Some members of President Donald Trump’s “Front Row Joes” loyalists have turned during his second term, with one denouncing him as a “fraud and a liar.”
The “Joes” are a group of devoted MAGA supporters who follow Trump around the country, sleeping outside venues ahead of campaign rallies and speeches to get the best seat. With the midterm elections around the corner, their opinion could ring alarm bells for Republicans.
Two prominent members, Trisha Hope and Rick Frazier, have split from the group after becoming disillusioned with Trump over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and the war in Iran, they told Politico. Hope, a self-declared “J6 activist” who joined the Joes in 2018, said that she lost faith in the president after he vented his frustrations about Epstein at a July 8 Cabinet meeting.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump fumed at a reporter. “This guy’s been talked about for years.”
Hope, from Texas, described that moment as “a dagger in my heart” to Politico. “It was like a light switch went on and a veil lifted, and I saw him for who he was, and I have not been able to unsee it since,” she added.
Trump’s war with Iran, now in its eighth month, cemented Hope’s view of the president. “He’s said the war is over 600 different times,” she said. “He tells us they don't have a military, they don’t have a navy. They’re still blowing up things. It’s just all lies.”
Hope is so fed up with the president that she said she would support an impeachment. “If we do lose the midterms and he is impeached again, I will be walking the halls of Congress in support of that impeachment,” she said.
While Frazier, a founding member of the Joes, shares Hope’s frustrations, he acknowledged the pair are just two people and said that 95 percent of the group are “unwavering.”
Still, he pointed to the same issues as Hope for departing.
“Epstein crimes and feeding the industrial military complex…those are big nos for me,” Frazier, who has attended more than 100 Trump rallies, told Politico. “He promoted himself as a no-war president. That didn’t work out.”
Frazier, who lives in Ohio, said he is so frustrated he may not even vote in November.
Trump praised the devotion of the group at a July rally in Georgia as he promoted his “Trump Accounts” investment program.
“The Front Row Joes, I love these people,” he said. “I love these people. I think there are about 280… I don’t know what the hell they do, I think they make a lot of money, too.”
“I’m hearing they’re very rich. They follow us. It’s a rock concert right? You have a good time, right? Thank you. They’ve been with me right from the beginning,” he said.
Hope hit out at Trump at the time over his assertion that the group was “rich.”
“This shows me how absolutely clueless he is on what these folks have sacrificed in order to support him,” she said.
“They DO NOT MAKE MONEY!!” Hope continued. “In fact it costs them a GREAT deal of money and time to attend. They drive sometimes all night to get in line, they spend money on flights when driving isn’t an option.”
Other former Trump loyalists have soured on the president during his second term over the Epstein case and Iran, including ex-congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson.
They are not alone. Trump is approaching the midterm elections with a historic 50 percent of Americans strongly disapproving of his job performance — shattering the rejection record he set before the 2018 midterms, according to CNN.
The White House dismissed unfavorable polling in a previous statement. “President Trump is the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party, and he is committed to maintaining Republican majorities in Congress,” a spokesman said.
