What Trump Voters Think About Limited Government
Bubba
15 Nov
Will Trump supporters’ desire to shrink the government and cut services come into conflict with their support for keeping Social Security and other benefits intact? (Pew Research Center)
The numbers: 84% of Trump voters want a smaller government that provides fewer services, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey data.
72% of Trump supporters think aid to the poor does more harm than good.
But 77% oppose any cuts to Social Security.
Other polling has found majorities of Trump voters are in favor of expanding Medicare.
Chart: Pew Research Center
Zoom out: We might be seeing this tension play out shortly by way of the Trump admin’s Department of Government Efficiency, whose co-head, Elon Musk, has vowed to slash $2 trillion of the government’s $6.7 trillion yearly budget.
In order to get there, DOGE might have to trim entitlements like Social Security, which make up a major chunk of spending.
Just one problem: The president-elect has repeatedly vowed not to touch such programs, with his 2024 campaign platform explicitly stating he would “fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age.”
A glimpse into Trump’s philosophy, outlined during the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference:
As Republicans, if you think you are going to change very substantially for the worse Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security in any substantial way, and at the same time you think you are going to win elections, it just really is not going to happen... What we have to do and the way we solve our problems is to build a great economy.
Bubba’s Two Cents
Last year, Oliver Anthony’s working-class anthem, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” was briefly but widely embraced by Trump supporters and critics of the elite status quo. The song’s success was largely attributed to how well it captured blue-collar frustration with American leadership.
In “Rich Men North of Richmond,” Anthony delivers a few spicy lines about government benefits:
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare
Well, God, if you're five-foot-three and you're three-hundred pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of Fudge Rounds
DOGE, which so far seems to be focused on reducing the size of government by targeting waste rather than spending, is a pretty good expression of the Anthony/MAGA version of limited government.
Per a KFF poll from May, nearly 70% of GOP voters think fraud, waste and abuse are major problems in Medicare and Social Security programs.
The takeaway for me is that Trump voters’ view on limited government vs. benefits isn’t necessarily contradictory, it’s nuanced.