Since taking office on Jan. 20, a number of Americans who voted for Donald Trump have come to regret their decision, and are sharing their disappointment online.
Erica Baguma, a third-year social anthropology student at the University of King’s College in Halifax, started the Twitter account @Trump_Regrets in November 2016.
By searching various hashtags and keywords, Baguma re-tweets people who regret casting their ballot for Trump to over 200,000 followers. A few celebrities follow the account, including Dan Harmon, the creator of Community, and comedian Rosie O’Donnell.
The Charlatan spoke with Baguma about what she’s learned about Trump voters since starting the account, and what people regret the most.
The Charlatan (TC): Why did you want to start the account? Was it just for fun initially?
Erica Baguma (EB): Yeah, it was mostly just for fun. I was curious, I wanted to learn a little bit about Trump supporters, why he got elected and you know, what was important to Trump voters, and I saw so many people regretting their votes and I thought it was really interesting.
TC: Have you noticed any kinds of patterns in terms of what people regret the most?
EB: The one that’s consistently coming up is that his supporters are embarrassed by his tweeting. He’s so unprofessional—I think they thought it would stop after the election. And then everything else sort of comes and goes in waves; the first biggest issue was him deciding not to pursue charges against Hillary Clinton. And then after that I would say the Muslim ban.
TC: I know you said you started in November, so was it that there weren’t too many tweets at the time and now that he’s actually in office have the number of tweets gone up?
EB: Yeah, they’ve pretty much been steadily increasing. I think everybody kind of wanted to give him a chance, give him the benefit of the doubt, a lot of people voted for him reluctantly, but as time goes by . . . people are regretting more and more.
TC: Have you learned anything since you started the account?
EB: Yeah, definitely. I mean the experience has definitely endeared me to Trump supporters a little bit. I’ve learned that a lot of them were really well intentioned and I learned about the reasons why people voted for Donald Trump which is what I was mostly interested in . . . I’m always sort of impressed when people are willing to admit their mistake and I was surprised. I sort of assumed that his followers were sort of dogmatists but they’re just people.
TC: With the internet, obviously there’s a fine line between re–tweeting people and then opening them up to being harassed from other people on the internet, so how do you manage that?
EB: You know, it’s something that I’m always sort of figuring out. I was concerned because I certainly don’t want people to feel harassed or bullied and I didn’t want anyone feeling like I’m putting them on blast, so that’s why I give people the option to ask me to have their tweet taken down. But so far no one’s actually taken me up on that, so I don’t think that it’s an issue to the people that I re–tweet.
TC: Were you surprised by how much attention the account has gotten?
EB: Yeah, I was really surprised. I mean I mostly started it for myself . . . I was especially surprised that people were finding comfort and relief, and a lot of Americans were saying that it gave them hope for the first time after the election.
TC: How long do you plan on keeping it going? For the next four years?
EB: Yeah, as long as people are still interested. I’m still interested, so yeah I’ll keep it going as long as people are still regretting.
