MAGA Voters Who Didn’t Take Trump at His Word

While those who backed Kamala Harris could have predicted much of what is currently happening under the Felon 2.0 based on the Felon's own words and the details of Project 2025, many in MAGA world are expressing shock and unease about the Felon's measures on tariffs, the freezing of payments and guarantees, defunding of government agencies and many other issues.  Bourbon and whiskey manufacturers in Kentucky are seeing export sales decline, Mid-West grain producers are being hit by the effort to shutter USAID which purchased $2 billion in grains each year, tariffs may already be driving prices higher even if temporarily suspended, and financial CEO's worry about economic stability being threatened.  Candidly, it is difficult to feel any sympathy for those who voted for the Felon and brought these problems - and likely many more to come - upon themselves. Saying "I told you so" does not undo the damage being done that will impact most Americans except the very wealthy whose wealth protects them from the worse impacts.  A piece in The Atlantic looks at the shock of MAGA voters who still don't want to look in the mirror for the root cause of their problems.  Here are excerpts:

Ask Trump supporters why they like the president, and chances are good you’ll hear something like: He tells it like it is and says what he means. The question, then, is why so many of them refused to take him at his word. Over the first three weeks of the second Trump presidency, a recurrent motif is that Trump does exactly what he said he would, and then people who backed him react with shock and dismay.

If you’re surprised, you weren’t paying attention—and judging from recent examples, many people weren’t. When Trump announced his plan (I’m using the word generously) to occupy the Gaza Strip and convert it into an international real-estate development, the chairman of Arab Americans for Trump, which formed to back him during the election, expressed shock and betrayal . . . . Some Arab American voters may have felt compelled to lodge a protest vote against Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza, even if it meant contributing to Trump’s win, but no one should have been surprised that a guy who used Palestinian as an insult during the campaign was not a sincere champion for the people of Gaza.

Some Venezuelan Americans in Florida are feeling similar outrage. Trump continued to make gains with Hispanic voters in 2024, but this month he ended Temporary Protected Status, a designation that allows noncitizens to stay in the country, for about 300,000 Venezuelans, with more TPS designees likely to lose their status later. . . . . Some voters just convinced themselves that their own groups wouldn’t become targets.

They’re not alone. Some Kentucky educators who voted for Trump are aghast that his administration is trying to cut off federal funding that they need to keep their schools functioning, despite his campaign-trail promises to abolish the Department of Education. “I did not vote for that,” one principal told CNN. “I voted for President Trump to make America first again and to improve our lives.” The Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, endorsed Trump for president, then decried Trump’s decision to pardon January 6 rioters who attacked police officers—never mind that he had promised pardons while campaigning.

CEOs and bankers who decided they liked Trump better because he favors low taxes and less regulation are suddenly chagrined to learn that he was serious about tariffs. A Missouri farmer who voted for Trump is horrified that the administration is freezing federal funding for conservation programs, even though Trump promised to eliminate environmental programs and slash government spending.

Other Trump promises were pretty dubious if you listened to the rest of his plans. “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again,” he said. But Trump’s signature campaign ideas were large tariffs and mass deportation. Both of these are inflationary: Tariffs raise the price of goods, and mass deportation makes labor scarcer, raising salaries, which in turn drives prices higher.

You don’t need an economics degree to predict this. You just had to heed the many warnings about it, which even Fox News covered. Or you could just listen to what Trump said, as when he suggested that tariffs would pay for child care or that Biden’s encouragement of wind power was responsible for inflation. These aren’t just the kinds of comforting nonsense all politicians sometimes peddle; they’re incoherent. Since winning the election, he has downplayed his inflation promises and announced a set of tariffs that, although not fully felt yet, may already be edging prices higher. Now Trump wants the Fed to drop interest rates, which would stimulate the economy—and likely increase inflation.