On Wednesday evening, NPR interviewed two distraught Palestinian-Americans in Dearborn. I feel terrible about saying this but, though they were both well-educated people, they are both political morons. Each voted for Trump in the hope that he would bring an equitable peace to Gaza-- and now each is… surprised? And sorry they voted for Trump. I can understand not voting for Kamala— I didn’t either— but casting a ballot for Trump? In a swing state like Michigan? And because of hopes for peace in Gaza??? Peace in Gaza for Trump means no Gazans other than maids, room attendants and gardeners. The two unrelated Palestinian-Americans were horrified because of the “Trump Gaza” video Trump shared. This video:
They want him to take it down and apologize. No, really; that’s what they said. That’s who they voted for. Fuckers! The White House response to their pleas?“As President Trump has said, Gaza in its current state is uninhabitable for any human being. President Trump is a visionary, and his plan to have the United States involved in Gaza's rebuilding will allow for Palestinians to resettle in new, beautiful communities while improving conditions in the region for generations to come.” Uninhabitable “for any human being?” Does that mean mass murder there is ok because enough human beings are being killed. Allowing “Palestinians to resettle in new, beautiful communities?” Where?
Any Trump voters’ relatives or friends wind up in Guantanamo or the concentration camp in the Darién Gap yet? I’ll look forward to that NPR show about Trump voters sorry they made a boo-boo last November. And yet… Aaron Blake isn’t sure if voter regret is a real thing (yet). Blake acknowledged that lately social media has “a growing volume of posts about Trump supporters who, to paraphrase, effed around and found out. Anecdotes abound about those voters— particularly people affected by Trump’s cuts to federal programs and firings of government workers— apparently expressing surprise at his actions and even regret for their votes… And it’s not just on social media. A Wall Street Journal report last week pointed to some similar examples of Trump voter regret. An anti-Trump conservative activist says it’s an increasingly real phenomenon in her focus groups.” He says these anecdotes “haven’t been verified.”
“Polls,” he reports, “suggest it’s not a major phenomenon right now— even though some discontent is brewing and Trump’s overall numbers have declined. Two recent polls have gotten at this question rather directly and found that a pretty unremarkable number of Trump supporters are expressing measures of regret. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted Feb. 13-18 found that just 5 percent of voters who said they cast ballots for Trump opposed what he has done since taking office, including just 1 percent who ‘strongly’ opposed it… 5 percent is a pretty unremarkable number when you consider that nearly as many Kamala Harris voters— 4 percent— said they supported what Trump has done. Both are pretty normal levels of partisan crossover.
Still he sees some potential growth in discontent looming. A significant number of Trump voters told pollsters they disapprove of his policies on ending birthright citizenship, his decision to roll back temporary legal status for refugees, and his proposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico. A majority of Republicans (52%) said those tariffs would increase prices. And 63% opposed his pardons of violent Jan. 6 defendants. Government cuts spearheaded by Elon Musk appear to be a looming problem… 11 percent of Trump voters said they disliked Musk’s involvement in the administration… 13 percent of Trump voters say Trump has gone ‘beyond his level of authority’ as president, according to The Post poll. Around 1 in 10 in the CNN and YouGov polls say Trump has gone ‘too far’ with his presidential powers and in cutting government programs.”
Blake concludes that “Trump has indeed taken lots of drastic actions that invite his voters to dislike what they’re seeing. Whether those actions are ultimately dealbreakers remains to be seen. But thus far, they don’t appear to have invited large-scale regret.”
Regret— and admitting you made a really consequential mistake— can be a slow process. Trump’s base isn’t a monolith of unshakable devotion— some will stick with him no matter what, but others are starting to feel the burn of his policies in ways they can’t ignore. The voter who cheered when Trump promised to wipe out the ‘deep state’ is a little less enthusiastic when he’s suddenly the one without a government job. The small business owner who swallowed Trump’s nonsense about China and Mexico ‘ripping us off’ will soon be staring at collapsing margins because of tariffs he never thought would hit him. The retiree who assumed Trump’s war on ‘entitlements’ only meant cutting off benefits to immigrants and non-whites is now finding out that it’s his healthcare and his Social Security check on the chopping block.
Trumpworld operates on the assumption that its followers are too committed, too consumed with grievances stoked by conspiracy theories, too angry and too detached from reality to hold him accountable. And while the majority will likely keep making excuses, even Blake admits that cracks are forming. It’s no surprise that the first ripples of regret are coming from those who assumed their suffering would be outsourced to someone else. But regret— like economic collapse and authoritarianism— tends to compound over time. How many will still be in denial when the walls finally cave in? Inflation, standard of living downturns, recession, a health crisis, betrayal of our allies, an embrace of authoritarian regimes… it’s all coming down the road. So voter regret? It takes a while and it takes a lot but... this would be a slightly updated version of voter regret:
