It's been a year. We are going to be subjected to a bevy of Cleetus Safaris as the news orgs all send reporters to places that voted for Trump and ask Trump voters if they still like Trump. I've already seen one before I brushed my teeth.
Here's the thing. First, few people who voted for Trump and feel abandoned by him are going to go on camera and say, "Whelp, I fucked up." The people on camera are hardcore partisans. The other group are people who voted for Trump, are upset but simply aren't going to talk about it. Anyone eager to go on camera and admit they were wrong about Trump is not going to admit that they were wrong on camera.
There was one Trump voter - a farmer - who was dismayed by the collapse in prices. He "doesn't know who dropped the ball in Washington." Yeah, it was Trump. It was the tariffs. This is rudimentary stuff. I don't know if that guy is reachable. I would guess things would have to get much worse before he would realize that it is, in fact, Trump who has screwed him and most other farmers in pursuit of his 19th century economics. There was one woman who said she thought Trump was doing great because of her 401K. Again, things would have to get a lot worse for her to switch.
Except she won't switch. OK? The best you can hope for is demoralizing these rural, white, hardcore Republicans so that they sit out the 2026 election. Having invested their emotions and reputations in him, they cannot easily abandon him publicly without triggering massive cognitive dissonance. They can, however, stay home.
Trump's job approval is terrible, but he hasn't yet crossed enough lines with enough voters to get to 27%, which is the Crazification Factor that no Republican can fall below. Even the worst possible revelations from the Epstein Files would only take him to 27% or thereabouts.
We are a quarter of the way through a terrible time in the moral history of our country. I'm not sure why interviewing the people who enabled that makes for good journalism.
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