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The New York Times spoke with a group of former Trump voters on Monday (April 27) to hear their thoughts on President Donald Trump’s performance thus far, with most expressing regret over their decision.
The voters, aged 19 to 65, were asked to provide feedback on Trump’s performance on issues such as immigration, the war in Iran, and affordability.
When asked to summarize their feelings about the state of the country, many used words such as “disappointed,” “frustrated,” and “betrayed.”
All but one gave Trump either a D or an F when asked to grade his second term, with only one—42-year-old Chris—assigning a C.
“Life is becoming more and more unaffordable. The prices of things like gasoline and food overall haven’t come down. I thought it all would just be a lot more affordable,” Chris said.
Many others shared similar sentiments, saying they believed Trump would address campaign promises, but have come to regret their vote.
“When he was saying he would try to fix immigration, I was behind it. But then the way he did it, it’s just not the way I agree with,” 51-year-old Alla said, clarifying that the actions of ICE largely changed her perspective.
Others said some of Trump’s policies have directly affected them, particularly tariffs and rising gas costs.
“I work for a company that has offices abroad. The tariffs are just creating chaos at work between all of our customers, not understanding all the changes that are happening, and the rollbacks, and are they going to get a refund. It’s just constant chaos,” 55-year-old Nancy said
The responses also sparked debate online, with some social media users criticizing voters’ understanding of policy and government.
Argenis, a 35-year-old HVAC specialist, was among the few who praised Trump’s policies at certain points. He said he appreciated Trump’s attempts to “do away with property taxes” and argued that people should not have to keep paying the government for them.
“This Trump voter in the NYT focus group thinks that when you pay property taxes, you're paying the government *for* your property rather than to fund services you use, as schools, police and fire, trash pickup,” one user on BlueSky said.
Another BlueSky user pointed to a comment from 62-year-old John, who described Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement as “two positive things,” claiming they accounted for a large portion of the national budget.
“...exactly how much money does this guy think we spent on those things?” the user wrote.
Toward the end of the article, 26-year-old Francesca said she believed voting for Trump would eliminate taxes.
“I thought that they would get rid of taxes so we would get our full paycheck instead of just half of it,” she said.
Some users said the interview results reflected a failure of American civic education to teach how policies affect daily life.
Data from the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed that just 22% of eighth-grade students nationwide were proficient in civics.
“It’s a dramatic failure of civics education and an embarrassing lack of patriotism,” a BlueSky user wrote. “So many people who only exist comfortably because of their country have no interest in learning how it works or affects their own lives, and are widely just too lazy or indifferent to learn. We should shame them.”
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