With the election behind us, we’re staring down the barrel of another Trump presidential term, and many queer and trans folks are wondering just how—and if—we’ll survive it. But even though 2024 feels much scarier than 2016 did, one trend from that time period is making a swift resurgence.
Remember Trump voter regret? Well, unsurprisingly, it’s back with a vengeance, especially for voters in one specific swing state.
On election night, we got the surprising news that a block of voters in Dearborn, Michigan, showed up for Trump at an alarming rate. The city, which previously skewed blue, is home to one of the largest populations of Arab Americans in the country. Devastated by the Biden administration’s refusal to cut off funds to Israel, Dearborn voters cast a vote for Trump as a protest, and to make their position loud and clear to the rest of the country. Some voters were also swayed by the hope that Trump would stand behind his word of promising to “end things” in Gaza by the time he takes office. Now that Trump has won, of course, he’s singing a different tune and appointing a staunchly pro-Israel cabinet. And Arab American voters in Dearborn are not having it.
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In a recent Newsweek article, Abbas Alawieh, a former Capitol Hill chief of staff, spoke out about the Dearborn protest vote.
“It’s clear as day that [Trump] is playing us,” he explained. “I think he’s going to target us. That’s what he’s going to do. He’s going to target our families, and it’s going to hurt. So, I think we’re about to find out.”
Dearborn residents are the only people feeling regret. As Trump voters swayed by his promise of economic betterment start to realize what the proposed tariffs and tax cuts realistically entail, they’re starting to wonder if they can actually count on the financial relief that’s been promised.
“The tax cuts-for-prosperity theme is compounded by the incoming president’s pronounced affection for tariffs,” opinion writer Alton Frye wrote recently in a piece for The Hill. “To treat increased tariffs as direct sales taxes on all American consumers may be an oversimplification, but levying those import fees across-the-board is bound to have numerous adverse results.”
Will the trend of voter remorse be anything on the level of the Brexit regret we saw years ago? It’s too soon to tell, but the fallout is bound to be interesting.
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