Trump voters now hate the MAGA policies they voted for: analysis

Now eight and one-half months into his second presidency, Donald Trump is being inundated with polls that show him with weak approval ratings — including 38 percent (Leger), 40 percent (YouGov and Pew Researcher Center) and 41 percent (Marist College).

Trump and his allies continue to insist that he has a "mandate" for his far-right policies. But the 2024 election was close, and Trump won the popular vote by only 1.5 percent in 2024.

In a conversation published in Q&A format on October 4, three New York Times opinion columnists — Never Trump conservative David French and liberals Michelle Goldberg and Jamelle Bouie — observe that many of Trump's policies are wildly unpopular even though more U.S. voters than not chose to put him back in the White House.

Goldberg told French and Bouie, "Look, we have a president who is completely lawless. We are in a free fall toward authoritarianism. You have a Democratic Party electorate that is absolutely furious at their leaders. I mean, I cannot overstate the amount of anger there is toward (Democratic Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer in particular."

Bouie lamented that many Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 didn't fully realize what all they were singing up for.

"If you don't want this consequence, don't vote for Republicans," Bouie told French and Goldberg. "I think part of what's broken in American politics is the feedback mechanism. The choices voters make don't reliably result in feedback that helps them understand or contextualize those choices. So, for example, a Republican voter receiving Medicaid may not necessarily see it as the same Medicaid that a Black voter in New York receives. They may perceive those as two different things."

French argued that the "classical Republican Party" no longer exists.

The Never Trumper told Goldberg and Bouie, "The Republican Party is becoming much more working class, while educated voters are moving more toward the Democrats. So, in fact, Medicaid cuts now impact more Republicans than they used to. Is there a scenario where Republicans are not really reading their own room? As their base becomes more working class, is playing games with health care subsidies, or with Medicaid cuts — or financing tax cuts partly through Medicaid cuts — just not going to be a successful strategy anymore?"

Read the full New York Times conversation at this link (subscription required).