Haberman: Trump's Base Is Losing Faith -- "Turned Out to Be a Real Disappointment... Just Another Politician"
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2026/09/27/haberman_trumps_base_is_losing_faith_--_disappointed_hes_just_another_politician.html

The New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman discussed her new book, "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump," at the 2026 Texas Tribune Festival, and why Trump's base might be losing hope in him after a decade:

MAGGIE HABERMAN: But I do agree that every Republican I talked to is completely freaked out. That is true. It's gonna be bad.

Now, many of them will caveat it with, you know, but we want to be careful because we have said this before, and because polling in the Trump era has been notoriously hard, even though most Republican pollsters I talk to think it's gotten better since 2022 and 2024, and that they have a better sense of how to do it.

But Trump voters in particular, and Republicans in general, tend to answer the phone less for pollsters, so that is always a weighting issue.

However, the anecdotal evidence of just people I speak to - I was in Miami last Saturday and I was talking to a man who had been a Trump voter, and he said, and I quote, "He turned out to be a real disappointment. He's just another politician."

That is the danger for Trump, is when somebody who runs as different is seen as more of the same.
To go back to your question, and also to go back to the "In Nothing We Trust" headline, "In Nothing We Trust" was because these systems were, in the feelings of voters, not serving voters. It was serving politicians, and the rich get richer, the rest of the country does not.

If you run on, "I am going to, you know, shatter" - or at least some of your advisors - "We're going to shatter the Epstein cabal." Trump actually did it less than some of his own people, including Vance and his son.

And that was the moment, by the way, last year, with how Trump handled Epstein and the files, that was when, according to his own top allies and advisors, they could start seeing his own base stop believing him quite as much.

It was the first time that Jonathan and I could recall - and we wrote about this - Trump saying, "Believe me, not what you're hearing over there," and it didn't work.

So that's one.

If you tell people, you run on, "Joe Biden didn't fix the economy. It's clear that I am the only one who can do this. I am gonna reduce prices. I'm gonna keep inflation down. I am gonna fix this," and also, "Forever wars are bad, and I'm gonna drain the swamp," and you break all three - yes, voters can tell.

And you not only break all three, you build monuments to yourself.

You are building something that is literally called the Arc to Trump, literal monuments to yourself, and a ballroom, and that is what the majority of your mindshare is very visibly on.

Here's her full comments: