Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Fla., on July 15, 2023.
AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Political scientists are saying the public is tired of hearing about Donald Trump.
After years of hearing about Trump’s misdeeds, less attention is being paid to his charges.
The inattention is not unique, but it is alarming given the nature of the charges, experts say.
After Donald Trump was arraigned for the third time this week, the former President’s behavior seems to have garnered less attention than usual despite its radically alarming implications — and political experts think the cause could be “Trump fatigue.”
Jared Carter, a Vermont Law and Graduate School law professor, told Insider people are tired of hearing about Trump’s actions and have been for several years.
“A part of the reason Trump lost the 2020 election is people were tired of it,” Carter said, referring to Trump’s continuous scandals. “It’s exhausting, for journalists and the public to be constantly having this guy living in their minds.”
Carter continued, calling disinterest in Trump’s recent indictments part of a broader “psychosis” Americans feel about his overall behavior.
“It’s exhausting and people don’t want to think about it anymore,” Carter said.
Ryan Enos, a professor of government and director of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, told Insider inattentive behavior toward politics is not new, especially given the daily stresses of American life.
However, Enos said the inattention is alarming given the unprecedented nature of Trump’s alleged crimes.
“The fact that most people don’t pay attention to politics is certainly not unique to Trump,” Enos said. “The idea that there may be enough cynicism about politics now, that’s risen in recent decades, that people don’t react to controversy in the same way is not unique to Trump either. What perhaps is unique to Trump is that he’s exhibited such high levels of corruption.”
Enos continued, saying that people showed similar cynicism while former President Bill Clinton was in office when he was under investigation by Republicans for his affair and sexual activities with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Enos said Trump’s actions should be especially alarming and problematic to Americans because of his efforts to attack a foundational part of American democracy.
“It’s not something that people may think they’ve seen before. This is somebody that tried to seize the presidency of the United States, despite having lost,” Enos said. “That’s something that if it happens, undermines the whole functioning of our democracy. It’d be the gravest threat to our democracy we’ve ever faced.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular working hours.