'Large Numbers' of Trump Supporters Are Now Distancing Themselves From Him: Analysis

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/ailia-zehra/115176/large-numbers-of-trump-supporters-are-now-distancing-themselves-from-him-analysis

‘Large Numbers’ of Trump Supporters Are Now Distancing Themselves From Him: Analysis
by Ailia Zehra | October 17, 2025 - 5:35am

— from Alternet


In an article for CNN published Thursday, Aaron Blake, a senior political reporter for the outlet, argued that conservative podcast host Joe Rogan’s recent surprise at the severity of President Donald Trump’s deportation policies may reflect a broader realization among Americans that Trump is going further than many expected in his second term.

snip//

According to Blake, Public opinion appears to be rapidly shifting.

The percentage of Americans who say Trump is doing what he promised has declined over time — from 70 percent in February to 52 percent this month. Blake argued that these numbers reflect growing discomfort with how far Trump has gone.

“That would suggest large numbers of people have gradually come to believe this wasn’t what the country signed up for,” he wrote.

Blake also underscored how even predictions that Trump might use the Justice Department against political foes or issue sweeping pardons for January 6 rioters underestimated the scale of those actions. While many expected some level of this behavior, the extent has gone beyond what polls showed most thought “very likely.”

A June Pew Research Center poll backs this up, with 48 percent of Americans saying Trump’s actions were worse than they expected, compared to just 20 percent who said they were better.

Blake noted that Trump’s long-standing habit of making extreme promises — and then sometimes not following through — gave supporters leeway to assume he might not act on his most provocative pledges. Now, as those promises are being realized, public reaction is shifting.

[dem4decades]

1. I don't believe it, the ones i see love him more than ever.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

2. Same here

[Cosmocat]

12. And we have seen this song and dance three times now

Once there is an actual race with a D against him (assuming that occurs) they will justify voting for him cause the D is SO much worse.

Damn Ds making us vote for him because they are so extremist.

[Orrex]

16. Likewise

They more he fucks them, the more they worship him.

[flashman13]

37. Feel free to believe whatever you want, but I put my money on hard numbers compiled by professionals

using recognized methods of statistical analysis.

Are all polls equal? They are absolutely not. As a consumer you have to do some work to know the differences. Across the board the polls say Trump is tanking. My personal poll out here in Redlandia says that the number of Trump flags and signs are now very near zero.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's No Kings Day. I know most of the people who are on our side that will be there. I am very interested to see how many Republicans join us. I will report back.

[KS Toronado]

43. dumpie flags are zero in my red town

Used to be dozens, haven't seen one in 2 years and very few window signs.

[flashman13]

44. In Trump world it is chaos and all Donny the All Mighty. In the real world I really think the tide is turning.

[KS Toronado]

47. I've been saying red KS is turning purple

Hope to see that on election day.

[Aristus]

39. I agree.

Find me one who doesn't say "But I still support him because he's doing good things for the country!" and I'll get excited. Until then, it's just cheap, unconvincing, performative "concern".

[Irish_Dem]

3. Doesn't matter. Trump and his pals are busy rigging the voting system even more.

They know how to do it even better than last time.
Stolen elections from now on?

[gab13by13]

6. They will get away with it because

people actually believe that W won both his elections. If I dare point out a few facts I am called a conspiracy nut.

What would our country be like today if we had Gore or Kerry, or both as president?

Oh and, Kamala won.

Democrats keep using the same strategy, throw money at the election and GOTV. I have been getting a dozen texts every day to donate, I donate to the ACLU and Indivisible.

Look what Indivisible is doing, organizing unwashed Americans to fight back. Let's all go to the No Kings rallies if we can or at least donate to Indivisible. Indivisible is looking for new members every day.

Wife and I mailed in our ballots yesterday in Pa. 3 state Supreme Court justices are up for retention, they are Democrats. Please residents of Pa. please make sure to vote to retain our 3 Democratic justices, Rich Magat billionaires are pouring millions of dollars into this election to oust them.

[Irish_Dem]

8. Yes it was so obvious W stole the election.

His brother promised to deliver Florida to him and he did it by hook and crook.
The criminals on the US Supreme Court were only too happy to legitimize the crime.

And then yes Kamala won the election but Trump cheated to be installed.
Trump was facing jail, bankruptcy and humiliation if he lost the election.
Same with Putin as well as losing Ukraine.

We are supposed to believe these two psychopaths
and their billionaire techie pals did not cheat one bit.

Sure.

[gab13by13]

4. A dictator doesn't give a shit about polls.

Only we, the people, can throw out the billionaires.

We don't have a superman, nor have an Alexei Navalny.

[sop]

5. Not till he comes for their guns. That's the third rail of MAGA politics.

Bondi was forced to immediately backtrack when the 2A crowd "aggressively" complained about a recent District Court order compelling gun rights groups to turn over their membership lists:

'DOJ Moves to Amend Court Judgment Demanding Membership Lists in Reese v. ATF'

"On October 10, the Department of Justice and plaintiffs in Reese v. ATF filed a joint motion to amend the judgment of a Louisiana District Court earlier this week, which compelled gun rights groups to turn over their membership lists by October 28."

"Gun rights groups came out aggressively against the District Court judgment, and there was some confusion in the community about the Department of Justice’s position on this ruling."

"The recently-filed joint motion clarifies the DOJ position stating 'The Government, as a general policy, does not compel disclosure of the identity of members of private organizations, and the Government did not seek to do so here.' "

"Parties requested the following amendment to the judgment to satisfy the controversy around the membership list request: And to alter the language of paragraph 5 to replace 'shall provide' with 'may provide.' "

"Gun rights groups have already declared they would never share their private membership lists under any circumstances."

https://www.news2a.com/national/doj-moves-to-amend-court-judgment-requesting-membership-lists-in-reese-v-atf/

[OldBaldy1701E]

25. Sure, they don't.

The Government, as a general policy, does not compel disclosure of the identity of members of private organizations

Unless they are aligned with or attached to anyone or anything connected to the Democratic Party.

They want to go 'Final Solution' on us.

But, they are not hypocrites.

[sop]

31. Designate the group a "Domestic Terrorist Organization," then demand disclosure of nonexistent membership lists.

[Lovie777]

7. They will still vote for him......................

[kerouac2]

9. Percentage of Americans is diff than percent of Republicans

He's doing a lot of what he said he would do, it's just not having the results he promised. Didn't take a rocket scientist to know how rounding up migrants and immigrants would affect things like farming. Or that tariffs would raise prices.

And we knew what project 25 outlined... Tho he did pretty much deny knowing about it..

[Delmette2.0]

46. ..denied knowing about it.

I do believe that part. 47 does not have any ability of any kind to think up Project 25. He just likes each part as it is implemented.

[struggle4progress]

10. "I never voted for him more than two or three times. And I never went

to any rallies after the first fifteen or twenty. Plus I hardly gave him more than a few thousand dollars"

[Ray Bruns]

11. Total horse shit. It's what he said he would do and he's doing it.

“Trump’s deportation policies may reflect a broader realization among Americans that Trump is going further than many expected in his second term”

[gab13by13]

14. You may be right but I disagree.

I think the United States is full of white supremacists, many of them are simply closeted. My church's new priest is a Magat, he practically gave a eulogy for Charlie Kirk for one of his sermons.

Face the facts, a lot of Americans hate non-white and LGBTQ people.

People who are polled about whether they agree with Krasnov's deportations may say they disagree but will 100% vote for politicians to enable it.

[Lonestarblue]

18. Yes. The texts revealed by Politico show what the Republican Party is today.

They think that getting rid of all the brown and black people and forcing women out of the workforce will solve all their problems. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

[Festivito]

27. Dehumanizing blacks and gays to dehumanize all non-rich

of the few by the few for the few works for smaller minds.

Smaller minds are mean.

Mad for they know their minds are small.

More should be given them.

Not earned through work. Dirty word, work.

[Escape]

23. Yes....Sad, but true....

Racism is the core of modern Republican politics and the growing diversification of the American population scares them to death.
Judging a person by the color of their skin is an impossible concept for those of us with a modicum of intelligence and compassion. Unfortunately, these traits are absent in the modern Republican Party.

Donald Trump has pulled back the curtain on the new Ugly America.

[lonely bird]

26. Hmmm

We had a supply priest who praised Kirk’s widow as truly Christian because she forgave his murderer. Of course, she wanted retribution in the next breath.

I also don’t believe she really forgave the guy. It was agitprop.

[travelingthrulife]

33. You should refuse to attend his church and tell him why.

Challenge him to discuss Separation of Church and Hate at his next bible study.

[VMA131Marine]

38. Time to find a new church

There’s nothing remotely Christian about what Charlie Kirk was doing.

[lrucks1952]

40. this is true

I agree with this total take...U.S> is full of these supremacists...When I hear people say "WE in the US are better than this" My response is..No!! We are not This is who the US has now shown to be

[gab13by13]

13. The move from democracy to autocracy has been done in record time.

Mainly because too many people mistakenly believed that everything would be all right.

Time Mattered during President Biden's presidency, Garland waiting 11 months before searching Mar-a-Lago still bothers me. What could Jack Smith have done with an extra 11 months? Different time frame may not have given us Aileen Cannon.

[dalton99a]

34. Everyone saw that Trump was coming back with a bulldozer, but Democrats focused on paint and redecoration

Biden absolutely could have forestalled Trump's return to power.

In fact, he should have made it his No. 1 priority.

[Ferrets are Cool]

15. Too fucking late.

[SSJVegeta]

17. Its not too late for them tp join us in opposition

But its getting close. And so far this "reconsidering" is still far from what is needed. They still haven't come to terms with how evil he is, so any kind of "well this is a little worse than I thought it woild be," is pretty useless.

[Ferrets are Cool]

22. I suspect, without proof, that they will still vote republican in the next election.

And, tbh, their opposition means nothing to a dictator. They will just be considered "enemies of the people", just like me.

[SSJVegeta]

24. History has proven that enough opposition -regardless of the dictator, will be effective.

I look at South Korea as a beacon of hope.

[lonely bird]

28. Agreed

How many are like the “good Germans” that hated the socialists so they supported Hitler until it was far too late?

[MLWR]

19. I don't know where I would fit in that scheme.

I expected him to be awful and he is. What I didn't expect was that the so-called SCOTUS would end up caving to his every wish and desire and totally doing their best to twist the words in The Constitution to mean something completely different from what is clearly stated.

[ananda]

20. Well, I don't expect the Magats to vote Democratic, but...

if the independents and fence-sitters come out to vote,
that could make a difference.

And maybe some Magats might not vote.

[Queso Delicioso]

21. We've just seen evidence that there are a lot of closet Nazis

So forgive me if I doubt any are especially taken aback at his gestapo tactics. This is, as they will gleefully tell you, what they voted for.

[NoRethugFriends]

29. Dream on

[underpants]

30. To counter some here, weigh in or balance this with the propaganda they see

I posted last week about what I saw in one morning at my folks house on Fox. It’s not a long post.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220715434

People love to gripe. Much of our discourse now centers on it.
What MAGA consumes in media is both a constant victory lap, victimization, and an underlying threat as to what happens to the unfaithful. This downturn is in opposition to both the constant headwind against it AND waking against the tide (I’m on vacation at the water) so any change of heart that actually registers is tempered by those forces.

They are told that what they see on TV or on social media is to protect them. Many relish the violence but the actual arch of nature is against it. MAGA propaganda is powerful but it’s not that powerful. People see wrong when they see it.

[leftstreet]

42. +1

What MAGA consumes in media is both a constant victory lap, victimization, and an underlying threat as to what happens to the unfaithful.

Nicely stated

[mn9driver]

32. Just back from a visit to deep red Minnesota.

All of the Trump idolatry and Democrat hate slogans were still visible. From what I observed, the Cult is still alive and well.

[BannonsLiver]

35. It's true. I've seen evidence of this in my area.

Both from observing it and interacting with actual magats.

[Wonder Why]

36. Doesn't matter. Democracy doesn't work unless people do the right thing when they have the power

of decision making. The Repugs have not shown any indication that they understand this.

[UTUSN]

41. The culprits are the MAGATs who swallow anything from KRASNOV, but also the intellectual elites who

were drum-beating, "Not to worry about what he *SAYS* only what he does," and lectured how we should put ourselves in the shoes of the cultists, reach out to them, and "understand" them. Those who now claim they didn't think he would do stuff are as bad as the cult.

The rest of us knew he was just a petty, vengeful, amoral *AHOLE*. Nothing he could say or "promise" meant anything else.

[UTUSN]

45. The *masks* and *mandates* were just SO dictatorial! Sarcasm.