Women wearing MAGA hats in Washington, D.C., January 23, 2026. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz
Former supporters of President Donald Trump "can all remember where we were when we finally admitted" that he is terrible, one ashamed former MAGA follower wrote for The Spectator, who further revealed the exact moment she knew she was done with him.
Writing for the outlet on Sunday, Julie Burchill, the controversial author and columnist who until recently voiced support for conservative politics in the U.K., explained how Trump's recent social media post involving manipulated footage of a tragic tiger attack at a British zoo hit her as an "awful shock."
"After sharing online footage of this almost surreally sad event on his ‘Truth Social’ platform (with the text ‘Don’t ever mess with nature! President DJT’), Trump proceeded to go full tonto by following it up with a series of after-midnight posts," she explained. "This included an AI-generated video of himself wrestling with a tiger and coming out on top, ultimately embracing it to the strains of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. Another video finds the big orange baboon comparing himself to a lion – yes, ‘the king of the jungle’ – while characterising Democrat luminaries such as Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi as ‘jackals, hyenas…barking at him, laughing at him…every once in a while the lion has to show the jackals who he is.'"
She added: "As if this unhinged take on The Jungle Book wasn’t jaw-dropping enough, there were a slew of other midnight-oil online musings. This included one wherein a voice-over makes the somewhat immoderate claim that Trump has been appointed by the Almighty as ‘caretaker’ of the world, with another dig at his nay-sayers as ‘wolves’ and ‘vipers’ – just in case we hadn’t got the anthropomorphic memo."
Burchill admitted that the posts were shocking "those of us who have talked him up over the years and – somewhat shamefully – greeted each new breach of decency with an indulgent what-a-wag/take-that-snowflakes chuckle," but stressed that it ultimately was not surprising. She noted that Trump has, over the last decade, embraced social media with "immoderate glee," calling the technology his "drug of choice," considering his lifelong abstention from things like alcohol and smoking.
"If Trump did do drugs and/or drink, he might use them as an excuse. That would be bad enough," Burchill wrote. "But to do these things in one’s right mind suggests that there is something very wrong with that mind; the phrase ‘second childhood’ occurs, when an aged person behaves in a way we might more readily associate with a badly-socialised brat. At the age of 80, Trump does seem like a particularly silly child, perhaps one who has consumed an excessive amount of E-numbers at his own birthday party and is one gummy sweet away from jumping on the table and announcing that he’s the king of the castle and those funny foreign kids are dirty rascals."
She added later: "[Trump derangement syndrome] is no excuse for my foolhardy fawning over this man. I should have drawn the line at the persistent sex-pest allegations, the ludicrous call for a ‘united Ireland’ and, more than anything, his repeated disrespect towards President Zelensky. This has now come to a head after Trump attempted to humiliate this dignified and stoic man by mocking his clothes. The US President’s cuddling up to Vladimir Putin seems to know no limits now. I’m ashamed that it took me so long to see sense; I swallowed that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ cliche to a point where I couldn’t seem to see past it. Like a long relationship you’ve invested a lot in, I’d defended him to my incredulous friends for so long that to back down would make me look like an atrocious judge of character – which I am, and always have been, and so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise."