'Deflated' Trump voters losing faith in his 'nonsensical' agenda: GOP pollster
President Donald Trump's supporters, including his three-time voters, are "rumbling" louder about his second administration's missteps, a GOP pollster found.
In a Thursday article for The Bulwark, Sarah Longwell shared comments from Trump voters who participated in a focus group, where they were asked to grade his second administration.
"Groups of straight-up Republicans, many of whom voted for Trump three times in a row, are feeling deflated and disappointed," Longwell wrote, noting discontent with how he handled immigration, the cost of living and the war in Iran.
Longwell noted that she "started hearing rumblings of this back in the spring," but "the rumblings got a bit louder" during focus groups she conducted during the last three weeks in South Carolina and Florida, red states that have important midterm elections coming up.
"Lots of people still perfunctorily express that they wish he'd just behave himself," Longwell wrote. "But compared to Trump's first term—or to what Republicans said during Joe Biden's presidency—what I'm hearing now is more concrete, focused criticism of Trump's policies."
A Trump voter named Angie gave Trump a C grade in one of Longwell's focus groups, even though the president acted "pretty hard and pretty fast" on immigration like she wanted.
"I feel like he lost focus after the initial push, and it almost seems to come with the war in Iran," Angie said. "It seemed like he lost his focus and then just threw everything at the war instead of focusing more on what the country needs and what the people of the country need."
A Trump voter named Dawn shared that she was less confident that Trump had a real plan for the Iran war.
"Initially he comes out, and he says, 'Okay, I'm gonna block the Strait of Hormuz because I do not want Iran—you know...we're not going to nuclear war,'" Dawn said. "And then there's just like no rhyme or reason. I mean, we're going back and forth, and there's firing...It just doesn't make any sense. It's just so nonsensical."
Sick of hearing Trump hype up the stock market, a Trump voter named Dustin lamented, "You can throw the stock market all you want, but at the end of the day, groceries are up—I have four kids...Try feeding a family of four. I spend over $1,000 a month on groceries, and we don't eat out, right?"