Bold predictions were put forward in the aftermath of Trump’s 2024 electoral victory. Trump’s re-election signified, according to many, a fundamental cultural shift in America. Young people were ditching liberalism and “wokeness,” conservative values were becoming mainstream, and Trump was really going to make America great again.
16 months later, this is only a vague memory. The most optimistic and forgiving Trump supporters sustain themselves with a “wait and see” attitude, but millions of others have already broken with the president.
All things come to an end
Trump had a remarkable lucky streak. His first term coincided with a mild economic recovery. When the economic crisis in 2020 hit, he was able to blame it on Covid, keeping his record clean in the eyes of his base.
After four years of Biden’s administration, which saw the worst inflation since the 1980s, Trump was able again to ride a wave of anger back to the White House. At each new juncture, he was able to shore up his image as an anti-establishment fighter, and at each new crisis he managed to divert the blame.
But just like Biden, Trump is unable to resolve the crisis of the capitalist system he presides over, and this was always bound to become apparent at some point. Last December, as talk of an “affordability crisis” was spreading across the country, Trump’s advisors saw flashing red lights and sought to publicize the supposed economic gains of the previous year. This started with a short speaking tour in Pennsylvania, where he touted, among other things, the low price of oil and gas under Trump 2.0.
Shortly after that, Trump’s administration successfully decapitated the Venezuelan government, turning the country into a semi-colony of US imperialism. Drunk on success, they thought they could do the same in Iran, but Trump’s war has backfired spectacularly.
Starting the war in Iran is hardly the first promise Trump has broken. But it is so blatantly in opposition to the program he ran on that significant layers of his 2024 coalition are now breaking with the president. “I’m not going to start wars. I’m going to stop wars,” Trump said on election night 2024. Millions remember this promise and are holding him to it. Trump’s supporters voted for economic revival at home, not higher gas prices and a new military adventure which is costing billions of dollars and the lives of US service members.
Millions have broken with Trump
The Atlantic, which is historically a source of liberal fear-mongering about Trumpism, reports in an April 16 article titled “Trump Voters Are Over It” that “a shocking number of the president’s supporters have turned against him”:
Trump’s approval is lower right now than it was at this point ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, when Democrats won back the House in a historic blue wave. Almost every new poll is a red flag for Republicans: Independents, young voters, and Latinos—groups that were crucial to Trump’s win in 2024—aren’t in the bag anymore. Even non-college-educated white Americans, once the president’s strongest group, have turned on him, according to a CNN polling average.
The article goes on to quote ordinary Trump voters in Arizona’s sixth congressional district, which Trump won in 2024 by less than a point after having lost it by the same margin four years earlier:
Shoppers outside the market bemoaned the rising price of everything: gas, meat, store-made chicharrones ($9.29 for a big bag). And they were ready to punish Trump’s party for it. Traci Calvo, a 61-year-old Democrat living on a fixed income, said she’s poorer today than she was in 2024, when she voted for Trump, believing he would bring down prices. High gas prices mean that she is staying home more often—skipping Bible studies at her church, volunteering less, and even missing exercise classes. Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran was her breaking point with the president. “I think that he just wants war,” she said. “He’s made it plain that he’s adversarial with everybody.” She doesn’t plan on voting for Ciscomani, or any other Republican for that matter, in November.
The mood among voters was just as grim some 60 miles southeast in Oro Valley, a northern suburb of Tucson known for its scenic mountain views—and home to many conservative voters … Sitting inside of her car after a shopping spree at a dollar store, Zuriel Reyes told us she feels “shitty” about having voted for Trump in 2024, her first-ever election. “I don’t really trust our government anymore,” the 19-year-old said.
Even the right-wing podcast crowd is turning on Trump over the Iran war. Tucker Carlson recently apologized for “misleading people” by supporting Trump in 2024, saying he is “tormented” by his past support for the president. / Image: Gage Skidmore, Flickr
Fractures in the ranks of MAGA
This discontent is also finding an expression within the ranks of more committed MAGA ideologues, particularly young people.
Just 13% of 18- to 29-year-olds support the war against Iran, and this low support is reflected among young Republican-leaning voters as well. The New York Times reports that young conservatives are divided roughly 50-50 over the Iran war. A March survey found that while 79% of Republican voters of all ages support the war, only 49% of Republican voters ages 18–29 support the war. To most young Republicans, “America First” means dealing with the problems at home, not launching new foreign adventures.
A 22-year-old junior at Clemson University, who chairs the campus’s College Republicans chapter, told The New York Times: “I fell hook, line and sinker for the concepts of America First. At the end of the day, [the Iran war] is a total repudiation of 2016, 2020, 2024.” Speaking about “Operation Midnight Hammer” in June 2025, he said: “That was like, okay, I get it: you lied. You tricked me.”
Even the right-wing podcast crowd is turning on Trump over the Iran war. Tucker Carlson recently apologized for “misleading people” by supporting Trump in 2024, saying he is “tormented” by his past support for the president. Joe Rogan described the Iran adventure as “insane based on what he ran on,” namely ending wars, adding that “a lot of people feel betrayed” by Trump as a result. After Trump threatened to erase Iran civilization in a Truth Social post, Megyn Kelly said on her radio show that she was “sick of this shit.”
The defection of right-wing podcasters has clearly riled the president, who responded last month with a Truth Social screed:
I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, especially by the fact that they think it is wonderful for Iran, the Number One State Sponsor of Terror, to have a Nuclear Weapon—Because they have one thing in common, Low IQs. They’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it … they’re NUT JOBS, TROUBLEMAKERS … they have Third Rate Podcasts, but nobody’s talking about them … These so-called “pundits” are LOSERS … They’re not “MAGA,” they’re losers, just trying to latch on to MAGA. As President, I could get them on my side anytime I want to, but when they call, I don’t return their calls because I’m too busy on World and Country Affairs and, after a few times, they go “nasty” … but I no longer care about that stuff.”
These developments, significant as they are in their own right, are only a sign of much deeper fractures to come.
Life teaches
“What American is this helping?” asked the podcaster Theo Von in a recent episode, in reference to the Iran war. In 2024, he had famously hosted Donald Trump on his podcast, but now describes Trump’s actions as “unbelievable,” “diabolical,” and “fucking baffling”:
Besides the war, the industrial war complex, what American, what guy who’s trying to take care of his family, or a single mother who’s a nurse who’s going to work and has to get home and get to her kid’s ballgame and has to be both parents, what farmer is this helping? What regular person is this helping? I just don’t know. I don’t understand.
These are very good questions, which more and more Trump 2024 supporters will be asking themselves. To be sure, there are still plenty of Trump supporters who are giving him the benefit of the doubt—but at different tempos they will inevitably be forced to reckon with the disappointing reality of Trump’s second term.
All of this goes to show a very important political principle: life teaches. Faced with the crisis of capitalism, workers test different political options, seeking to find a solution to their problems. After the pain of the Biden economy—which was characterized by rising costs of living and poor employment prospects—many workers were willing to try anything else, and gave Trump a shot. But it is now becoming apparent that Trump is just as incapable as was Biden of solving the problems facing American workers.
In actual fact, no capitalist politician will ever be able to solve these problems. The only way forward is a workers’ government on a revolutionary program to overthrow capitalism and implement rational economic planning. What is needed is a political party that will fight for that, putting forward a communist program in every workplace, every campus, and every working-class neighborhood. That is what the Revolutionary Communists of America are building.