Trump’s Own Fans Are Furious

Summary

Bulwark Takes — "Trump’s Own Fans Are Furious"

Podcast: Bulwark Takes
Date: March 12, 2026
Host: The Bulwark team, including Tim Miller and Katie Tuur
Main Guests/Voices: Mark McKinnon, Dave Weigel, Ashley Parker, Richard Stanley (Trump voter), Joe Rogan, Andrew Schultz

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the brewing discontent among Donald Trump’s own supporters during his second term, specifically in response to broken campaign promises, rising living costs, and the administration’s initiation of the Iran war. Hosts and guests discuss first-hand reactions from Trump voters, shifts in public sentiment, backlash against key policies like mass deportations, and the resulting political turbulence for the Republican Party as the midterms approach.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Trump’s Base Shows Frustration

• Opening (01:00) — Tim Miller sets the stage, noting a "half baked effort" by Republicans to walk back their "mass deportation" agenda as it’s proving unpopular in the midterms.
• Miller’s Take:
  • “I think there is a category of people that for some godforsaken reason joined Trump for the third election. I think those people are jumping off the boat. But I think there’s also a category of people that are just going to be like pissed, screw you, Trump. And aren’t going to show up.” (01:45)
  • The impact may be less on Trump personally, but significant for down-ballot Republicans.

On-the-Ground Voter Perspectives

• Man-on-the-Street Interview with Richard Stanley (02:50–05:00)
  • Rising Costs: Richard expresses disappointment that Trump’s promise of $3 gas has become $5 gas, refuting the claim that increases are “small.”
    • “It was almost at $2 and something cents… it’s 5.50 a gallon. We don’t want off of hopes and dreams.” (03:29)
  • Safety & War: Skeptical about claims of increased safety due to war, says he feels no safer.
    • “As far as being safe at this point in time, anybody can do anything. So as far as safety, he ain’t doing nothing for my safety.” (03:50)
  • Broken Promises & Nostalgia for Biden:
    • “I missed my Uncle Joe… it was a whole lot calmer than this. It didn’t affect my day-to-day life. … Now I couldn’t even show you $5 in my pocket. This whole thing’s got a recession going on.” (04:29)

Policy Failures and Republican Backpedaling

• Katie Tuur breaks down Trump’s record (05:04):
  • Dismantling of government agencies and health regulations, leading to a measles outbreak.
  • Initiation of global tariff wars, saber-rattling with allies (including Canada), and bizarre Greenland/Nobel Prize episodes.
  • Lawless foreign policy: extraction of Venezuela’s leader, bombing “drug boats,” pardoning convicted traffickers.
  • Mass deportations, disregard for due process, and even American citizens caught in the dragnet.
    • “He hasn’t even kept his promise to lower prices, a fact that is only made worse by the war. A war that you just heard Richard say is not worth it.” (06:04)

Conservative Commentators Feel Betrayed

• Joe Rogan (07:32):
  • “This just seems so insane based on what he ran on. … This is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on no more wars and these stupid, senseless wars. And then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.”
• Andrew Schultz (08:06):
  • “I really don’t think there’s anything that gets America to support the war … Americans don’t give a. Americans can’t. … they don’t care about what’s happening in Iran.”
• Tim Miller & Panel Discussion:
  • Surprise at the widespread claims of betrayal, given Trump’s prior saber-rattling and withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which set up current conditions.
  • Many supporters “fooled,” but others always saw Trump as a “charlatan.”
  • “No foreign wars” message was fundamental to Trump’s coalition; its violation could cost crucial support.

Core MAGA vs. Broader Coalition (09:47–11:30)

• Lifestyle Brand Loyalty:
  • “People who say they’re MAGA are for this [the war]. … That’s like a lifestyle brand that they’re a part of. And so they’re gonna go along for everything.” (10:54)
  • Newer, less-devoted supporters ("Joe Rogan and Andrew Schultzes") are out, which could hurt Republicans in the midterms.

Political Calculus and Messaging Failures

• Mass Deportation Backlash (11:41–13:50)
  • Republican strategists attempt to refocus messaging away from "mass deportations" toward "removing violent criminals."
  • In practice, the extreme policies are visible and impacting ordinary lives, especially in communities with mixed-status families.
  • Quote:
    • “It would probably be better for the Republicans to just own it and try to gin up their own base that way, rather than doing this thing that no one’s going to buy.” (13:50)
  • Republicans still have not figured out how to motivate the base without repelling the broader electorate.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Tim Miller (01:45):

  • “There is a category of people…jumping off the boat. But I think there’s also a category [who] are just going to be like pissed, screw you, Trump. And aren’t going to show up.”

• Richard Stanley (04:29):

  • “I missed my Uncle Joe… I was a nobody. And I was balling then. Now I couldn’t even tell you, I couldn’t even show you $5 in my pocket.”

• Katie Tuur (06:04):

  • “He hasn’t even kept his promise to lower prices, a fact that is only made worse by the war. A war that you just heard Richard say is not worth it.”

• Joe Rogan (07:32):

  • “This is why a lot of people feel betrayed…he ran on no more wars… then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.”

• Panelist (13:50):

  • “It would probably be better for the Republicans to just own it and try to gin up their own base that way, rather than doing this thing that no one’s going to buy.”

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 01:00: Tim Miller’s intro and summary of Republican midterm positioning
• 02:50–05:00: Richard Stanley, Trump voter, outlines his anger and disappointment
• 05:04–06:20: Katie Tuur’s rundown of Trump’s recent record and increasing voter disillusionment
• 07:32–08:45: Joe Rogan and Andrew Schultz air feelings of betrayal over Trump’s war policies
• 09:47–11:30: Discussion on core MAGA supporters vs. broader coalition fallout
• 11:41–13:50: Analysis of Republican messaging, mass deportation backlash, and the party’s strategic bind

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Overall Tone and Conclusion

The episode is brisk, biting, and laced with dry humor—typical of The Bulwark’s style. Hosts lean into both dismay and schadenfreude at the GOP’s turmoil, focusing on how Trump’s own base is fracturing under the weight of broken promises and unpopular policies. Disenchantment among both everyday voters and handpicked influencers signals mounting danger for Republican fortunes as the midterms loom.

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Summary Takeaway

Trump’s coalition is splitting, not only on the fringes but potentially at its core, driven by war fatigue, pocketbook pain, and an administration seemingly indifferent to its original promises. The Republican Party faces a critical moment: attempts to pivot messaging aren’t fooling an electorate living with the real-world consequences of Trump’s presidency. As one guest put it, the strategy “might be clever… but that’s not going to work. People have seen the policy.”

Transcript

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Get a commercial auto insurance quote [e-mail] and see how much you could save. It feels good. To Geico. Hey everybody. Tim over the bull. I got off with Katie Turr, who was also on with my old Circus buddy Mark McKinnon as well as Dave Weigel and Ashley Parker. And we're talking about a number of things, including the really half baked effort by Republicans to try to backtrack on their mass deportation platform because that's not popular in the midterms. Good luck with that. But we also talked about this question of whether Trump really risks losing his core MAGA base over the Iran war. And they played this great clip I'm very excited to show you of a man on the street interview shout out to them. That's now people out there grabbing Trump voters outside of gas stations. But it was really telling. And this guy's pissed. And I kind of review my conversation yesterday with Sagar and Jedi. If you missed that, go check it out. We talk about in what ways is this gonna hurt Trump? And I think that sometimes people wrongly think that the scales are gonna fall from the eyes of the red hat people that show up to the rallies. And that is not what I expect. I think that there is a category of people that for some godforsaken reason joined Trump for the third election. I think those people are jumping off the boat. But I think there's also a category of people that are just going to be like pissed, Screw you, Trump. And aren't going to show up. And that creates real political problems. Unfortunately, not really for Trump himself, but for the rest of the Republicans, which we can take some solace in since they deserve it. So stick around. Little teaser, but this Trump voter is having some nostalgia for the Uncle Joe economy. We can't show this to jvl. Don't show this to jvl. He'll stroke out. Subscribe to the feed. Stick around on the other side. Katie Turner, me, the Trump voter, Mark McKinnon and more.

[Interviewer]

You voted for President Trump in the last election. He promised to bring down prices. What do you make of that campaign promise?

[Richard Stanley (Trump Voter)]

He did vote. He said he'd have gas under $3 and now it's right at 5. And I mean, honestly, it's something that he stole from somewhere and now we're at what, $5 a gallon? He's saying about for our safety. Our safety. Leave somebody alone, they won't bother you.

[Interviewer]

He said that the small increase in prices is for safety. I guess one, do you feel more safe in this country right now? And, and two, is it worth the price of gas? Is that safety worth it?

[Richard Stanley (Trump Voter)]

A small increase on prices? It's over a dollar more than what it was. It was at, it was almost at $2 and something cents. He was bragging the other day on news 190 or 290 somewhere, it's 550 a gallon. We don't want off of hopes and dreams. And as far as being safe this point in time, anybody can do anything. So as far as safety, he ain't doing nothing for my safety.

[Interviewer]

Is there anything else you want to say about the price of gas, about the cost of living, about the experience you're going through right now.

[Richard Stanley (Trump Voter)]

I would just wish he'd keep up on his campaign promise and say he was going to put it under $3. He'd end that war so fast. But here it is, what, five years later, helping his buddy out, get his more money and then never mind charging us Americans all sorts of money for fuel that you just stole from Venezuela.

[Interviewer]

Do you regret your vote right now?

[Richard Stanley (Trump Voter)]

Well, between him and her, I think I thought he was the better choice. But honestly, I missed my Uncle Joe because I mean, yeah, there was a lot of craziness going on, but it was a whole lot calmer than this. It didn't affect my day to day life. I was a nobody. And I was balling then. Now I couldn't even tell you. I couldn't even show you $5 in my pocket. This whole thing's got a recession going on. I don't know if anybody else is seeing it, but I definitely see it firsthand.

[Katie Tuur]

Good to be with you. I'm Katie Tuur. That was Richard Stanley. As you heard, he's a Trump voter and he is exactly who the president and the Republican Party want to keep in the midterms and Bey. But they're not making it easy for folks like Richard who now say they miss not Sleepy Joe, but Uncle Joe, as in President Joe Biden. Americans are apt to remember the past as better than the president. President, excuse me. It's why the party in the White House usually does lose control in the midterms. We ping pong. But during the Trump era, that ping ponging is usually on the fringes. What happens though, if the core of Trump's support does start to swing as well? We could be seeing that as we speak. With the war in Iran acting as a tipping point, we are in the second year of the Trump term. So far, he has dismantled wide swaths of the federal government installed health officials who have opened the door to the biggest measles outbreak since the 1990s. He's rolled back clean air regulations and incentives for green energy, which would come in useful right now. He started a global tariff war, including a nasty fight with our normally mild mannered neighbor to the north and Canada. He's threatened to take Greenland by military force from Denmark, at least in part because Norway didn't give him the Nobel Peace Prize. He has taken the leader of Venezuela from his home in the middle of the night in what the administration deemed a law enforcement action. He's unilaterally bombed boats in the Caribbean that the administration has claimed without evidence are drug boats, both in the name of curbing drug trafficking, while also, by the way, pardoning another leader, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was serving 45 years for trafficking drugs into this country. He's deported migrants without due process. He has defied court orders. He's detained others violently, including American citizens and federal agents working under his hand. Picked officials have killed two Americans and he hasn't even kept his promise to lower prices, a fact that is only made worse by the war. A war that you just heard Richard say is not worth it. So how many more Richards are out there? Tim, it's not just the Richards that are out there. It's also some people who have big megaphones. Let me play Joe Rogan saying he feels betrayed,

[Dale (Framing Contractor)]

which just seems so insane based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on no more wars and these stupid, senseless wars. And then we have one that we can't even really clearly define why we did it.

[Geico Insurance Representative]

Well, but he said he's against endless wars. Against endless wars.

[Dale (Framing Contractor)]

Well, listen, man, they're all endless. Have you ever heard Rumsfeld talk about Iraq when it first happened?

[Geico Insurance Representative]

Tell me. They were.

[Dale (Framing Contractor)]

They were talking about, like, six weeks. Six weeks.

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Oh, yeah.

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Six weeks.

[Katie Tuur]

Not just him. Let's play Andrew Schultz now, too.

[Andrew Schultz]

I really don't think there's anything that gets America to support the war.

[Geico Insurance Representative]

Of course, we've seen Iraq and Afghanistan we don't want yet. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I just don't think. I don't know if there's a single thing that you could get. Now, if they are able to pull it off in a short amount of time, like, let's say in two weeks, they're able to do it and the people get liberated and there's a new regime in there. I don't know if people, like, look at it unfavorably, but in no way are they gonna go, yes, we should continue to do this and we should continue to support it. Americans don't give a. Americans can't. But you don't care, like, why they don't care about what's happening in Iran.

[Katie Tuur]

I think there's truth there. I also wonder where these guys were during the first administration. The saber rattling on Iran. The saber rattling on Iran was coming from Republicans in Donald Trump's orbit, and it has been coming from Republicans in Donald Trump's orbit for a long time. So I'm just. I'm confused by this feeling of betrayal that a lot of folks have. Regardless, they're saying it, and they do have a lot of listeners.

[Geico Insurance Representative]

Yeah, yeah. It's enough to drive you around the bend if you spend too much time wondering where. Why they didn't come to this realization in October of 2024. So it's kind of best not to. Not to worry about that and exist where we are.

[Katie Tuur]

Yeah.

[Geico Insurance Representative]

Look, I think that in some. At least on the issue of Iran, a lot of this other stuff, I think Trump fooled a lot of people, at least on the issue of Iran. Sure, he had some people around him, saber rattling, but he and his vice president, J.D. vance, could not have been clearer that they did not think that they did not want to go to war with Iran. And Stephen Miller, and they all said that it was gonna be Kamala that did this and not them. So in that sense, it is a pretty direct betrayal.

[Katie Tuur]

But hold on. The action, the actions that he had. I'm sorry to interrupt. The actions that he had taken during the first administration didn't set him up for that. I mean, he got out of the Iranian nuclear deal. He set up a situation where the United States would have to go in with force if they were not willing to go in diplomatically.

[Geico Insurance Representative]

He did. I agree with that. I think you're speaking from the perspective, though, of very close watchers of Middle Eastern geopolitics versus people who were listening to what Donald Trump and J.D. vance said on the campaign trail, which is that they don't want to go to war with Iran and they care about Americans. And so, yeah, sure, he had winked them, but I think in this case in particular, it's a pretty direct turnabout. I taped. It'll be out maybe in about an hour. Another kind of MAGA podcaster, Sagar Njedi, I interviewed him this morning and we talked about this, and I think his view, he also feels extremely betrayed. And I think he said that he understood that at some level Trump was a charlatan. But this is just such a core. The no foreign wars, no Middle east wars is a core part of his message going back to when you covered him, Katie, in 2015. And so he's outraged about it. And when I talk to him about kind of what this means for Trump's base base, what we're seeing is the new supporters, the independent folks, the Joe Rogan and Andrew Schultzes, I think are out. And I think that's gonna really hurt them in the midterms. And I think there are some Republicans art as well. The interesting thing is what this is revealing about the core MAGA base. Cuz if you look at internal crosstabs of polls, people who say they're MAGA are for this. And I think what we're revealing is something many of us kind of knew, which is like that the red hat people, the folks that showed up, the rallies, they're there mostly for like, that's like a lifestyle brand that they're a part of. And so they're gonna go along for everything. But another element, you know, a key part of the people that voted for and other parts of his coalition, I think are extremely upset.

[Katie Tuur]

Yeah. And by the way, if you're, if you're looking at the flashes on the, on the left hand side of your screen there, that is what we believe is the IDF hitting Hezbo. They say Hezbollah in Beirut. The IDF has just posted on social media about this and we've been seeing some flashes, including some Smoke over Beirut. So again, the war doesn't appear to be slowing down across the region. Last night of the rnc, when everybody was holding up the mass deportations, now signs it was pretty clear that that's what the Republican Party under Donald Trump was going to do if they won. And they did win. Now it could be their greatest liability, though, and that is why the White House is recalibrating ahead of the midterms. Axios was first to report that during a closed door meeting with House Republicans on Tuesday in Florida, White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair urged members to stop emphasizing mass deportations and to focus their messaging on removing violent criminals instead. Ashley, Dave and Tim are still back with us. So, Tim, you also experienced this down in Louisiana. Louisiana. What is the reaction from, from the community that you live in? I mean, I know it's mixed or Democrats and Republicans down there. Any Republicans looking at this and saying, God, I really, really don't like it.

[Geico Insurance Representative]

Sure. I mean, I wish the answer was more to that, being honest about it. You know, Louisiana's got a Senate race coming up this year and it's not like there's such a backlash that the Democrats are really competitive at this point. But you do see it, you see it from two, two kind of groups, like one from business leaders. And I heard from, you know, friends and friends of friends, you know, some who are varying political views, you know, that like it was really hard. Like there was, it was challenging. Like they had employees that were scared to come out. And like, you know, when you see that up close, when you see somebody, you know, at your kid's school or at your place of work and you know, because they have family members who might have mixed status or might be an asylee, they don't want to, you know, they're worried about them. That does have an effect on people. And I don't think people signed up for this when, you know, I think there were some folks when they carried those mass deportation now signs signed up for it. But I think a lot of people didn't expect it to look like this. Again, we're getting into people being misinformed back during the 2024 campaign. But what's passed is passed and I think they're looking at it now and seeing something different. But just one other kind. Just on the political thing, if you don't mind, Katie, because like we've seen this over and over again now for 10 years, which is the political strategists in the Republican Party and the non Trump, more traditional Republicans trying to deal with this paradox of taking the thing that Trump does, which is get people excited with a lot of his outrageous views and comments and using that to motivate people, but not carrying the baggage of some of Trump's more extreme policies, to say the least. And they've not figured out how to do it yet. I mean, the Republicans during the Trump era have only won when Trump is on the ballot. And so, like, this whole strategy, this thing again, it's like Groundhog Day. You know, they're going back in. It's like, oh, let's not talk about mass deportations. It's not tricking anybody. Like, nobody's gonna get fooled by that. It's like, might be a clever thing for a strategist to say in a meeting to make them feel smart, but that's not gonna work. People have seen the policy, and frankly, it would probably be better for the Republicans to just own it and try to gin up their own base that way, rather than doing this thing that no one's going to buy.