New York Times Finds 12 Trump Voters Mad At Donald Trump For Being A Total Donald Trump
Where's the focus group of people who were right about him this WHOLE FUCKING TIME?
In yet another attempt to understand the minds of Trump voters, The New York Times brings us a focus group interview (archive link) with a dozen Americans who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 but are now suffering buyer’s remorse in one way or another. To their complete surprise, Donald Trump actually turned out to be a far worse president than they expected, and now they feel “disappointed,” “surprised,” “worried,” and even “betrayed,” among other things. It was another Cletus Safari, only this time the Times brought the Cleti in for conference room coffee earlier this month.
The Times says these sweet Summer of 2024 children’s discontents with Trump tend to fall into three categories: “the implementation of Mr. Trump’s immigration policies, the Iran war and the continued high cost of living.” Several said they were happy with Trump on “the border, crime, and the idea of DOGE” — this is where we remind you that crime rates were already declining well before the election — but for the most part, the 12 participants in the discussion (six Republicans, six independents) just aren’t feeling so great about America under Trump.
We suppose we’re glad that they’re now seeing things differently, but we can’t help but wonder why on Earth they were surprised by anything Trump has done, particularly his reversals on campaign promises. Did they somehow not know that Donald Trump, you know, lies a lot?
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It’s difficult to understand where some of these folks got their impressions of Trump at all. Maybe they believed what he said, but some of the things they say they expected from Trump are miles away from any claims he even made. Franceska, who said she felt “betrayed” by Trump, explained that she hasn’t “seen much progress toward even moving toward what he said he was going to do, such as tax breaks or, let’s see, helping with the education system.”
Trump never said he would “help” education. He said he’d eliminate the Department of Education and get rid of wokeness in schools, and then he went about trying to force universities into compliance.
That surprised Franceska, who added, “I feel like he just defunded a lot of the education systems, the schools. I don’t know why he made so many promises.”
Several of the panelists said they’d voted for Trump because they considered him the “lesser of two evils,” although apart from one guy who said he didn’t like Kamala Harris’s support for abortion rights and other “moral issues,” and another who resented that “they shoved Kamala down our throat” instead of restarting the primaries in the summer of 2024, they didn’t really specify what made her so evil.
Two of the panelists were grumpy about trans people; Franceska, again, insisted that she doesn’t mind people being trans, but also was upset about “teaching our children that kind of thing,” and kindergarteners being given books about penises and vaginas. Further, she said she didn’t like that it “was a big thing that was being pushed when Biden was in office and changing genders of children.” Congratulations to all the culture warriors who lied about that. Some people believed you.
Pamela, who’s 65 and from Tennessee, agreed that Democrats whine all the time about everything. “I feel like they find a cause, and then they just whine about it until there’s something else to whine about.” But she is not at all a bigot, don’t you dare call her a bigot, because she believes that “You should be who you are, but not to the point where we have to flaunt it in front of children.” She elaborated:
“All of the commercials that are on — it’s just too much. I think that there should be a focus on accepting each other for who we are, but we don’t have to demonstrate it. And I feel like the Democrats are like, oh, no, no, no, we have to. We’re going to have a rally on this because we want this to be brought out.”
Pamela is very fair-minded and accepting as long as she doesn’t have to see those people fucking right on TV in commercials, or shopping for a Toyota either.
Several of the folks insisted that they were all for mass deportations, but a bit disappointed that the ethnic cleansing they voted for turned out to somehow be so darn harsh. Alla, 51, said that when Trump “was saying he would try to fix immigration, I was behind it. But then the way he did it, it’s just not the way I agree with.” Asked what turned out to be different, she explained she meant “How ICE was treating people. This is not the way to do it.”
Michelle, 45, a Latina from Maryland, said she was glad that Trump secured the border, but added,
“Part of what bothers me regarding that is the fact that it seems to be just one ethnicity type that’s being targeted in regards to immigration. He’s not trying to clean up both sides of the country’s borders. If he was more consistent in treating immigrants as immigrants and not just one demographic, then I would agree wholeheartedly.”
Once again, we have to ask where she was throughout the campaign when Trump and his surrogates endlessly ranted about Latinos as gangbangers, rapists and murderers who were poisoning the blood of America? She might be gladdened though if she learned that the Trump administration has too been throwing Canadians and Irishpeople and 85-year-old French widows into ICE jail, even the legal ones.
Still, Michelle was glad that Trump has been “tough on crime, and especially addressing cartels,” which prompted Franceska — goddamn it, Franceska, again? — to chime in that “There was a lot of crime, and he did cut down on a lot of that.” Franceska generously allowed that “Not all that crime was coming from immigrants. But there were groups of people that were just allowed here freely that were taking advantage of the country.”
Still, even Franceska acknowledged that “the way he is handling immigration now is a little bit of abuse of power,” which for her was a very bold criticism of Trump, we suppose. Franceska went on to explain that she had a personal basis for her opinion, noting that
“My boyfriend looks Mexican. Dark hair, black mustache, beard. He was pulled over by ICE, immigration, and they checked his ID and all that, I feel just because of how he looked. I see them pulling people over, and it seems like it’s one race, which is unfortunate.”
There was broad agreement among the panelists that if they were to give Trump a letter grade, it would be a “D” (eight panelists) or even an “F” (three). Only one member of the group would give him a “C,” and nobody raised their hands for “A” or “B.”
Along similar lines, nine of the twelve raised their hands when asked if they regretted voting for Trump. Then several of them said they really like Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis, or maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene in 2028; Alla said she thinks Rubio is “balanced,” and that he probably has different views from Trump that he has to hide to keep his job.
On the whole, even though they say they’re no longer on the Trump Train, we got the impression that several of the panelists would happily support another candidate with similar extreme views, perhaps even while humming The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
[NYT (archive link) / Photo by “Tony,” Creative Commons License 2.0]
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There was an article in McSweeney's titled "I Have No Object Permanence, and I Vote." I think about it all the time.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-have-no-object-permanence-and-i-vote
I feel like my anger about this must stand on its own:
"she doesn’t mind people being trans, but also was upset about “teaching our children that kind of thing,” and kindergarteners being given books about penises and vaginas. Further, she said she didn’t like that it “was a big thing that was being pushed when Biden was in office and changing genders of children.”
“You should be who you are, but not to the point where we have to flaunt it in front of children.”
What we have seen in 2024 is people voting to have their own personal bigotries enshrined into law. This is the functional purpose of unreconstructed state-based regimes of terror.
These are the people that sadopopulism reaches. THERE IS NO POLICY OR CAMPAIGN MESSAGE THAT COUNTERS THIS.
If you are on a playing field of "people that are different from me shouldn't exist or be enfranchised in this society," we are already lost. You cannot sell something to people that they're not buying. This is why these assholes swallowed the bigoted codswallop like "Haitians are eating dogs and cats" and "teachers can trans your child in an afternoon despite not having a medical license." It was bigoted fanfiction that catered to their desires...the elimination of minorities. That's what the "crime" is about. The "crime" to these bigots is the presence of immigrants...the darker the better.
That's why you get so many members of immigrant groups getting their faces gnawed on by leopards right this very moment!
Be clear-eyed about what these people wanted. They're bigots and they needed every paper-thin excuse to make their vile bigotry seem moral. That's why they couch it in "immigrants should come here the 'right way,'" and "Protect the children."