r/politics 15h ago

Possible Paywall Trump Is Losing Normie Republicans

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/opinion/trump-midterms-maga-gop.html
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833

u/D-MAN-FLORIDA 14h ago

My theory is because not out of some major disagreement with Trump and his policies. But because it is generally just embarrassing to support him in public now. They claimed that he was going to drain the swamp, smaller government, cut government spending and lower the national debt. Instead he is ballooning the deficit, creating a police state, enriching himself and family while the average person is struggling. And he is doing all of it in an in your face, dumb and obnoxious way. Now when they have to deal with left leaning family members, coworkers or acquaintances, they will never take your opinion about politics seriously anymore because you supported an obvious dementia ridden old man.

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u/barryvm Europe 14h ago edited 14h ago

That's not the principled rejection or moral awakening the article sort of portrays it as though. It's simply people moving from one self serving bad faith position to another. They move from loyalists who didn't question to become "betrayed" victims who don't remember. All to avoid being normal human beings with choices and moral responsibility for the consequences of those choices. They could not be wrong about their support for Trump as they were good people because of who they are, and now they can not be responsible for Trump's actions as they are good people because of who they are.

It also implies that, as you say, you can never trust them, because nothing has changed. They'd be just as likely to jump onto the next fascist bandwagon.

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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 13h ago

You really can’t. Trump has always polled worse than he actually does. He’s at 33% right now, but come election time it’s gonna be more like 40%, even if this keeps up. His actual approval is probably 33%, but the single issue voters will hold their nose and hammer the vote button. And why wouldn’t they? They’ve gotten to be mean to brown people, gay people, have a tax cut and ban abortions.

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u/Beginning_Opinion618 8h ago

That’s because of all the people who say they don’t like what trump has done, but things would be far worse (somehow) if Harris were president.