People who once supported Donald Trump are now turning on the president as his second term becomes increasingly defined by broken promises and deception.
An analysis from The New York Times, based on conversations with Americans across the country, suggests that Trump’s turbulent return to the White House has contributed to an overall decline in public trust in government.
Ryan Wagner, a former Trump supporter in Michigan, admitted that the president’s base “drank the Kool-Aid, and we were wrong,” and said he now feels like the president routinely lies to him.
Wagner told The Times that his eye begins “twitching” whenever the billionaire president insists food prices are falling in the U.S., and that is not the only issue he doesn’t trust Trump on.
“I can’t even listen to him talk anymore,” he said. “How many times has he said the [Iran] war is over, the strait is open?” Wagner said. “No, it’s not, you big liar.”
Wagner said he is so angry at Trump that he doesn’t think he will bother voting in the midterm elections—as GOP faces the possibility of an electoral wipeout on Nov. 3.
Elsewhere, Jeff Sieting, the mayor of Kalkaska, Michigan, is another Trump supporter who has turned on the president.
Sieting said the straw that broke the camel’s back was Trump campaigning on releasing files linked to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, before later trying to prevent their release once in office.
“When Trump said, ‘Let’s move on,’ that pierced my heart,” Sieting told The Times. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
Sieting continues to be furious at the president, describing Trump’s promise to pay every American adult $5,000 if the GOP retains control of Congress in the midterms as “the most insulting, pathetic thing.”
He said that he and many of his Trump-supporting friends are also not going to vote in November because of their backlash against the president. “I full well expect the Democrats to sweep the midterms,” he said.
Sieting added that he cannot watch Trump’s favorite news network, Fox News, anymore because he cannot trust it to tell the truth.
“If you listen to the media, you’ll hear that New York is in collapse, they’re doing government grocery stores,” he said. “The reality is, that is absolute bulls--t.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
