'He's a crook': Trump probably not winning back ex-supporters who 'absolutely hate him'
Donald Trump is poised to solidify his grip on the Republican Party primary if Nikki Haley can't notch a moral victory, but many of his former supporters say they "hate" him and could never back him again.
Polling ahead of last week's Iowa caucuses show 43 percent of Nikki Haley would back President Joe Biden over Trump in a general election, and those numbers include a large number of GOP voters and a major portion of independents who appear committed to voting against the quadruple-indicted ex-president, reported Politico.
“I can’t vote for Trump. He’s a crook. He’s too corrupt,” said Scott Simeone, a 64-year-old independent voter from Amherst, New Hampshire, who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. “I voted for him, and I didn’t realize he’s as corrupt as he is.”
Trump is no longer the political outsider who appealed to some undecided voters but instead has run three campaigns, served four years in office and utterly dominated political coverage for nearly a decade, and that will likely make it difficult to win back all the voters he's alienated.
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“I liked him, but he just scares me now – everybody that has ever worked for him is not any more,” said Lisa Tracy, of Salem. “I would go with Biden.”
Other voters say they would leave their presidential ballot blank if there's a Biden-Trump rematch in November, but others are more succinct.
“No, never,” said Forbes Farmer, a 79-year-old independent from Rindge. “I absolutely hate Trump.”