President Donald Trump's voters turned against him in focus groups led by a former GOP strategist, with one taking aim at his $5,000 promise.
In a Saturday episode of "The Focus Group Podcast," Sarah Longwell played audio clips of Trump voters from her focus group. Longwell said Trump has been "pulling out all the stops" five weeks before Election Day and noted his pitch of giving out $5,000 checks if Republicans win the midterms.
One Trump voter wasn't buying it and scoffed, comparing it to a grade-school bribe.
"I did chuckle when he said he's going to give us $5,000 if we vote Republican," the voter said. "I'm waiting on my DOGE check, and I'm still waiting on my tariff check. It felt like kind of trying to buy people's votes, which honestly felt like an elementary school when the class president was like, 'Hey, we're going to take you to the water park if you vote [for] me.'"
"It's like I don't think it works that way," the voter added. "But yeah, I've done the math. The man owes me $22,200."
Other voters in the group vented about gas prices, the White House ballroom and the president's personal enrichment.
"Like you have diabetics rationing insulin and he's worried about a ballroom and a party and a coin," one said. "There's people that are literally dying because they are rationing insulin."
"I thought you weren't supposed to make money off of the presidency at all," another said. "And he is so much richer now than when he started."
Longwell's guest, Cook Political Report editor-in-chief Amy Walter, said the economy had long shielded Trump from that kind of criticism among his supporters, and that shield is now gone.
"That was what was protecting him from all those scandals and all that criticism was, 'Well, at least the economy is good,'" Walter said. "It's like literally that armor just fell off."
