MAGA men are stockpiling food to prepare for disaster from Trump’s economy

Dallas Cruze was once a huge supporter of President Donald Trump in Detroit, Michigan. Now he thinks voting is pointless. He revealed that despite making $85,000 a year, he will still be short about $350 on his bills.

“I’ve checked out," he told Bloomberg News, which approached him as he sat at a table in a board game shop.

Cruze was among the young men who flocked to Trump in 2024 from the so-called "manosphere" and male-focused podcast hosts. Thanks to Trump's youngest child, Barron Trump, the campaign invested heavily in these hosts and the president eagerly appeared on their shows.

Those in the manosphere once prided themselves as taking the "red pill," a reference to the film "The Matrix." Taking the pill revealed the hidden reality. For men, that secret truth wasn't that life was a simulation but rather that feminism has rigged society and relationships against men.

Now, Cruze revealed, they're talking about a "black pill." It's more of a fatalistic worldview, in which they believe that some men are just doomed to romantic and sexual rejection regardless of what they do, New America explained. They think it's more about being unattractive and that women choose men not based on personality but physical features. They dismiss women's complaints about intelligence, self-improvement, social skills, personality and even cleanliness as factors.

Now Cruze is more concerned about the economy and war in Iran.

"The final betrayal, he says, was Republicans’ inclination to protect the rich and powerful rather than prosecute those named in the records of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein," the report explained.

He's not alone; the gripe has proliferated through male-focused podcasts in 2026.

Now Cruze is more focused on what he fears is coming as Americans grow increasingly desperate.

“I don’t see it going any other way besides violence,” he told Bloomberg. He took an informal survey of those playing games in the room at other tables. “You have no idea how bad I want to be wrong.”

He suggested everyone make friends with people who are stockpiling rice and beans, raising chickens and squirreling away things like gold and silver.

“Those are the people that are actually paying attention to what’s actually happening,” he said.

Those voters expected Trump to deliver on promises about the affordability problem, low wages, high gas prices and his pledge for "no foreign wars." He's failed on all of them. Where he has delivered is in his "war on woke," where white men can feel like they're not being discriminated against. While Trump's efforts have focused largely on colleges, it hasn't helped much when those young men still can't afford to go to college.

Jobs are another problem. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that more than 700,000 women have entered the workforce since Trump came back into office. Only 65,000 men have. In large part, male-dominated jobs like construction, manufacturing, mining and transportation and warehousing have taken a hit in the Trump economy. The one industry that continues to grow is healthcare-related, which is a predominantly female field.

Amanda Iovino, co-founder of the GOP polling firm Pantheon Insight, said that what they've found is that young men are simply turning out again. They've tracked whether they will hold their noses and vote again or if they're simply checked out altogether.

“Does that mean that they are just not voting, so therefore they’re not participating in anything election-related, which includes polls?” Iovino said. “Or does that mean that they’re just turning everything off yet still voting? I have a difficult time believing that they’ll tune everything out and still go vote.”