When Donald Trump was president, you rarely heard Trump voters blame him when anything went wrong; it was the Democrats’ fault, usually, or the deep state or Robert Mueller or the F.B.I. or was due to any number of conspiracy theories. Which is why it was striking, during our focus group with 17 swing voters last Thursday, to hear so many of those who voted for Mr. Trump in 2020 say that they blamed him for Republican candidates’ performing poorly in last week’s midterms.
Turns out they were just getting started.
When we asked the group a moment later for a word or phrase to describe Mr. Trump, the once-foretold red wave was replaced by a wave of exhaustion, annoyance and frustration — a wave that only grew in strength when we asked them to react to Mr. Trump’s likely plans to announce a new bid for the presidency on Tuesday night. CONTINUED
Patrick Healy & Adrian J. Rivera, New York Times
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