Top 10 Reasons Some Trump Supporters Regret Their Vote

#10: Stock Market Volatility

We’ll get into the specifics and devastating consequences of Trump’s tariffs and their accompanying trade wars, not to mention their effects on America’s allies. For now, let’s zoom in on their aftereffects. As a result of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs issued on April 2, 2025, global stock markets were immediately sent into disarray (and experienced increased volatility). Largely owing to panic selling of investments due to the economic protectionist policies put into place by the U.S., the stock market crash had some of Trump’s staunchest supporters questioning the tariffs’ effectiveness. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, for example, claimed that he had lost $7 million in stocks and crypto — but stopped short of totally pulling his support for the president.

#9: He Isn’t the Cryptocurrency Messiah Some Expected

On the campaign trail for his 2024 presidential run, Trump positioned himself as the exact right candidate to turn the United States into the cryptocurrency capital of the world. Promising extensive deregulation in the financial sector, Trump ensured that the “the S.E.C. has eliminated its crypto-enforcement program, dismissing, closing or “pausing” nearly every crypto-related lawsuit, appeal and investigation”. While that might sound promising for enthusiasts, Trump and his family’s ventures into crypto have introduced problematic conflicts of interest, and some have accused him of delegitimizing the burgeoning digital currency’s potential. Said Amit Seru for Barron’s, “the problem isn’t just regulatory uncertainty—it is also the confusion between speculative nonsense and genuine financial innovation”.

#8: His Iran Strategy

As noted by The Independent’s John Bowden, few could have expected the direction that President Trump has, so far, taken with regard to Iran — least of all conservatives. In April 2025, Trump and U.S.-Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff headed to Oman to engage in talks with Iranian leadership about scaling back their nuclear program. Witkoff and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi initially released conflicting statements as to the degree that Iran would denuclearize. But that was still more progress than some establishment neoconservatives, like Senator Lindsey Graham and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are comfortable with. Said Graham, any American deal with Iran “must include the total dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and include not only U.S. but worldwide supervision.

#7: The Issue of Birthright Citizenship

To Trump, ending the longstanding American policy of guaranteeing citizenship to any child born on U.S. soil is a facet of the larger issue of immigration. As such, an executive order signed on his first day back in office has been met with significant controversy over its legal implications. The president’s “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” executive order would deny citizenship to those born to undocumented immigrants. While intended to discourage illegal border crossings, Alabama-based law firm Maynard Nexsen has pointed out that this may have the unfortunate side effect: that of “[impacting] eligibility criteria for TN visas available to Canadians and Mexican citizens and may have impacts on other treaty-based nonimmigrant visa categories”.

#6: Immigration Woes

Speaking of immigration, it’s worth noting that the ongoing Mexico–United States border crisis is a major focus for Trump. That owes to the fact that it’s one of the issues that got him reelected to the presidency in the first place. However, the president’s “scorched earth” approach to handling the issue has garnered backlash from both sides of the political aisle. Just some of the unpopular measures Trump has taken include allowing ICE greater access and broadening their scope of power, and reopening Guantanamo Bay to potentially detain thousands of migrants. An unintended consequence of Trump’s war on undocumented immigrants? Putting a severe dent in sectors of the economy that rely on migrant labor, like construction, agriculture, and childcare.

#5: Controversial Cabinet Picks

President Trump’s political career has largely been defined by the company he keeps — and how loyal they are to him. As such, his second cabinet is, mostly, an eclectic coalition of the extremely wealthy with no political experience. A number of his cabinet picks have also grappled with public and private battles. These include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s reported treatment of women, as well as national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard’s accusations of being a Russian asset. Most controversial of all, though, would be Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy’s widely publicized anti-vaccine activism and promulgation of conspiracy theories were criticized as having led to unnecessary deaths in the 2025 measles outbreak.

#4: His Attitude Toward America’s Allies

Almost no other action President Trump has taken while in office has been as confounding as his insistence on antagonizing countries that the U.S. has historically been friendly with. This has been most pronounced in his repeated calls to annex Canada and turn it into the 51st state. In Canada, Trump’s comments — which appeared to start as jokes before turning serious — have been overwhelmingly condemned, with both former prime minister Justin Trudeau and his successor, Mark Carney, rejecting them. This goes hand in hand with Trump’s comments about taking over Greenland from Denmark, which has been met with a similarly hostile response from the autonomous territory, both its leaders and its general population.

#3: DOGE Chaos

Admittedly, billionaire Elon Musk’s proposed plan to cut up to $1 trillion from the federal budget is not the worst idea on paper. That said, in actual execution, Musk’s seemingly indiscriminate chainsawing away at the inner workings of the American government has been harshly criticized. That’s been largely attributed to how the world’s wealthiest man has gone about it: with his Department of Government Efficiency firing and rehiring career civil servants, recruitment of men as young as 19 years old to build its infrastructure, and almost total lack of transparency, contrary to Musk’s claims. The billionaire’s attempts to insert himself into politics — such as pumping money into a crucial Wisconsin supreme court race that conservatives lost — have drawn mass ire… and invited the increasingly common vandalism of Teslas.

#2: Unpredictability On the Global Stage

Above all, Trump supporters and detractors alike await with bated breath to see what the president’s next move will be. Trump’s impulsiveness and penchant for quick turnarounds have been his most consistent trait across his two terms. For examples, just look at President Trump’s actions on the world’s two most prominent geopolitical crises: the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. In Ukraine, Trump has broken with tradition by spurning the country in favor of talks with Russia — and by threatening to abandon his mediation of the conflict altogether. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Trump’s proposed solution may sound familiar: he has suggested that the U.S. take ownership of the Gaza Strip, much to the chagrin of pretty much everyone but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

#1: Trade Wars & Tariffs

Ah, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Since even before his reelection to the presidency, Trump has often spoken of tariffs as the cure-all for economic issues plaguing the United States. Early reactions from experts cautioned against this approach, with some warning that increased costs would be passed down to the consumer, but Trump went his own way. In the months since, Trump has escalated tariffs on global rival China to a whopping, virtually unprecedented 145%, while imposing a baseline 10% tariff on all U.S. imports. While some have suggested that Trump has a long-term plan for the tariffs that will result in a new age of American prosperity, increasing fears of a recession are hard to overlook.

What do you think of President Trump’s performance thus far? Is there anything we missed? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!