U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One, en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., following a two-day visit to Ireland, September 13, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
On Tuesday, it became clear that President Donald Trump has been hit by a bad case of “buyer’s remorse” over his appointees to the Supreme Court. And according to Newsweek Senior Editor Shane Croucher, Trump isn’t the only one regretting his pick as many of his voters have ditched their support for his floundering presidency.
“Trump had stacked the Supreme Court with conservative justices who agreed with him about constitutional law,” writes Croucher. “Or so he thought. After their latest ruling against him, this time about mail-in ballots, Trump clearly has buyer's remorse.” While Trump blamed the Supreme Court’s decision that stymied his attack on mail-in voting as cowardice in the face of the left, as Croucher notes, “in truth, they were just applying the law as they saw it, whether to mail-in ballots, birthright citizenship, or the president's authority to impose tariffs.”
That didn’t stop Trump from ranting on social media that, "these are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves, a Court that is costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.”
As Croucher explains, “The court had on Monday denied the Trump administration’s emergency request to enforce its new Postal Service ballot rules for the 2026 midterm elections. Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that election officials lacked enough time to implement them, while Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. Trump nominated Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett during his first term. All three had declined to join the public dissent, and Trump was furious. But the latest episode offers a wider lens on Trump’s second term than his own outrage at those he thought he could rely on.”
But as Croucher notes, “Disappointment increasingly runs in both directions. Trump soared back to the White House on a promise to bring down prices after the painful years of so-called ‘Bidenflation.’ And yet now Americans are increasingly feeling the pinch thanks to Trump's trade war and his conflict in Iran, which has sent gas prices to record highs. Trump's war on Iran is an especially sore point. His campaign in 2024 had promised to put ‘America First’ and end such costly entanglements in the Middle East. Now, Americans are again paying the price of one — literally.” And when it comes to trade, ranchers, “rural folk who are part of Trump's natural coalition of voters, feel a sense of betrayal over his decision to import hundreds of thousands of tons of foreign beef to suppress prices.”
These cases of buyer’s remorse are increasingly spilling into the public spotlight. According to Croucher, “Tucker Carlson, once an ardent Trump supporter, became a prominent critic of the Iran war. Candace Owens said last year she was ‘very disappointed’ in Trump over Gaza and the handling of the Epstein files. The botched release of the Epstein files, and Trump's own dismissiveness of the issue, despite his personal proximity to the disgraced financier, caused a rupture with his own MAGA movement. Perhaps the highest-profile supporter to break with Trump was former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who went from his staunchest ally to remorseful outcast — blasting the president for betraying his own base.”
Data supports the idea that Trump voters are feeling remorse. As Croucher writes, “An August Navigator Research survey found 18 percent of 2024 Trump voters regretted their vote. Among the regretful, 45 percent cited Iran or other foreign-policy decisions and 43 percent cited prices and the cost of living. UMass Amherst found a similar erosion without a mass break. Fifty-eight percent of Trump voters were ‘very confident’ in their choice in August, down from 74 percent in April 2025. Pew found Republican economic optimism weakening too, with 41 percent rating the economy good or excellent in July, down from 49 percent in January. Even among Republicans, Trump's economic approval is sinking.”
Croucher argues that the midterms will be the true test of buyer’s remorse among Trump voters. If things go badly for him, predicts Croucher, “He'll probably blame the Supreme Court.”