It’s the “F**k Around and Find Out” time for House Republicans
The FAFO time is just getting warmed up!
What do Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern, Wisconsin Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, Georgia Rep. Rich McCormick, Alaska Rep. Nick Begich, Wisconsin Rep. Glenn Grothman and Oregon Rep. Cliff Bentz all have in common?
Two things? First, they all are House Republicans. And two, all of them just learned how angry their constituents are with Donald Trump and his henchmen Elon Musk. In other words, they are seeing first-hand the expression that Elon Musk and others love to invoke: “FAFO” better known as “F**K around and find out.”
However, in this case, it’s Trump and Musk doing the F***ing around while it’s the House GOP that are the ones finding out. And I can assure you that given this week we saw big drops in both Trump’s poll numbers and consumer confidence as prices keep rising—the “finding out” part is just getting warmed up.
Just look at what we saw over the past few days. In the very red district of Wisconsin’s 6th district where GOP Rep. Glenn Grothman won by more than 20 points in November, he was subjected to an angry crowd challenging his Trump talking points. A visibly shocked Grothman was clearly surprised to hear a packed room loudly boo when he declared, “President Trump has issued a lot of executive orders...And I think across the board, he’s done some very good things.” Same for when Grothman boasted (falsely) that Trump has “gotten rid of birthright citizenship” --which led to more boos and a person yelling, “It’s illegal as hell!”
Across the country in the solidly red district in Georgia where GOP. Rep Rich McCormick won by nearly 30 points and Trump carried in huge numbers, we also saw anger directed for the actions of Trump and Musk. People voiced outrage with budget cuts being “jammed down the pipe, so rushed and sloppily.” Others complained that Congress needs to control the budget as opposed to “Elon Musk deciding.”
McCormick was so flustered by people calling out that Trump wants to be a tyrant and "declared himself king," he told this room of what appeared to be middle aged to older white people that they were no different than the Jan. 6 attackers for screaming at him. Obviously, McCormick’s goal of equating criticism for domestic terrorism was to silence the crowd but that didn’t work as the crowd loudly booed--with some attendees yelling, "Shame!" (see clips below)
While over in Oklahoma on Thursday, GOP Rep. Kevin Hern faced as the local media dubbed it “tough questions” about Trump/Musk’s budget cuts. And many asked Hern directly about Musk with questions like “Will you call Elon Musk in to under oath explain what he's doing?” and “My concern is Elon Musk.”
It was the same story with Republican House members in Alaska and Oregon. And if this is happening in some of these solid red districts, just imagine the outrage in the swing districts!
While corporate media barely touches on this, Trump’s approval rating is now the lowest of any President one month into his second term since polling began. Typically, a President that wins re-election has a bump in polls that lasts for months—if not the full year. In Trump’s case his approval rating of nearly 50% when he was sworn lasted only a few weeks. New polls this past week from CNN to Washington Post to Quinnipiac all show Trump’s approval sliding to the mid 40’s--with his disapproval climbing to 54% in the CNN poll.
The reasons for Trump’s slide are exactly what you are hearing about at the meetings—from Trump being a “tyrant” to Trump/Musk slashing programs in a way that will impact programs they rely on. In fact, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday found just that with nearly 60% of Americans say they fear the Trump/Musk cuts will cause everything from Social Security payments to Medicare to student aid to be negatively impacted. In contrast, only 29% polled said they did not worry about that happening.
But I always say if you want to see where the energy and passion lies with voters, compare those who strongly approve versus strongly disapprove in terms of any politician or issue. People who “strongly” love or hate something are the ones who not only vote—but knock on doors, make phone calls, get friends to vote etc.
Well, a new Washington Post poll released days ago gave us a glimpse into this metric. They found 37% of voters strongly oppose Trump compared to only 27% who strongly approve. That is a ten-point enthusiasm gap of people strongly opposing Trump just one month into his second term.
Watch that number in future polls because as that gap grows, it spells even more trouble for not just House Republicans in 2026--but any visible Republican on the ballot in 2025. This includes this November’s governor races in New Jersey and Virginia to especially the April 1 congressional special elections in Florida to fill seats vacated by two House Republicans tapped be in the Trump administration.
Adding to Trump and the GOP’s woes is that Americans think Trump is failing us when comes to the economy. According to a recent Gallup poll, Trump's approval rating on handling the economy is now down to 42%. For context, this is lower than any president's economic approval numbers one month in into a term including for Joe Biden (54 percent), Barack Obama (59 percent), George W. Bush (53 percent) and Bill Clinton (45 percent).
This lines up with the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence survey released Friday that found consumer confidence dropped by a whopping 10% over Trump’s first month in office. Consumers point to inflation jumping, Trump’s new and proposed tariffs which will cause even more inflation and massive layoffs Trump/Musk are causing.
I know that is a lot of polling to digest but I believe we should have the data to back up our arguments. My goal is always to make you better informed by way of credible evidence as opposed to just sharing my opinion.
And what the data tells us is that every House Republican who has a Town hall or event open to the public is about find out what FAFO really means. And it’s going to be beautiful!
I find it funny they think the problem is Elon Musk. How do they think a South African billionaire with ties to Putin and no security clearance got access to the entire federal government? The problem was their vote.
I weep bitter tears—they gladly drink the Kool-Aid, then complain about the taste.