'Like a spoiled toddler': Why Trump's own voters are turning on him

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025.

Bulwark founder Sarah Longwell’s deep dives into Trump supporter surveys have been uncovering dissatisfaction for weeks, but her most recent round of interviews pulls the scab off what looks like another Republican Party hijacking.

“His first presidency, mostly awesome, except the last seven months. And then because of all September 6th stuff. Now, when he's older, he seems like a spoiled toddler,” one Trump voter admitted. “I was laid off with 13,000 other people at Verizon, and the income inequality is not any better. And even with his insider trading stuff, he's like, nobody cares, but he can do the stuff and do all the insider trading stuff. … He's so open about it.”

That voter, who described himself as a kitchen table issues voter, expressed no love of Trump’s tariffs.

“That [tariff] money doesn't go to the people. That money goes to the government. And it takes years to filter down to the people in a way of tax relief,” he said.

“I think the war is the worst thing that could happen,” said another Trump voter, this time a woman. “And I really do think he didn't think this was going to happen. I think someone made a really poor decision. Did they even know that Iran was going to be able to take over the Strait of Hormuz? And did they not know that they weren't going to have enough military … to be able to end it quickly?”

“I remember the day that we started going to war with them and I could have sworn Trump said we're going to go in and out. It's going to be over within two weeks.,” complained another Trump voter. “And it's taken forever. And I think he realizes this is a big mistake. And I seriously think he don't know how he's going to get out of this.”

“Let's hold him to an ‘F’ [grade],” spat another Trump voter. “When Trump was campaigning, one of his big platforms was securing the border. I was expecting mass deportations, like real mass deportations. I was expecting revising who's actually being able to be a resident as well. [But] Iran is really bothering me because I feel like, for decades, we've spent a lot of time in the Middle East for all the wrong reasons, not serving our interests, but serving Israel's interests.”

“Whenever I dig into a MAGA group these days, they are really down on Trump. And the war is a big part of it. And the economy is the other big part of it,” admitted Longwell to show co-host and Bulwark writer Will Sommer. “The guy that started with Trump's first term, that the economy was so good. I hear this all the time. And I heard it as a justification for voting for Trump. … In Trump's first term, the economy was really good and I want that economy back. The other thing is that he owns the tariffs and people do not think that the tariffs are working.”

Longwell said she was sensitive to Trump’s polling trenching into the “Bush line,” when George W. Bush left office at 32 percent approval—which Trump is himself embracing.

“Thirty-two percent kind of left the party wide open for getting hijacked and changed because people were so disillusioned with Bush's war, the handling of the economy, the increased debt, all of those things,” said Longwell. “So in my head, right, I want people to think that MAGA is a failure. … There's no going back. I don't have any illusions that we're going back to the Mitt Romney party or anything like that. I guess I do think that there's maybe a slightly healthier version of the Republican party that could emerge. But it seems to me that the Tucker [Carlson] wing is currently ascendant and is being elevated by this war.”

This wing, she predicted would be “bound together by being conspiracy theorists,” and would be “anti-Israel, anti-war, and probably much more populist on economic things than even Trump was.”

“Imagine in 2028 when there won't be a candidate with Trump's charisma or his hold on this base,” said Sommer. “…It's striking, I think, that the average Republican voter is starting to think much more like war in the Middle East equals Israel, like that is being done for Israel, not that they're our ally. You know, I think that's very bad for the traditionally very pro-Israel MAGA establishment.”

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