When 3-time Trump voter and co-founder of The American Conservative magazine Scott McConnell responded to a recent Eric Trump post by confessing he felt shame and embarrassment over his past Trump support, reactions ranged from genuine curiosity (what changed?) to rage (now you realize?!) to compassion — with Republican-turned-Democrat congressional candidate George Conway urging Democrats to ignore their anger and welcome Trump turncoats into the fold.
Eric Trump’s post about the renaming of the Palm Beach Airport after his father provided the prompt for McConnell’s reversal. In response, the lifelong conservative wrote of his past Trump support: “So so ashamed and embarrassed to have voted three times for this person.”
So so ashamed and embarrassed to have voted three times for this person. https://t.co/5p8XRArGSi
— Scott McConnell (@ScottMcConnell9) March 31, 2026
Commenters curious about McConnell’s new shame were understandably surprised that an airport name change could trigger such a response since, of course, Trump getting public places named after him is hardly out of character — the Trump-Kennedy Center being only the most prominent example.
But McConnell had merely used the airport post as a prompt to make his break with Trump clear. Replying in the comments to questions about which straw really broke his camel’s back, McConnell wrote: “Iran war.”
One commenter seeking clarification listed a raft of other issues Trump detractors have found problematic, phrasing them as a question for McConnell: “Not the J6? Not the Epstein file? Not the tax evasion? Not the sexual assaults and filthy language?”
McConnell replied, to the consternation of many: “No, none of those seemed all that important, though J6 was enough to support DeSantis in the primary. But stupid wars is.”
Not the J6? Not the Epstein file? Not the tax evasion? Not the sexual assaults and filthy language?
— Speak Your Truth (@NoToFascisim) March 31, 2026
Conway, whose break with Trump came nearly a decade ago, responded with a cautionary note to those Trump detractors who want to ostracize and punish former Trump supporters, even as they change their minds about the President.
The Harvard- and Yale-educated lawyer running for Congress in New York wrote of McConnell and what he predicts will be many more former Trump loyalists like him, telling Democrats to be wary of saying “I told you so” to those just now dropping their Trump support.
“We are going to see an accelerating tide of these admissions and conversions as the coming weeks and months pass,” Conway wrote. “And the job of those of us who have opposed Trump for years is to resist saying ‘I told you so,’ or ‘you knew better,’ or ‘who needs you,’ but rather to say ‘thank you for seeing the light,’ and to ask people who previously supported Trump to help us stand up now for the impeachment and removal of that terrible man so that we rid ourselves of him sooner, rather than later. The survival of our nation as a constitutional republic depends in no small part on such grace.”
Proving Conway’s prediction correct, J.J. Carrell, who retired from Border Patrol after a 24-year career as a Deputy Patrol Agent in Charge in San Diego, also responded to Trump’s decision to send U.S. military into the Middle East as the Iran war escalates: “What the [expletive] are we doing! My son will NEVER die for a foreign country! I voted for you 3 times, took abuse and fought for you and this is what you do! You do the exact opposite of what you railed against for over a decade!”