Women wearing MAGA hats attend the annual "March for Life" in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 23, 2026. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz
Four conservative commentators are warning President Donald Trump and his supporters that the nation is starting to turn on them, meaning “a hard-earned awakening could lie ahead.”
"The Trump years have been and remain all too real, and we're not going suddenly to wake up and discover that all is back to normal,” wrote William Kristol, Andrew Egger, Cathy Young and Jim Swift of The Bulwark. “But yesterday offered some promise that a hard-earned awakening could lie ahead."
The “yesterday” in question is the Trump administration’s decision to end “the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol assault against the intrepid residents of Minneapolis.” Quoting Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, The Bulwark’s quartet wrote that although Trump “launched its 'catastrophic' operation with the belief that it 'could break us,'” the people of Minneapolis proved Frey right “that 'a love for our neighbors and a resolve to endure can outlast an occupation.'"
The conservatives also pointed out that one of their ideological fellows, Republican-appointed U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, issued a “blistering ruling” against Trump for prosecuting Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) for exercising his First Amendment right urging US troops to not follow illegal orders.
They quoted Leon as saying, “This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly's First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees."
The authors also pointed out that, although Trump has yet to release the unredacted files of Jeffrey Epstein and his accusers, the fact that the White House is engaged in a coverup "has been exposed if not yet overcome." Finally they observed that, like President George W. Bush before the Republicans’ losses of both congressional houses in the 2006 midterm elections, “Trump’s approval rating hit a new low of 40 percent in the polling average compiled daily by the New York Times. His disapproval is at 56 percent.”
The conservatives at The Bulwark have pushed back on Trump on a number of other occasions. On Thursday columnist Mona Charen warned that Trump’s tariffs are turning off voters who might otherwise support him.
“Voters are rarely able to connect policy to outcomes, but they have done so in the case of tariffs,” Charen wrote. “Back in 2024, Americans were about equally divided on the question of trade, with some favoring higher tariffs and roughly similar numbers opting for lower tariffs. Experience has changed their views.”
On Thursday, columnist Jonathan V. Last blasted the general public for turning a blind eye to the economic damage caused by Trump's policies, stating: “Donald Trump is doing catastrophic damage to America's economic position, yet no one seems to notice.” Last month, Last further elaborated on why Trump supporters should be “bearish” about the state of the economy.
"Consumer confidence is now at the lowest level since 2014 — worse than it was at any moment during the pandemic, even,” Last wrote. “Why are people bearish about the economy? Perhaps because they see all the news about layoffs, for starters."
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