Bulwark founder Sarah Longwell hosts weekly surveys with President Donald Trump supporters. And this week’s inquiry reveals a sea change that’s going to irreparably clobber Trump and the Republican Party in the next few months.
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“We’ve done a series of focus groups in recent months with a bunch of Zoomers who identify as politically moderate,” said Longwell. “… With the ones that had voted for Trump, we saw a lot of evidence that the large gap between Trump’s current approval rating and his vote share in 2024.”
“I grew up definitely more Republican, but just within the last few years, I’ve switched my opinion. I have a lot of liberal friends. We would get in just debates and such. And so my views were definitely more conservative. I have a hard time identifying with that group of people anymore just with how hardcore they’ve been on different things,” said one Trump voting young woman. “… I don’t agree at all with how they’re targeting the lower- and middle-class people to pay more and the rich get to keep more of their money. It’s extremely unfair. They want to take away different things from the middle and lower class so they don’t have to pay as much. It’s not fair.”
Another Trump voter — this time a man — lamented at the Republican Party’s shocking careen into cult status.
“I grew up actually campaigning for Republicans, going door to door, asking people to vote for them. And after I saw the party go from a party to a one-man idolatry worship, I really just felt was not a space for me anymore,” he said.
Yet another complained that Trump had put on a “world police hat” and was following Israel leader Benjamin Netanyahu over a cliff while chasing “a Nobel Peace Prize.”
“Netanyahu … unfortunately, I think, is just using Trump for his own personal gain,” the voter told Bulwark.
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“He’s let me down … so now I’m more in the moderate position,” confessed another.
“I was a strong Republican in last few years,” said a second female Trump voter, “Specifically with women’s rights, I used to be extremely pro-life, regardless of any situation, and now I have a four-week-old daughter and I cannot fathom her being in a situation where she couldn’t make a choice for herself.”
That voter said she lives in a majority Muslim community in Dearborn Heights, Mich., where Trump visited to sell his policies to Muslim community leaders. His message was clear enough that new American citizens who never voted before came out to vote specifically for him.
That, she said, was a huge mistake.
“I extremely regretted it after the fact,” she said. “I definitely regret this was one of the first times that I was excited enough to go and vote and I deeply regret voting. I wish I would not have.”
Trump’s favor among young voters has already been collapsing, but the collapse among young Republicans is a new trend, Longwell said. And it’s not just because Trump has singlehandedly devastated their economy. Apparently, it also comes down to the Republican Party’s political inconsistency.
“I’m a Christian so I have a fair mix of Democratic and Republican ideas,” confessed another former Trump voter. “I’m pro-life, but the thing about that is that I think that we also need to do a better job at supporting kids while they’re growing up.”
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