U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during an event at The Villages Charter School at The Villages, Florida, U.S., May 1, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
After Bulwark Editor Sarah Longwell finished processing a recent slate of surveys, she said she was surprised by the sheer amount of indifference (and even suspicion) haunting respondents who had voted for Donald Trump in 2020 and 2024.
“Okay, let me just set the table on this because we did five groups this week all across the political spectrum, and not a single one brought up the White House correspondence dinner situation,” Longwell told podcast guest host and former GOP speechwriter David Frum. “Nobody brought this up organically — not in five groups where we asked ‘how do you think things are going in the country.’ People were talking about how things feel like a powder keg, but nobody brought that up.”
Instead, what Longwell quickly picked up on was the taint of distrust.
“It just doesn't make sense to me that we have our leader — who is supported/protected by what is supposed to be the … the most dominant military force on the planet. It doesn't make sense to me that there have been this many close attempts on his life when we have all these other presidents recently who haven't really had that issue,” said one Trump voter.
“I can't even … bring in a can of Diet Coke to a baseball game or a concert without a metal detector [going off] or them emptying in my pocket,” complained another. “So, the idea of somebody having a gun, especially where the president is, makes no sense.”
“I feel like it was a ploy to get his ballroom that he wants and that's his reason because literally that is the first thing that he talks about after,” said a woman who voted for Trump in 2025, and who describes herself as an avid fan of guns. “It's suddenly ‘see, this is why I need the ballroom at the White House because [I] almost got shot.’ Like, that's literally the first thing he talks about after this happens. That's not normal. That's not what people think about after you almost get shot.”
Still another Trump voter said she was becoming numb to all of Trump’s shootings and drama.
“Whether it's the French president and his husband/wife, whether it's these NASA people who have just a dozen of them died or been murdered or had accidental deaths within the last year, whether it's the Charlie Kirk total cover up I just feel like this particular shooting I'm almost becoming desensitized,” the woman said.
Democrats surveyed immediately suspected a ploy to build a ballroom or tweak Trump’s rotten polls.
“I feel like every single one of [the shootings] have been staged and that there's no truth to any of them,” said one Maine Democrat.
“I want to be able to look at the facts and to trust the reporting that's going on. But the fact is that because of all of the lies and all of the gaslighting and all of the theater productions that this administration puts on, it's really hard to believe them,” said another Democrat.
“As a physician, there are so many red flags about the [shooting] in Pennsylvania where his ear was bloodied or whatever,” said still another Democrat. “First of all, there was nothing about his emergency room visit, any of the tests or scans. When Reagan was hurt seriously, that was all in the open — his medical reports or whatever. And a nearly 80 year old person does not heal that quickly.”
“Mostly they thought he's doing this because his numbers are tanking and he wants his ballroom and that's why they think this happened that it was somehow set up,” a surprised Longwell told Frum.
