Trump voters are getting sick of his sloppiness
This is an occasional roundup of people who voted for Donald Trump and are shocked to find out no one is immune from the damage and pain he causes. Many are now grappling with the consequences of their choice as it affects them and their loved ones—and possibly regretting their vote.
Oh boy, the leopards truly feasted this past week as even die-hard MAGA supporters began wondering if maybe, just maybe, they voted for the wrong guy. I already wrote about the rank disgust in MAGA land over Donald Trump’s bizarre Gaza video, but there was much more. Let’s get to it!
On Thursday, Daily Kos covered the blowback to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s release of heavily redacted Jeffrey Epstein files, files that included several mentions of Trump himself (not new information, though conveniently ignored by MAGA). Our story has plenty of conservative freakouts, but there is so, so, so much more. For example, here’s right-wing bro Dave Portnoy, owner of the conservative site Barstool Sports, on X:
If I’m gonna be fair these questions needs to be asked today.Why is the release of the Epstein list always a shit show?
What’s the point of booting out illegals and criminals while somehow becoming a safe haven for the Tate brothers?
Why is Crypto in the toilet if Trump is crypto king?
How far does Tsla stock have to crash before Elon goes back to work?
Maybe those questions could’ve been asked before the election? Or perhaps Portnoy could’ve paid attention the last time Trump was president, and realized that 1) everything having to do with Trump is a shit show, 2) Trump isn’t just liable for sexual abuse but also surrounds himself with accused predators, and 3) Trump has used crypto to scam his supporters. As for Musk, who knows the last time he actually showed up to work at his companies.
The crypto bros are certainly having a tough one.
Thoughts and prayers.
Let’s head on over to Oklahoma, where former Republican state Rep. Sheila Dills, a virulent transphobe and Trump supporter, was outraged by Trump’s cuts to the National Institute of Health and their impact on Oklahoma universities. On a now-deleted comment on local station KOTV’s Facebook page, she wrote:
The stories I am hearing first hand are devastating. I am all about efficient government and overall support the current administration, but efficient government doesn't matter if we don't fund LEGITIMATE research that protects us from deadly toxins. I know a young lady who has done everything right, poured her heart and soul into her education, has won every award possible, is the top of her PHD class at OU and whose research as a STUDENT will lead to therapeutics for deadly diseases. BUT, now she has watched fellow Doctoral students be stripped of their funding (much more than "back office" costs, we are talking entire fellowships)and fears everyday she will be next and the bright future she has earned at Vanderbilt for her Post Doctoral studies through total sacrifice will be taken away. A strong economy and military do not matter if we are all dead from infectious diseases! That special research student is my daughter!
It’s always “spending is bad unless it helps me” with these people. All that other research? Illegitimate. The stuff she cares about because it affects her daughter? Legitimate. Just like all those MAGA federal employees getting fired. Everyone else’s jobs? Inessential. Their own jobs? Essential.
What makes MAGA so dangerous is its utter lack of empathy. We can’t get a solid progressive majority until we figure out how to teach people that we are all in this together.
Speaking of, let’s visit Don Shotwell of Blue Mound, Texas. He’s an America-loving patriot. Loves Donald Trump. And fears “America is under attack by Marxists!!!” according to his cover photo on X. His bio there says, “2A Advocate, Anti-Marxist, Anti-Woke, Anti-Identity Politics, Anti-Establishment, Anti-Left.”
Boy, he sure must hate anything remotely smelling of socialism, right?
He posted this on Facebook (now deleted):
I am a conservative, and a Republican.• • I voted for Trump in all three of the presidential elections that he's won.
I even backed his cabinet picks, including RFK. That being said, I DISAGREE 100% with the proposed overhaul of the SNAP program. Why? Well, it's simple...
On average, studies show that healthier food costs MORE than other options some may consider "unhealthy." People who are on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, colloquially referred to as, "food stamps") are on this program because they need help affording groceries due to the fact that they are, shall we say, "financially challenged." I happen to be one of those people, and I'm on SNAP. So, I speak from experience. We are counting EVERY penny. Long story short: if the government wants the people on SNAP to buy healthier food, then it needs to INCREASE the amount we receive so that we can ACTUALLY AFFORD said "healthy food."
It is a HUGE problem when you continue to receive the same amount of assistance, and yet it doesn't buy as much food anymore. At that point, people start missing meals, and that REALLY isn't healthy.
Rant over. Everything else...DOGE, no men in women's sports, America regaining respectect from other nations, Gaza, Russia, etc...keep up the GREAT work.
Basically: “I hate socialism, but I’m white, unlike those other people, so give me my free government money so I don’t starve, but fuck everyone else.” Has there ever been anything more “Republican” than this post?
Luckily, he’s in Texas. I’m sure he’s got some bootstraps lying around. He can pull himself up by them.
Here’s another one of those ”I voted to screw everyone else because Trump promised to help me” stories. This story, published by The Washington Post, is certainly heartbreaking: A young woman in an economically depressed part of Michigan is trying to get pregnant and is suckered in by Trump’s promise of free IVF. Now her government job has been eliminated, and about that IVF …
Four days after Trump fired her, Cooper was in bed with her husband. She picked up her phone and saw the news.There was a new executive order to expand access to IVF. She read the White House fact sheet, which talked about Trump’s request for policy recommendations to reduce costs of the service.
But it still wasn’t free, and she was out of a job and out of a plan.
“Delivering on promises for American families,” read the White House’s announcement.
“That’s bulls---”, she recalled thinking, and put down her phone.
Remember back in 2016, there were people on the far left who wanted Hillary Clinton to lose because it would mean that people would wake up to the horrors of conservatism and usher in the glorious workers’ revolution?
You think they would have learned their lesson, but they were back in 2024, like writer Sean Padraig McCarthy. Days before November’s election, he tweeted, “I’ll be voting third party but it’s true that either Kamala or Trump wins. I have a slight preference for a Trump victory. This last year of genocide amid near total public indifference has broken something in me. At least him being there would wake some people up to the horror.”
After House Republicans passed a budget blueprint that would gut Medicaid, McCarthy had the gall to tweet, “$880 billion in Medicaid cuts is insane. A lot of people are going to die.”
People are waking up to the horror, but it’s not the horror he imagined. This notion that “if people are exposed to the worst Republican excesses, it’ll help our cause” is so beyond misguided. I can’t even begin. Elections have consequences.
I literally have over a dozen tabs open with more examples, but I need to wrap this up, so I’ll just end with this:
Okay, one more:
Fuck these people.