Interviews with dozens of voters across eight competitive congressional districts show growing willingness among some longtime Donald Trump supporters to criticize the president over inflation, the Iran war and White House spending.
An NBC News crew that traveled Interstate 80 from New Jersey to Nebraska, through districts including Pennsylvania’s 7th and 8th, Ohio’s 7th and 9th, Iowa’s 1st and 3rd, spoke with about four dozen voters, and several three-time Trump voters said they were reconsidering their support.
“I used to be a Trump man,” said Bob Gorra, an 89-year-old retiree who lives a stone’s throw away from New Jersey’s hotly contested 7th District. “But I think what’s happened right now is terrible for the people of the United States. Terrible, you know, with the inflation and the fact that too many people are starving, too many are poor.”
Trump “really didn’t deliver what he promised,” Gorra added, citing “inflation rates — and the fact that I just think that my gut feeling about politics is too much corruption, too much handouts.”
In Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Louis Marcelino, 38, said rising costs and the war with Iran have left him unsure whether he’ll vote at all in November. “Everything has just gotten more expensive,” he said. “I don’t think he realizes it, but every single American here is paying the price for that war.”
In nearby Nazareth, Rich Ehrhardt, 55, said he believes Trump has broken campaign promises on foreign policy. “I don’t like the way the war is being handled,” he said. “No forever wars and tell us what you are doing to get us out. Don’t make up things that we want to hear.”
In Iowa, Darcey Liljequist, 75, criticized Trump’s decision to demolish the White House’s East Wing to build a ballroom. “It’s kind of like he’s being a king instead of a president,” she said.
Other voters remain firmly supportive, even though some have harbored some doubts. Gunner Arellano, a Marine veteran in Omaha, compared switching course to “changing drivers in the middle of a snowstorm.” Katie Heinz, an Ohio voter, praised Trump’s “business sense” despite wishing he’d “ruffle feathers” less. Iowa farmer Craig Rath said his loyalty “hasn’t wavered,” despite acknowledging tariffs have hurt his industry.
Trump’s approval rating in national polling has ranged from the low 30s to low 40s, and a recent Reuters/Ipsos survey found fewer than half of Republicans “strongly approve” of his performance, while roughly three-quarters of independents disapprove. Democrats need just three House seats and four Senate seats to take control of Congress.
At a late-August rally, Trump urged supporters to “pretend” he is on the ballot, a message similar to one he delivered ahead of the 2018 midterms, when Democrats flipped two dozen House seats.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales insisted that Trump “has delivered on his promises,” citing tax cuts, lower prescription drug costs, border security and broader economic gains under his administration.
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