'Repelled by the guy': Why this critical GOP base is turning on Trump

08 May

Steve Egan, owner of a custom promotional items business, holds a U.S. President Donald Trump-themed rubber duck as he poses for a portrait during an interview with Reuters in Brandon, Florida, U.S. April 22, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello

One of the Republican Party’s biggest, most reliable long-time voting base appears to be turning on the president.

“Older Americans are increasingly repelled by this guy,” The LA Times reports.

Polls across the spectrum are sliding down for President Donald Trump, but the most recent Marist poll shows he does “worst among members of the oldest age cohort: Only 37 percent of the greatest/silent generation — people in their 80s and 90s — approve of the president’s performance. Baby boomers — those, like us, in our 60s and 70s — aren’t far behind, with only 41 percent giving him the nod, compared to very nearly half of Gen X.”

You can see it in the graying faces of the protesting crowds, LA Times guest contributors Akaya Windwood and Bill McKibben write.

Mark Engler, co-author of the book, ‘This Is an Uprising,’ told reporters: “Here in Philly, the crowd made me feel like I was on the younger side, an increasingly rare experience now that I’m about to turn 50.”

But all of this “goes against the common wisdom: You’re supposed to get more conservative as you age, and isn’t Trump supposed to be taking people our age back to our happy youth by making America great again?”

Critics think it has plenty to do with the Trump administration dismantling the government.

“As Elon Musk and his minions mess with the Social Security Administration and the White House plans big Medicaid cuts, people of a certain age feel a rare combination of fear and anger. Two-thirds of older Americans rely on Social Security for more than half their income — we spent our entire working lives paying in, on the explicit promise that it would be there for us when we retire,” LA Times reports. “Even those who have savings and investments are watching them tank amid Trump’s tariff chaos: If your 401k drops 10 percent when you’re 30, you may have a chance to make it back. But if you’re 75?”

Plus, older people have been around long enough to know the value of the federal departments Trump and DOGE are trying to destroy. If you’re 70 or 80 you likely remember the smog-choked cities the Clean Air Act cleared, and you probably recall the rivers that caught fire from floating garbage and pollution, “and you have no idea why anyone would want” to go back to that.

Additionally, if you’re older and Black you know exactly why the nation needs Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) programs and anti-Jim Crow laws, as well as why it needs to continue to work against school segregation.

“Happily, we vote in higher numbers than any other age group, and we’ve got a longer future as activists than the president and his allies might imagine,” write Windwood and McKibben. “If you turn 60 this year, chances are you’ll live another quarter century. Oh, and women — who dislike the president in larger numbers than men — will live longer still.”

Read the full LA Times article here.