'The shine's come off': Disillusioned Trump voters put deep-red state in play

CNN's John King traveled to rural Ohio – deep-red MAGA country – and found many of President Donald Trump's supporters were losing their enthusiasm.

The chief national correspondent spoke to disillusioned Trump voters in Portsmouth, and they told King that Trump's war in Iran and the downstream effects on the country's affordability crisis had soured them on his second presidency.

"I am pro-military, and I am – we have a strong need to protect this country," said Dale King, an Iraq war veteran and gym owner. "I know there are threats and I know there are enemies that want to see the downfall of this country. But you can't can't be flippant about war."

The combat veteran told the reporter he's planning to vote Democratic in this year's election to send Republicans a message, and he said conversations with friends and fellow veterans had convinced him that change was coming.

"The shine's kind of comingoff the the Trump presidency," he said. "[You] really kind of see through thetrue core of who he is versuswhat he campaigned on."

His comments were indicative of the correspondent's interviews with other Trump voters in Scioto County, and King's colleague Dana Bash summed up the report as "fascinating."

"So many different characterswith so many differentperspectives," Bash said. "But the overalltakeaway is the president and Republicans, they're in troublethere."

King said those findings should be a wakeup call for Republicans.

"Ohio is in play for the firsttime in a decade," King said. "That's all youhave to say to tell you thepresident and his party are introuble because it's been simplyoff the map. Now it takes morefor Democrats to win in Ohio. Trump won 81 of 88 counties in2024, so be skeptical of Democratic chances. You need alot more people to peel off thanyou do, say, in a Pennsylvaniaor Wisconsin, the states that are 50-50, because Trump hasstretched it out so much there.But you see the Iraq war veteranthere, you see some other Trumpvoters there who have somedoubts."

"Here's the other bigissue, affordability," he added. "In half of Ohio's 88 counties, half thecost, your costs are outpacingyour wages by higher than thenational average. So you drivethrough and a lot of that, guesswhat it is? A lot of that isrural America, Trump country,where your groceries, yourenergy, your housing, your othercosts are already up, and now,as we talked about earlier,you're dealing with energy,gas, fuel."

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