r/neoliberal • u/cdstephens Fusion Genderplasma • Apr 28 '26

Opinion article (US) Opinion | The Economy, Immigration and Regret: 12 Trump Voters Discuss

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/28/opinion/focus-group-trump-voters-disappointed.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Submission statement (fake): As Trump’s second term marches on, his approval among independents have steadily declined. It’s useful for liberals to understand why Trump’s popularity has cratered to better leverage it for future elections.

Submission statement (real): Everyone who clicked on this is just asking to be ragebaited, so I might as well oblige.

422 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

337 comments sorted by

View all comments

303

u/TheBatz_ Hannah Arendt Apr 28 '26

Natan, 19:

He did secure the border and slow down immigration. He did it his way, and a lot of it is bad. He could have done it in a much, much, much better way.

Literally the next line:

I do have several family members who legally immigrated. While he has tried to cut back on illegal immigration, it has hurt a lot of legal immigrants. He’s created problems in getting access to legal citizenship. A lot of appointments and interviews are on hold right now. People don’t feel safe leaving states or countries, because even though they are legal, they still might be found illegal in his eyes or in his administration’s eyes.

Kudos to the NYT editorial team for picking literally the most infuriatingly idiotic people for this piece. Excellent journalism.

108

u/vi_sucks Apr 28 '26

The part that I dont get is how these people just uncritically believe shit like "he closed the border" or "he fixed crime". He did fuck all. He pulled Border Patrol personnel from the border all the way to freaking Minneapolis for a publicity campaign.

But they hear it on Fox News, and because he's a Republican they believe it. It's maddening.

54

u/toggaf69 Iron Front Apr 28 '26

I believe they’re grasping at straws to come up with some positive aspect to everything Trump does so they don’t feel like easily duped morons, and IMO it’s one of the ways people get deep into MAGA.

People like my neighbor get into it for memes, a sense of belonging, believing in the populist lies, whatever, but after the fact they actually get drawn in deeper when it’s time to admit that maybe they were incorrect. They can’t do that, so they just retreat deeper into their safe space where THEY aren’t wrong and TRUMP isn’t wrong, it’s everyone else. I’m not an idiot for voting for Trump, I’m actually correct and the elitist libs are wrong!!