Former Trump Supporters Explain What Made Them Change Their Minds About Him

The hero worship given to former Republican President Donald Trump has been well documented. His self-described "MAGA minions" are the ride or dies for the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential candidate.

At first, many Trump supporters were attracted to the "successful businessman" they knew from TV. The "Washington outsider" narrative was also attractive.

But for people who thought that was what they were getting, Trump’s campaign rallies and close association with QAnon, Christian nationalists and White supremacists turned some off.

Others were dissuaded by the truth about Trump’s business success—or lack thereof—and his history of not paying his bills.

Some made it until the January 6, 2021 insurrection Trump incited which was their last straw.

Reddit user Vixul asked:

"Ex-Trump supporters, what made you change your mind?"

While the question asked for first hand accounts, many of the responses came from relatives, friends and neighbors of former MAGA faithful.

Authoritarian Vibes

"My sisters-in-law are the most conservative people I've ever met in my life. They fled Venezuela and landed straight in Texas."

"They own guns, are anti-abortion, the whole nine yards. And yet, they could not bring themselves to continue to support Trump."

"They have PTSD from living under Hugo Chávez and that's the vibe Trump gives off according to them."

~ CondeBK

*Under Chávez, Venezuela experienced democratic backsliding as he suppressed the press, manipulated electoral laws, and arrested and exiled government critics. Chávez's presidency saw significant increases in the country's murder rate and continued corruption within the police force and government.

Lie Down With Dogs...

"I started to get fed up and embarrassed by other supporters. that made me start to question things more."

~ QueenPlum_

"Sometimes seeing the people who agree with you is the biggest turn off."

~ gelseyd

...Get Up With Fleas

"One of my neighbors is a lifelong conservative, but he got to the point where he couldn't stand being associated with 'those f***ing losers'."

"That caused him to take a harder look at Trump's policies and actions, along with the rest of the Republican party."

"Most recently, he has started talking about voting blue in the next election. One domino after another, it seems."

~ RoninPrime0829

There Was A Riot‽‽

"My mother heard that Trump instigated a riot and people were calling for the death of the Vice President. She heard this for the first time last week."

"She’s on her iPad all day long and I assume still watches some type of news, but I was flabbergasted when she told me that.

"The thing is, I’ve been telling her all the sh*t that Trump has done, but I guess it’s not real until she hears it on her news?? I don’t get it."

~ F_is_for_Ducking

C Is For COVID

"Not me personally, but my mom stopped supporting Trump after his colossal mishandling of the COVID situation and he even broke her out of her antivax mindset that she had for the last decade."

"Thanks Trump!"

~ Wah-WahBlackSheep

Just His Existence

"I was a member of the Republican party since 1978."

"I changed to Democrat the day they put the big orange baby on the ticket 8 years ago."

I live in the buckle of the bible belt and it amazes me how far up his a** these Christians are. The man is a soulless, spineless narcissist that's nothing but a blight on this country."

~ udderlyfun2u

Lack Of Character

"I grew up somewhere between conservative and libertarian. Voted for Bush and Ron Paul. Living mostly along the Gulf Coast, mocking liberals is a cultural norm."

"I didn't like Donald Trump the person. Never have. I read too many stories about how he habitually stepped on people he deemed beneath him."

"The story about how he paid a piano maker a fraction of what was promised, giving the dude the option between 'accept the pennies on the dollar, or reject it and go bankrupt, or fight it in court where I will throw 10x the agreed price at making sure you go broke there'."

"I recognized that The Apprentice was bullsh*t. But I still supported Trump over Clinton. I despised Clinton, and pretty much everything about DC."

"Clinton essentially promised us the status quo would continue, and I hated how she acted like the office was a damn birthright. Trump, I thought, at least represented something different. Rattle some cages, rock the boat, pick your euphemism."

"And I bought the lie that he was wealthy enough that he couldn't be bought by lobbyists and special interests. And with all the checks and balances in our government, how much damage could he really do, right?"

"I think the first turning point for me was the neverending lies and grift. Putting all his family into important positions. His worship of dictators he admired. Using his own properties to host everything, so that he could double dip profits."

"And lying about EVERYTHING. Sharpie-gate was full blown insanity, and should show everyone just how pathologically incapable the scum is at even pretending to accept a mistake. I couldn't stand all the double speak with COVID."

"I think millions of people died that didn't need to, all because Trump could not handle not being seen as the smartest guy in the room. I really do think Trump turned half the country against Fauci for the simple reason that Fauci presented himself as a subject matter expert, and Trump took that as a personal attack."

"But the absolute final straw was watching Trump in the face of defeat. None of that was a surprise, of course. Trump has claimed cheating at every loss in his life. He accused the Emmys of fraud when The Apprentice lost to The Amazing Race."

"He accused Ted Cruz of cheating when Cruz won the Iowa caucus. When asked if he'd accept the results of the 2016 election, he literally said 'of course... If I win'."

"Then he accused DNC of fraud for the election he won, because he didn't also win the popular vote. So that he would claim fraud was absolutely expected. But the depths he would take it... I never thought anyone could."

"And I never thought our system was so vulnerable as to allow it. And I NEVER thought 85 million Americans were dumb enough to follow it."

"So why do I loathe Donald Trump, if I had to pick a single response? I hate the spotlight he's shined on just how much of our country will embrace anger over facts."

~ toolatealreadynapped

Propaganda Machine

"Never a Trump supporter, but I was a registered Republican until 2020."

"I was a college freshman English instructor once upon a time. One of my favorite bits I taught was a section on 'propaganda techniques', where we reviewed the sort of logical fallacies employed by marketers, politicians, propagandists, and bad-faith actors (mainly to help my students avoid making them in their term papers)."

"Trump is an absolute f*cking geyser of every single logical fallacy and propaganda technique in the book. There’s no shortage of that dumbf*ckery in politics, but I’d never seen so much of it so unapologetically from one single person."

"And I’d never seen a movement so willing to gobble it all up. It really caused me to re-think my entire political philosophy."

"I’m no Hitler expert, but one of the things that really stood out to me from the little bit I’ve studied is how frequently and disingenuously they relied on dumba** conspiracy theories."

"They didn’t believe half of the sh*t they said, but cynically used these dumba** conspiracies to shift public opinion."

"Subject the people to a firehose of misinformation and some of it will stick, and eventually they’ll stop caring about whether it’s true so long as it aggravates the opposition."

~ FriedrichHydrargyrum

Access Hollywood Recording

"At the time, I was in high school surrounded by people who watched exclusively Fox News. Suffice it to say, I thought myself a very educated young Republican."

"The 'grab em by the p*ssy' quote was what got me, at least when I realized he wasn't kidding. It horrified me to hear all the excuses good people I loved made for that line."

"As I continued to watch the Republican debates, it became clear that he had no idea what he would actually do if he got the presidency. He wanted some things but was incapable of verbalizing how he'd do anything, and so many people in my life fell for it."

"I went from laughing about the distant possibility of Trump winning to gritting my teeth as it started to become a reality."

~ Kanotari

Did He Fire Smokey?

"Cut the National Park Service budget."

"The landmass we inhabit is the only thing I'm actually proud of, so reducing the budget to protect our most amazing places was the final straw."

"Then Covid, then Jan 6th..."

~ Eyruaad

Jewish Space Lasers

"Was more right-leaning until the past couple of years when I got sick of feeling aligned with all of the conspiracy theorists and hate mongers."

"I just want people to be happy and have the best shot at a decent life and that’s not what the right promotes."

~ lithecello

Sore Loser

"Took a little longer than it should have, but January 6th and his handling of it was the final nail in the coffin."

"His crying about election fraud and ramping people up with dangerous conspiracy theories just because his ego couldn’t handle the fact he lost made me start to realize he wasn’t the courageous man of family values that I had been told he was by my parents and others in my small town."

"I was freshly 18 for the 2016 election and barely a year removed from my hometown of 1,000, so I didn’t know any better."

~ redkid2000

When You Call Nazis Very Fine People

"My dad came to me soon after the insurrection."

"He was embarrassed to tell me that he voted for Trump in 2016, but swore he never would again."

"Said there are too many similarities between him and Hitler."

"He has changed his mind completely. Full-on hates the guy now."

~ Obi1NotWan

The Big Lie

"Not accepting the electoral results. I don’t like a sore loser. Plus, he was so obvious that ANY election he lost had to be 'stolen'. He was saying that about Republican primaries, let alone Democratic 'scheming'."

"Anyway, it was perfectly OK that in a Dem administration he could win the election, but somehow, when he controlled the reins of government, the Dems could 'fix' the election. C’mon!"

"I can smell that bullsh*t a mile off. Now, most of his sycophants have lost faith in the election process—all for that bum!"

"I was thinking the other day that if someone called him on milking his supporters dry when he’s supposedly worth billions, he’d probably just answer: 'Well, who else am I going to con?' No regrets or conscience."

~ No-Entrepreneur6040

Rethinking Republican Values

"I voted for him in 2016 because he was Republican. He was my last choice on the Republican side because of his character and temperament. I just hoped his business knowledge would help."

"I was way off on that. I hated that it was between Trump and Hillary, but I regret every day not voting for Hillary. My only consolation is that I'm in a blue state and it wouldn't have mattered anyway."

"What really turned me against him and the entire Republican Party was how they spread lies and conspiracy theories to bolster their political position during COVID. They had no problem sacrificing lives for votes."

"I guess they didn't realize that once you're dead you can't vote. Once you start seeing some of their lies clearly, then they all become easy to spot. I probably wouldn't have voted for Trump in 2020 anyway, but after all that I have decided to vote down the line Democrat."

"2020 was a big year for me though. I left a church that had really turned into a cult and the same things I learned with that helped me see the lies and manipulation that the Republicans were using. My views on politics and religion really changed that year."

"I'm still a Christian and I still hold some conservative values, like small government, but I've had to reevaluate much of what I've believed and known."

"In 2024 I'm voting for Biden and it's not just because he's an alternative to Trump. He has genuinely been a good president and I see where his policies are getting us."

"The fact that he wants to help out average workers like me instead of just helping out the rich is a big one for me."

~ Suspect4pe

Have you or someone you know left the MAGA crowd?