Trump won the election entirely on vibes, not his historically unpopular policy.

An NPR/Marist poll shows that the second Trump admin is beginning with wild unpopularity (44% approve, 49% disapprove), and negative support for major policy positions (62% of Americans disapprove of Trump pardoning people who were convicted of attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 35% approve of the pardons, 48% of Americans think placing tariffs or fees on products imported from other countries generally hurts the national economy. 31% believe it helps the U.S. economy, and 18% think tariffs do not make much difference, evenly split on mass deportations).

There is a huge discrepancy between what Trump actually ran on vs. why people voted for him - there is a nearly magical belief that Trump will be better for the economy, when the Trump campaign openly ran on the fact that they will crash the economy and make it significantly worst for most Americans .

Some, wildly dependent on America's already incredibly weak social safety net, mistakenly believe that an administration made almost entirely of soft-handed billionaires will be "Attuned to the needs of everyone, not just the rich," even though the incoming administration intends to cut Medicaid, the ACA, Social Security and more to fund giveaways to the already unbelievably wealthy.

One of the most obvious and glaring lies of the campaign, that Trump has no affiliation with Project 2025, is obviously and glaringly a lie because the project wildly unpopular to any rational person.

So when the Trump admin ends up being what it campaigned as being rather than the imaginary candidate some people voted for, will Americans regret it?

Will they learn from their mistakes?

What could be done to reduce voter dissonance between what a candidate actually intends and what voters believe the candidate will do?