Rachel Maddow said even Republicans are feeling the effects of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s sudden influx of firings and layoffs as DOGE continues to downsize the federal government.
On Tuesday night, the MSNBC anchor noted, “Republicans [are] just eating it in their home districts, in their home states, as their party’s leader does things that are devastating to those states and to those constituents.”
The “Rachel Maddow Show” host unpacked recent attempts from Republican officials in states like Alaska, Virginia, Iowa and Florida to either acquire exemptions for certain government workers in their states or build aid packages for those already laid off.
“Just seeing that in states all over the country is a lot … It gives me many, many feelings of many different kinds,” she said of the exemption requests. Maddow then revealed why she believes the effects Trump’s decisions continue to have on red states could come back to haunt him.
“One of the only constraints that matter on an ascending authoritarian is the constraints put on him by his own party,” Maddow stated. “The distance between what people think they voted for and what people realize they got ultimately does matter. Sometimes, it’s the only thing that matters.”
You can watch the full segment below:
Maddow then turned her attention to recent comments from Trump voters who have expressed regret over supporting him in the 2024 election. “Emily Anderson from Duluth, Minnesota, categorizes her vote for Trump this year as the ‘biggest mistake of my life,’” Maddow noted, quoting an article from The Wall Street Journal. Once again, the MSNBC host expressed why such a shift in public opinion may be even more important than her viewers think.
“Trump voters feeling that way, Republican-elected officials desperately seeking exemptions for their state … saying Trump’s policies are bad if they apply in their state, Republicans finding Trump’s actions and chaos and dysfunction not only damaging but indefensible,” Maddow summarized. “If we still have a political process, that will matter in terms of what Trump can do — and for how long.”
You can watch the full segment above.
