their support of Reagan, at least as far as how fans and the media view it.
Based on what I've heard behind the scenes, I will say for instance that Mike doing the Trump fundraiser last year was something he probably knew was controversial/incendiary, but I also don't think he knew the degree to which it was.
Not saying you’re wrong, but I would be very surprised if Mike were
this out of the loop. Just walking through any airport he’d likely see CNN and their humorous nonstop hysteria coverage of the guy. And same if any establishment had the unfortunate Faux News Network on - from any station across the spectrum you’d be able to tell within minutes of how divisive the president or his detractors were during that era…I find it hard to believe that for 4 years of Trump, Mike wasn't
completely aware of how controversial Trump was.
I mean, apparently Mike would spend time reading
this forum and when Trump was elected there were relentless nauseating daily posts from some who assumed Drumph would lead us into some covfefe apocalypse scenario which never actually happened (big surprise). Point being, even on a beach boys forum it was hard to keep away from this nonsense.
Honestly, I think Mike knew exactly what he was doing…however we want to interpret that is up to each of us fans, but I really think he knew exactly how divisive Trump was. He knew exactly how much it would damage the reputation of the band. The man led a ‘Beach Boys’ concert in a crap filled bullfighting arena on a revolving stage with absolutely no shame for doing so - no surprise he had no shame in doing some Trump fundraisers, I’m only surprised he hasn’t done the same for the current administration, too.