U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a press briefing at the White House, on the one-year mark into his second term in office, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 20, 2026. REUTERS Nathan Howard
Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell says first-time Trump voters voted Trump in 2024 for one reason over all others—and Trump failed to deliver the goods.
“When you have a Biden to Trump voter, they tend to have voted for Donald Trump for one specific reason, which is that he promised he was going to lower prices and make America more affordable. That's what they heard. That's what they believed,” Longwell told MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace. “… [T]he way these voters process anything that Trump is doing is they just ask ‘is what he is doing making my life more affordable? Because that's what I hired him to do.’ And so, whether it's building the ballroom, whether it is the aggressive way that they are shooting Americans in the streets and going after immigrants, or whether it is this war with Iran, they see it as not what they were promised.”
Longwell explained that one of the reasons Republican voters today are so much more isolationist and anti-war than they were 15 years ago, is because Trump himself taught them to be that way. In fact, Longwell argued that Trump was able to “railroad” his Republican primary opponents by promising he would pull the U.S. out of expensive international wars and campaigns.
“They were going to spend their time improving the lives of the average American,” said Longwell, and so these voters feel betrayed every time Trump does something that they don't see as to their advantage. And this Iran war is no different.”
Trump voters surveyed by Longwell’s organization fell “we just got done fighting, like the fatigue is already there,” said Longwell, and the blast of new gasoline price increases is hitting Trump’s new fans hard and fast.
“That's the betrayal, said Longwell. “And that's where you hear a lot of MAGA talking-head types really going hard at him, saying ‘this isn't what America First was supposed to be about. This isn't the promise you made to us. And that is like the most central vulnerability for Trump.”
“The things that Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly and Marjorie Taylor Greene have said about him over the last six days are amazing,” conceded Wallace.
