For years, they followed Donald Trump from rally to rally.
They stood behind the barricades. They traveled across the country. They spent their own time and money just to get close to the president and hear him speak.
They called themselves the “Front Row Joes.”
Now, some of Trump’s most dedicated supporters are walking away.
Two prominent members of the group, Trisha Hope and Rick Frazier, have publicly turned against Trump during his second term, with Frazier saying he may not even bother voting in November’s midterm elections.
That’s a pretty remarkable break for someone who says he has attended more than 100 Trump rallies.
“Epstein crimes and feeding the industrial military complex … those are big nos for me,” Frazier told Politico Playbook. “He promoted himself as a no-war president. That didn’t work out.”
And then he delivered the line that really underscores just how far his disillusionment has gone:
“I’m to the point of not going to the polls in November.”
Frazier isn’t some casual Trump supporter who wandered into a rally once.
He’s a founding member of the Front Row Joes — a group whose members built their identities around showing up for Trump again and again.
But even that loyalty appears to have limits.
‘It was like a light switch’
Hope’s break with Trump came from many of the same issues.
She pointed to the war in Iran and Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files as major reasons she has become disillusioned with the president.
“He’s said the war is over 600 different times,” Hope said. “He tells us they don’t have a military, they don’t have a navy. They’re still blowing up things.”
“It’s just all lies.”
Hope said Trump’s handling of the Epstein controversy was the moment something changed for her.
She specifically pointed to Trump’s July 2025 comments dismissing continued questions about Epstein during a Cabinet meeting.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump said at the time.
For Hope, the remark was more than just another presidential comment.
“It was like a light switch went on and a veil lifted, and I saw him for who he was, and I have not been able to unsee it since,” she told Playbook.
That’s a stunning statement from someone who spent years helping build the political movement around Trump.
Hope joined the Front Row Joes in 2018 and became well known in MAGA circles after publishing a book consisting entirely of Trump’s social-media posts, titled Just the Tweets.
She eventually became one of his more vocal critics.
In July, she also blasted Trump after he singled out the Front Row Joes at a Georgia rally and suggested the group was “very rich.”
Hope wasn’t amused.
She argued that Trump had no idea what the group’s members had sacrificed to follow him around the country.
“They DO NOT MAKE MONEY!!” she wrote on X. “In fact it costs them a GREAT deal of money and time to attend.”
White House official said claims that Trump’s supporters are distancing themselves from the president “could not be further from the truth.”
“President Trump is still the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party,” the official said, pointing to Trump’s continued appearances around the country and his administration’s record.
Recent polling also shows that Trump retains substantial support among Republicans. A September Reuters/Ipsos poll put his approval among Republicans at 73%, although that was down from 82% the previous week.
So this isn’t a story about the MAGA movement suddenly disappearing.
It’s a story about something potentially more interesting: Some of the people who were closest to the movement are starting to say they’ve had enough.
Even the brick-wall guy sees it
One of the most recognizable Front Row Joes is Blake Marnell, who can usually be spotted at Trump rallies wearing his trademark orange brick suit representing a border wall.
Marnell said he wasn’t surprised that some members of the group have become disillusioned.
“I think it’d be more surprising if you took any American president and tracked the people who followed him over time and didn’t find signs of disillusionment,” he told Playbook.
That’s probably the most important point in the story.
Political movements built around one person can be intensely loyal.
But loyalty isn’t necessarily permanent.
And when people who spent years traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to attend rallies begin publicly questioning the person they once followed everywhere, it gets attention.
A warning sign for the GOP?
Former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the defections should concern Republicans, particularly as the party looks toward a future beyond Trump.
“Can another candidate even really pull off a rally?” Spicer asked.
He compared the challenge to what happened after the Grateful Dead broke up: “It’s like asking where Deadheads go after the Grateful Dead broke up.”
That’s a colorful comparison.
But the underlying question is a serious one for Republicans: what happens to a movement that has spent years revolving around one political figure when some of its most devoted followers begin walking away?
