A loyal base with cracks in it: 100 days in, what do Trump voters think now?

They broke for Trump a few months ago — but many have been surprised by the radical approach of the second Trump administration. So what do those who pulled the lever for MAGA 2025 really think now? Holly Baxter and Richard Hall report

The first time Kelly Stedge ever got involved in politics was during the 2024 election, where The Independent met her registering voters for Donald Trump at the Bloomsburg Fair in rural Pennsylvania.

She did it, she says, because she’d been forced to close her business earlier that year — something the 55-year-old blames on Joe Biden’s handling of the economy — and because of the murder of Laken Riley.

Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was killed by an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela. Stedge had a daughter around the same age at college, and she worried the same thing could happen to her. The way she sees it, immigration was basically uncontrolled under Biden, allowing gang members to flood in alongside genuine refugees.

“There's a lot of people that come here to escape the terrors of their country,” Stedge says. “They don't want that [violence] following them here, and that's exactly what we got with this Venezuelan illegal immigrant… They should have never been here, and this would have never happened to Laken at all. And that was the moment I looked at my husband and I said: I'm done. I'm off the couch.”

Stedge is happy with how Trump has handled his first 100 days, though she is a little wary of the president arguing with judges about deportations. “I just want to make sure that we are following the law,” she says, “because we can't complain about President Biden breaking the law [i.e. bringing in a student loan forgiveness program that was later struck down by the Supreme Court] if we end up doing the same type of thing.”

U.S. DHS Sec. Kristi Noem joins federal agents for immigration raids in New York City (X/@Sec_Noem)

And though she does want the job of deporting illegal immigrants done, she wants it done without unnecessary showboating. “When I see [Kristi Noem] out doing these ICE raids, she's got her long hair, long earrings and her makeup on,” she says. “And anybody in law enforcement would know, your hair is pulled back because your hair is a weapon, right?

“I'm not saying she's not doing her job, because we definitely are making the arrests, but I would much prefer to see the actual ICE officers making the arrests. There's no reason for her to literally be on the camera, saying that she's out doing these raids.”

The Trump voter detained at the border

The gap between how Trump promised immigration would be handled and the reality is also a big concern with Bachir Atallah, a real estate lawyer from New Hampshire. The 41-year-old U.S. citizen — who naturalized 10 years ago — voted for Trump, but is now having second thoughts. A few weeks ago, he and his wife were detained at the Canadian border, held in a jail cell and interrogated for five hours by ICE while returning from a short trip visiting family.

“I voted for Mr. Trump. I liked him, you know,” Atallah says. “I wanted to protect our country. I feel the intention is to do the right thing, but it's getting done wrong. You're targeting American citizens. You're not targeting illegal people trying to get into the country.”

Atallah describes himself as a conservative Catholic who believes in “nuclear families,” and social issues sealed his Trump support. He had no problem with the idea of undocumented immigrants who had committed crimes being deported en masse — however, he’s seeing clients who are U.S. citizens being detained at the border simply for having Latino last names.

“There's ways you fight this [illegal immigration], but the way it's being done right now, it's like you're stripped of all your rights,” Atallah says.

He liked the way Trump handled things during his first term. But Atallah has been switched off by how radical the second Trump administration has been.

Bachir Atallah (right) and his wife, Jessica Fakhri (left) said he and his wife were detained without explanation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Bachir Atallah)

“I don't know what's going on this time around,” he says. “I watch his speeches, I watch how he speaks. I see his actions. Being Republican is one thing, and the way Mr. Trump and his administration is acting is a different thing.”

Staying MAGA faithful

Even among devoted Trump enthusiasts, there’s an acknowledgement that the first 100 days haven’t exactly delivered the promised economic results. Vito Sabattino, a Staten Island retiree who voted for Trump because he believed Biden wasn’t competent enough to run the country, thinks it’s too early for supporters to abandon his candidate.

“People are not giving it enough time, but I think that we'll have to be a little more patient and see how things work out,” the 81-year-old when questioned about the president’s achievements in his first 100 days.

“The economy, I mean, I don't like it,” Sabattino continues. “It's a little haphazard with the stock market and whatever. I own stocks so I’m not not pleased some days. I'm just gonna give him more time.”

Rose Garcia is a 49-year-old resident of Staten Island who voted for Trump mainly because of the economy and because of perceived safety issues due to illegal immigration. When she visits Manhattan, she feels a little safer, she says. Innocent people were killed during Biden’s administration, she says, and as a mother of young children, she felt compelled to vote on that issue.

What does she think of Trump’s achievements so far during his second administration? It’s “too soon to tell,” she says, but “a repeat of his first term would be perfect for us.”

Frank Bennett, a 58-year-old spa and salon owner on Staten Island, echoes his fellow Trump voters: it’s too soon to tell how he’s doing, and people should be prepared for a little pain for long-term gain, which Bennett likens to resetting a broken leg. It’s “God’s will” what’s happening, he adds, and big projects take time.

Bennett knows that people might look at what’s happening in the White House right now and be shocked or disoriented. But he thinks this is all part of a wider plan to win back international respect, and he think it’s working.

“I look at it sometimes and just shake my head and go: I don't know if I would do it that way,” he says. “But it seems like whatever he's doing seems to get the attention on the world stage. And it seems like a lot of the other countries around the world are starting to say: ‘Hey, listen, maybe this is a good way to go.’”

Stedge, the Pennsylvanian business owner, echoes Bennett: “This is absolutely going to hurt small businesses for the short term, temporarily,” she says. “He [Trump] did not promise that things were going to be great right out of the gate. And I told people all along, I'm like: Buckle up. The first year is going to be extremely rough — but the goal is to then get it fixed and fixed in such a great way, you're not going to only be prosperous, but you're also going to have a long-term business that stays prosperous without these hills and valleys.”

What the polls tell us

How do these views stack up against what we know about the broader Republican-voting electorate? Trump’s approval ratings among Republican voters remain robust, though signs of strain are emerging due to economic concerns and aggressive immigration policies.​

According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in April 2025, approximately 90 percent of Republican voters continue to support President Trump. However, his overall approval rating has declined to 39 percent, with a disapproval rating of 55 percent, marking the lowest approval for a U.S. president within the first 100 days of a term since World War Two. Significantly, that approval rating has been dropping month by month — especially among his less dedicated voters, who are probably the swing voters who helped him over the line.

Trump’s approval rating has been dropping each month (Getty)

Economic issues are a significant factor in this decline. The same Pew poll indicates that only 11 percent of Americans feel better off since Trump's return to office, and just 23 percent rate the economy as "excellent" or "good."

Despite these challenges, Trump's base remains largely supportive, particularly regarding his immigration policies. A CBS/YouGov poll reveals that 56 percent support his deportation efforts. However, concerns are growing about the legality and execution of these policies, especially among immigrant communities and legal residents who feel unfairly targeted.

Whichever way you slice it, some public appeal is being lost. And that may be because Trump’s new cabinet is pandering to the most extreme parts of the base — those who, according to U.S. pollster Frank Luntz, are hungry not just to beat their opponents but to punish them.

That thirst for punishment — which has been variously directed at the media, at judges, at Republicans who don’t fall into line, and at Democrats in general — is new in American politics, Luntz told The Times this week. And it powers a lot of Trump’s popularity with the MAGA faithful.

Threatening to throw dissenters in prison and selling “Trump 2028” merchandise delights many who perceive that shadowy elites eroded American institutions over decades and are now getting their comeuppance. But those same tactics play badly with the broader Republican base needed to help him win elections.

The view from Washington

Inside the White House, most Republicans have fallen into line behind Trump. Some — like Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski — have stated plainly that that’s because they fear retribution if they don’t.

When there has been dissent among party members, it hasn’t lasted. When Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for instance, many Republican senators articulated their concerns about Kennedy's views on vaccines.

But even Senator Bill Cassidy — the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a medical doctor who previously voted to convict Trump for his actions on January 6 — voted to confirm Kennedy in the end.

President Donald Trump watches on as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is sworn in as Secretary of Health and Human Services (Getty)

There is an internal split among the MAGA faithful and the more traditionally conservative Republicans. That was reflected clearly in this past weekend’s White House Correspondents Dinner.

Trump’s decision not to attend was publicized in advance, but this time around, most MAGA Republicans also failed to turn up. Only a handful of decidedly non-MAGA party members such as Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a pro-Ukraine Republican who represents the suburbs of Pennsylvania, and Rep. Dan Crewnshaw, a Navy SEAL veteran whom pro-Trump Republicans have derisively called "Eyepatch McCain,” were seen at the brunches and after-parties throughout Washington's biggest party week.

How long this split will remain simply social — or if it develops into a possible Congressional rebellion against the more extreme policies of his presidency — remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Republican strategists have been uncharacteristically buttoned-up when asked about how Trump’s second term is going.

"Republicans support a Republican president, seems pretty obvious," was all Doug Heye, a Republican strategist who used to work for the Republican National Committee and House Republican leadership, would say.

Losing the independents

Perhaps the most telling finding among voters came from April’s Associated Press/NORC poll, where both Republicans (81 percent) and Democrats (71 percent) broadly agreed with the statement “Trump’s first few months have aligned with expectations”.

The percentage of independents who agreed with that statement, however, were much lower, at 58 percent. In fact, a full 40 percent of independents claimed that what they’re seeing isn’t what they expected at all.

According to Gallup, political independents now make up the country’s largest voting bloc. And during the 2024 election, the number of voters who described themselves as independents grew. Although they broadly voted — by a small number — for Harris over Trump nationally, the trend reversed in battleground states. In Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada, independents pushed Trump over the line.

Those same independents clearly expected a second Trump administration to be similar to the first. And while many of them represent everyday Americans in small towns, others also came from the group of Silicon Valley billionaires who famously broke for Trump during his 2024 campaign.

Those same Musk-style billionaires — who believed that a second Trump administration would cut red tape and taxes, bring in international business mergers, and fuel economic growth — are now having to deal with the fact that what they imagined is not what has come to pass.

After 100 days of much more hardline and volatile policymaking, many are becoming leery. Whether the administration chooses to heed these warning signs or dig in its heels is hard to tell. But it will likely be key to how Republicans fare in the 2026 midterms and in the 2028 general election.