In 2024, voters who favored Donald Trump over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris ranged from his hardcore MAGA base to independents and swing voters who were frustrated with then-President Joe Biden over inflation and decided to give Trump a chance. Now, many polls are showing that independents are still frustrated — only now, they’re frustrated with Trump — while most MAGA voters continue to support Trump. But according to The Guardian’s Eduardo Porter, even some MAGA voters are feeling “angst” and losing patience.
“The political consequences of Donald Trump’s policy mayhem are now coming into view: ‘MAGA’ America is getting pissed,” Porter explains in The Guardian. “It has been a sight to see how every one of the president’s policy initiatives has sabotaged some core constituency or other. From farmers and rural Americans to manufacturing workers and every American struggling to make ends meet, Trump has torched pretty much his entire political base. For all his efforts to rig the midterm elections in his favor, it’s as if he is daring the ‘MAGA’ faithful to drop him.”
Most of the “MAGA faithful,” according to Porter, haven’t abandoned Trump yet. But discontent is growing among MAGA voters, and that discontent, the journalist notes, is evident in a new Harris Poll survey conducted for The Guardian.
“About 56 percent of respondents who identified as members of the MAGA coalition said they were either having trouble meeting their debt payments or worried they would be struggling soon,” Porter observes. “The same share admitted similar troubles meeting housing payments. 57 percent said the same about affording healthcare costs. 58 percent claimed the same about their utility bills, 61 percent about affording groceries, 63 percent about paying for gas. Many of these stressors stem from Trump’s policy preferences.”
Porter adds, “Trump’s decision to end government subsidies is largely at fault for the rising cost of health insurance. The rise in energy costs and rebound of inflation since March are direct consequences of Iran’s throttling of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Nonetheless, Porter points out that Trump still enjoys more support than opposition among MAGA voters.
“MAGA voters have not abandoned the president,” Porter observes. “By recent counts, 62 percent of rank-and-file Republicans identify as MAGA, up from only 38 percent in September of 2022. 57 percent of them trust that the government considers the affordability crisis a top priority. And 69 percent believe the government is capable of fixing it. Still, misgivings are creeping in: just over a third of MAGA faithful think the government has made it worse.”
Porter continues, “Beyond the growing angst among Trump’s most loyal followers, what should most worry the president is the brewing discontent outside the borders of his base — which is still a minority of the overall electorate. If MAGA Republicans are finding themselves at odds with their leader, other voters — including many Republicans — have an even more jaundiced view of his endeavors.”