'Overrated': Trump team turns on 'paper tiger' voters that cemented reelection

President Donald Trump reacts after signing an executive order in Washington, D.C., August 5, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Betrayal and buyer's remorse are becoming increasingly common feelings between the Trump administration and its voters, and now, a member of the president's team has twisted the knife more, per CNN, calling one group key to his reelection a "paper tiger" and "overrated" as they appear poised to abandon him.

Among the numerous factors that contributed to President Donald Trump's reelection in 2024, much credit has been given to the boost he received from supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped his independent campaign and endorsed the Republican ticket, allegedly in exchange for his current role as HHS Secretary. These supporters, now dubbed "Make America Healthy Again, or, "MAHA," largely broke for Trump over Kamala Harris, but have since expressed deep disappointment over his health agenda so far, including moves that seem entirely antithetical to their views.

Now, the "MAHA-MAGA rift" is growing, more according to a Thursday report from CNN, after Trump's RFK-backed surgeon general nominee, Casey Means, flamed out in the confirmation process, now being replaced by someone the health secretary reportedly had no input on.

"It’s the latest sign that, after a year of letting Kennedy 'go wild' on health care, as Trump promised ahead of the election, the president and his top aides are shortening the leash in the run-up to the midterms — and imposing tighter political constraints on the HHS secretary even at the risk of alienating the legion of followers he brought into the Republican Party," CNN explained.

The report added: "The shifting dynamics have strained the White House’s relationship with MAHA voters who largely sided with him in the 2024 election. And they have raised fresh questions within Trump’s orbit about how far he must go to please a movement that some now doubt has lived up to its claim that it would be a major national political force within the GOP."

One anonymous source, described as an "adviser" to Trump, dismissed the dangers of alienating the MAHA voter base, claiming that their influence is overstated.

“I hate to say it, but I think they’re a little bit overrated,” the adviser told CNN. “To some extent, MAHA has always been a paper tiger.”

The adviser continued later, stressing that the new surgeon general nominee, Dr. Nicole Saphier, is closely aligned with the tenets of the MAHA movement that are broadly popular, calling her a "sane" representative of the movement.

"She’s MAHA, but it’s like, sane MAHA,” the Trump adviser said. “There’s a lot of stuff that MAHA supports, like cleaner food — that’s really popular stuff. But I also think that vaccines are very popular, and the White House has to take a good, strong, common-sense position on this stuff.”

Speaking with CNN, one GOP strategist predicted that these spurned MAHA voters are not guaranteed to stick with Republicans, and could just as easily break for Democrats who say what they want to hear about health policies.

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