The Middle Name Should Be Hyperbole, a Voter Says

There is a particular disillusionment that settles in when a promise made in the warmth of a campaign collides with the cold arithmetic of a gas pump—a disillusionment that is not ideological but experiential, measured not in policy papers but in dollars spent at the station. In Anchorage, Alaska, several voters who had supported Donald Trump in three consecutive elections stood beside their vehicles, watching clips of the president's past promises on a reporter's screen. What followed was not a defense of their votes but a reckoning with them.

During a segment on MS NOW's "Connect with Jacob Soboroff," reporter Alex Tabet showed the voters footage of Trump's inaugural address and more recent comments dismissing high gas prices . One man, filling his tank, watched a clip of Trump vowing to lower prices. "That's why I voted for him because he was saying all that stuff," he said. "And then now it's totally different" .

Another voter suggested the president's middle name should be "hyperbole." "He's hyperbolic. That's all he has ever been," he said. "He can't deliver on any promises. No politician ever can, even if they have the best of intentions" .

The frustration was particularly acute in Alaska, where gas prices hover around $5 per gallon in Anchorage and reach as high as $9 in some areas. Many communities in the state rely on diesel for heating, averaging $6.60 a gallon, with some regions seeing diesel over $8 and heating oil at $10 . As winter approaches, that cost becomes a matter of survival, not convenience.

A third voter watched a clip of Trump saying Americans have to "pay a little bit more" in gas prices to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. "He talks a lot, but I haven't seen anything come to fruition yet," the man said. "Of course I understand they don't need nukes, but I mean, I need to live and not be able to spend all my money on gas" . When asked how he felt watching the promises, he was blunt: "Like he's just lying" .

The president's net worth has risen to an estimated $7 billion since returning to office, while the average net worth of Alaskans was around $155,000 in 2024 . The contrast was not lost on the voters in the segment.

The sentiment reflects a broader unease among Trump's supporters. A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll found that 17 percent of his 2024 voters now express reservations about their vote, up from 8 percent in April 2025. His overall approval rating had fallen to 33 percent, with most Americans disapproving of his handling of inflation, jobs, immigration, and the war in Iran .

The segment did not include a response from the White House. For the voters in Anchorage, the response came from their own experience—the pump, the receipt, the cold approaching winter. They had voted for the promise. They were living with the result.

AI Image Disclaimer: The images accompanying this article were generated by artificial intelligence and are for illustrative purposes only.

Sources: HuffPost, Yahoo News Malaysia, The Daily Beast, MS NOW