‘We all have our limitations’: How long will MAGA keep watching the Trump show?

More than a decade into his political career, President Donald Trump can still draw a crowd.Trump has spent the past month crisscrossing the country, rallying in support of down-ballot Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The Washington Examiner tagged along with the president Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for his latest stops in Florida, Georgia, and Michigan.But while Trump can pack a room, the challenge this election cycle is keeping butts in the seats. Since launching his first campaign in 2015, the president has honed his rallies into something of an art form. Compared to other politicians, Trump keeps his remarks loose, preferring to stray off script and play for laughs rather than detail the intricacies of his policies or the specifics of the platforms of the candidates he’s backing.TRACKING TRUMP’S MIDTERM CAMPAIGN PLEDGESBefore running for office, Trump was one of the most successful reality television stars of all time, arguably logging more hours in front of a camera than any president in history. His eye for production is on full display when he takes the stage. Crowds are treated to video montages — with the president’s current favorite being a clip of CNN polling expert Harry Enten from September explaining how Trump’s polling among MAGA Republicans hasn’t dipped compared to 2024 — the president’s own roasting of his political enemies, and cameo appearances from his celebrity friends. This weekend, those guests included Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl-winning fullback Mike Alstott, country star Jason Aldean in Georgia, and international rap phenomenon Nicki Minaj.The majority of Trump’s crowds stay until the president concludes with his patented “Trump dance.” Since 2024, he’s been performing a rhythmic, double-fist pump onstage to the Village People’s “YMCA,” — or, as Trump calls it, the “gay national anthem.”This cycle, the dance comes directly after calling down-ballot Republicans up to the stage to deliver remarks.Still, the Washington Examiner documented a steady exodus of attendees at all three rallies heading for the exits not even halfway into Trump’s stage production.The biggest drop off this weekend occurred in Perry, Georgia. By the time Trump broke it down at the Guardian Centers, a disaster relief training facility, the crowd had shrunk by more than a third. At the start of the event, attendees were standing in the aisles and pressed against the walls, but by the end, the aisles had emptied. There was still a strong showing in the seats arrayed in front and around the stage.As of Monday, Trump’s approval rating in the RealClearPolitics polling average was 21.9 points underwater, with just 38.3% approval. He told the Washington Examiner last week that he believes his approval rating is actually around 60%.A veteran member of Trump’s political team dismissed the idea that the president is less popular now than he was in 2024, when he carried a historic share, at least for a Republican, of Hispanic and black voters and won the popular vote.“President Trump loves MAGA, and MAGA loves him back,” that person suggested. “That’s why he’s busting his a** to hit all of these states before Election Day. Just a reminder of why they voted for him in the first place — and why they need to have his back on November 3.”But in interviews with the Washington Examiner, rally attendees suggested that, even if they love Trump the man, they still have some concerns about how Trump the president has governed, specifically regarding the Iran war and the elevated gas prices that have followed in its wake.TRUMP: NICKI MINAJ HAS ‘ONE HELL OF A BEAUTIFUL A**’Tom, a retiree who moved to Naples, Florida, in 2019, told the Washington Examiner that he attended the Fort Myers rally on Friday, where Trump received by far the strongest reception of the weekend, simply because he’d never seen the president “perform” in person.And while Tom said he supports the war in Iran, something that the rest of his family is “opposed” to, he might change his mind if gas prices, registering in his estimation between $4.19 and $4.29 on Friday, don’t come back down within “six months to a year.”“Anything longer than that,” he stated before pausing, “We all have our limitations, and we’re kind of getting to that point.”Walter Cunningham, a lifelong Florida resident and three-time Trump voter, also attended Friday’s Fort Myers rally. He told the Washington Examiner Trump’s campaign slate will “get the excitement going” and boost Republican turnout in November. But, like Tom, he also wanted to see Trump work to bring down both gas and housing prices over his final two years in office.“Having been around for the last 40 years, with Iran always picking fights with us and doing bad things, yeah, I can put up with [the war],” he stated, “but I’m not so sure my kids feel the same way.”Sue, the mother of an active-duty Marine, and her neighbor Scott, a retired custodian and factory worker, live in nearby Saint Clair, Michigan, and were seated directly behind the press at Trump’s rally in Port Huron, Michigan. Both claimed to be lifelong Republican voters and agreed that Trump was a “top five” president of all time.However, both said they were worried about Trump’s handling of the war and gas prices. Sue noted that gas was, on Sunday, “74 cents” more expensive per gallon, and she questioned whether or not Trump can “actually stop” the conflict in Iran.Scott added that in border towns like theirs, gas prices “kind of go all over the place” and that the president’s trade war with Canada was additionally driving up prices, in addition to hurting small businesses in Michigan.Zion Tookes, a concrete laborer in the last election and lives and works in Perry, attended Saturday’s Trump rally because he was still undecided about who to vote for in the state’s Senate and gubernatorial races.Tookes said he had backed Trump in the past but clarified that the war and prices at the pump had him currently feeling “like [he’s] going more Democratic” this election.“I’m just trying to hear different opinions,” he told the Washington Examiner, adding that the cost of filling up his motorcycle had jumped from “about $9 to $12” over the past several months.In Perry, Trump claimed that the United States is “making hundreds of billions of dollars because of what’s happened in the Middle East, because they’re coming to Texas and they’re coming to Oklahoma and they’re coming to Louisiana, and they’re taking that oil.”The president joked that his staff has asked him not to discuss the issue because “people are paying a little bit higher.”TRUMP OFFERS $1 MILLION REWARD FOR TIPS RESULTING IN VOTER FRAUD CONVICTIONS“But I said, ‘I don’t give a damn, I’m gonna say it: We’re making a frickin’ fortune,'” he added.The Washington Examiner watched Tookes walk out of the venue shortly after the president’s comments.