As Christmas gatherings approach, many of us on the Citizens’ Impeachment team have been considering how we discuss hot topics with our family. This article reflects some of that discussion. It is written to be an invitation, not a judgment. We acknowledge the challenges present in walking away from a leader you supported, but we hope that recognizing the reality makes that decision a little easier.

Increasing Hesitancy from Republican Voters

For MAGA and traditional conservatives alike, the vote was about results. But with security risks and economic volatility rising, supporters are asking: Is this the America we chose? It’s not just average voters questioning their support for Trump. Government officials are scrambling to answer the same question.

They are most recognizable in the way they respond to Trump’s most visible bad habits: Ask a question about Trump’s tweets Truth Social posts, and you’ll get a variety of noncommittal responses. Some may characterize them as jokes or “just telling it like it is.” Others may join House Speaker Mike Johnson in claiming they haven’t seen that specific statement, a strategy Johnson has deployed not just for social media, but for significant executive actions. But very few people defend Trump unconditionally, and, as seen in the case of his shockingly callous statements regarding the murder of Rob Reiner and wife, even his staunchest supporters are beginning to challenge his cruel behavior.  

If you dig deeper into why these people still support Trump, they’ll quickly pivot to this policy or that policy. But increasingly, those policies are irrelevant at best, or falling flat on their face at worst. Trump is indecent in the most fundamental sense of the word, and his narcissism is an affront to our shared humanity. 

Supporting the Mission

Let’s examine three key reasons given for voting for Trump.

1. The Supreme Court: Mission accomplished. Justice Antonin Scalia’s vacant Supreme Court seat commanded significant attention as Trump and Clinton jockeyed for the presidency in 2016. In Trump’s first term, three justices— Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—were confirmed to the Supreme Court, securing a 6-3 conservative majority that has proven instrumental in Trump’s second term. Under this majority, an extraordinary number of cases have reached the “shadow docket,” in addition to the usual appellate process. Via the shadow docket, the Supreme Court has issued sweeping decisions that reshape legal precedent with little or no explanation. In all likelihood, these justices will serve on the court long, long after Trump is gone and continue to re-shape U.S. policy via a conservative lens. The reluctant Trump voter no longer needs him to support their preferred policies on the Supreme Court.
   
2. It’s the economy stupid: Trump’s economy flounders. As Biden struggled to manage post-COVID inflation, these voters selected Trump to get the economy back on track. That has been an utter failure. Far from revitalizing the economy, Trump’s tariffs hampered the economic rebound, forcing Trump into rare walkbacks. As recently as last month, Fox News found that 76% of voters view Trump’s economic record negatively, with the same poll finding that 42% of Republicans blame Trump himself for the economic conditions. Exacerbating the dismal polling, Trump appears increasingly out of touch, calling concerns about affordability a “hoax” and suggesting that Americans give up pencils and dolls, a stark contrast to the luxurious Great Gatsby-themed party he hosted for Halloween. Whatever economic stability the reluctant Trump supporter believed they were pursuing, it is rapidly vanishing under Trump policies that contribute to joblessness, inflation, and a weaker dollar.
3. National security: Dangers emerge from White House leadership. Less than two months into Trump’s second term, top national security officers, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, texted a journalist war plans on a commercial messaging app. If anyone were taking national security seriously, someone would have been fired in short order. Instead, they remain in the administration some nine months later even though the inspector general’s report concluded that “the Secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.” Trump has destroyed the trust of key European allies, many of whom are strategizing on how to support Ukraine as the US tries to force them into a bad peace deal with Russia. This broken trust has swiftly resulted in allies—British, Dutch, Colombian, maybe others—choosing to limit which intelligence they share with the United States. All these things isolate the US and make us less secure on the global stage.

The story continues with policy after policy, as even Fox News finds him underwater on nearly every topic. Even his signature topic, immigration, has found sharp reversals in fortune. The percentage of Republican voters who want decreased immigration has plummeted from 88% to 48% since 2024. While Trump has a floor of support, the past eleven months have made clear that a significant share of Republicans disapprove of him on nearly every meaningful matter.

A Turning Point for the Movement

Once you cut through the bravado and chest thumping, Trump is revealed to be in his weakest position since his second impeachment in February 2021. Reluctant supporters are left with disappointing results, and a visibly angry, vindictive old man in the White House. The president they imagined would Make America Great Again is grotesquely celebrating the brutal murder of his critics. Those statements were so plainly awful that they have drawn criticism from the full range of Republicans in Congress: Everyone from MAGA Marjorie Taylor Greene, to libertarian-conservative Thomas Massie, to moderate Don Bacon have leveled criticisms against the president. 

Instead of a noble patrician restoring America’s status in the world, Trump’s reluctant supporters find themselves aligned with a man who regularly lets his worst impulses run free, who calls investigations into the most notorious pedophile of our time a “hoax” and “bullshit,” and brands those who demand transparency “weaklings.” All while obstructing justice in the most obvious and ham-fisted way possible. Should these reluctant supporters be confronted with the plain record of this administration, they would be forced to defend the deployment of the US military against its citizens, an administration who defies Supreme Court rulings, the murder of dozens (and potentially war crimes) associated with alleged “weapons of mass destruction” which seem to be wafer-thin justification for yet another war over foreign oil, and a president so bent on retribution that he is illegally appointing prosecutors to go after his political opponents (never mind that they repeatedly fail to secure even an indictment in those weak cases, an embarrassment for their respective departments). 

The Final Question: Is it worth it?

Is it worth the soul-destroying dance of trying to justify his behavior? Of having to look friends and family members in the eye as they gauge how the strength of your virtues weigh against your support for Donald Trump? What benefits remain in supporting him?

Reluctant Trump supporters, in Congress and in cities and towns across America: It is time to let go. The man has betrayed every principle he professed to believe, repeatedly putting himself above country, Constitution, and citizens. He has betrayed the American public, making promises he never intended to keep. In his cruelty and delight in suffering, Trump has become a grim caricature of himself.

Every Trump voter I know took the idea that we could make America great again seriously. Trump has failed that test. He is eagerly pursuing his own brand of destruction at the expense of the country. It’s time to figure out how to make America great without Trump. It’s not worth it.