Trump’s policy mayhem is making even the Maga faithful consider walking away

About 56% of respondents who identified as members of the Maga coalition said they were either having trouble meeting their debt payments or worried they would be struggling soon. Photograph: Mark Makela/Getty Images View image in fullscreen About 56% of respondents who identified as members of the Maga coalition said they were either having trouble meeting their debt payments or worried they would be struggling soon. Photograph: Mark Makela/Getty Images Analysis Trump’s policy mayhem is making even the Maga faithful consider walking away Eduardo Porter Even voters who identify as foot soldiers of his political army are increasingly willing to blame Trump for their economic troubles The political consequences of Donald Trump’s policy mayhem are now coming into view: “Maga” America is getting pissed. It has been a sight to see how every one of the president’s policy initiatives has sabotaged some core constituency or other. From farmers and rural Americans to manufacturing workers and every American struggling to make ends meet, Trump has torched pretty much his entire political base. For all his efforts to rig the midterm elections in his favor, it’s as if he is daring the Maga faithful to drop him. And now, according to the most recent survey by Harris for the Guardian , even voters who identify as foot soldiers of the president’s political army are becoming impatient with the state of affairs, increasingly willing to blame the government for their economic troubles. About 56% of respondents who identified as members of the Maga coalition said they were either having trouble meeting their debt payments or worried they would be struggling soon. The same share admitted similar troubles meeting housing payments. 57% said the same about affording healthcare costs. 58% claimed the same about their utility bills, 61% about affording groceries, 63% about paying for gas. Many of these stressors stem from Trump’s policy preferences. Trump’s decision to end government subsidies is largely at fault for the rising cost of health insurance. The rise in energy costs and rebound of inflation since March are direct consequences of Iran’s throttling of the Strait of Hormuz. Resurgent inflation interrupted the Federal Reserve’s campaign to ease monetary policy and interrupted the gradual decline in mortgage rates. Manufacturers have culled nearly 100,000 jobs since Trump took office, in part due to Trump’s tariffs. Farmers have been whacked by higher costs of energy, fertilizer and machinery. Rural Americans voted for Trump by a margin of 40 percentage points in November of 2024. According to the Harris poll for the Guardian, 49% of them now say their personal financial security is getting worse. That is even more than the 42% of Americans in rural areas who claimed their personal finances were deteriorating in the Harris poll taken in April last year, a few weeks after “liberation day”, when Trump imposed tariffs on everybody and sent financial markets around th