{"id":877,"date":"2026-05-29T12:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertyrelocationusa.com\/?p=877"},"modified":"2026-05-29T12:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:09:00","slug":"i-was-dumb-as-a-rock-hardcore-maga-couple-ditches-trump-after-getting-kick-in-teeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertyrelocationusa.com\/?p=877","title":{"rendered":"‘I was dumb as a rock’: Hardcore MAGA couple ditches Trump after getting ‘kick in teeth’"},"content":{"rendered":"

After voting for Donald Trump multiple times, longtime Republicans Ron and Chrissey Kelley turned on the president and his MAGA movement when his second administration\u2019s policies threatened their livelihood.<\/p>

Read more Yet another star quits Trump\u2019s \u2018Freedom 250\u2019 concert after threats<\/a><\/p>

Last October, Ron, a 55-year-old construction analyst for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), was furloughed for 43 days as the Trump administration took a sledgehammer to federal agencies\u2019 budgets under the Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative led by the world\u2019s richest man, Elon Musk.<\/p>

\u201cWe voted for Trump, not realizing that he was going to slam as hard as he did, but it was on day one when he sat down, right after inauguration, and started signing those executive orders and just trashed us federal employees, it was a kick in the teeth,\u201d Ron said.<\/p>

\u201cThat point was the beginning of my turning away from MAGA.\u201d<\/p>

Rather than leave the GOP quietly, the couple from Byron, Georgia, decided to publicly announce their decision to break with the party, and joined a growing community of former Trump supporters<\/u> called Leaving MAGA.<\/p>

\u201cIf people would just listen and research and do something other than just listen to Fox News, we may all be better off, but it’s going to take an open mind and an ability to say, \u2018I made a mistake,\u2019 because once you say you made a mistake, you can turn the ship around,\u201d said Chrissey Kelley, 50, a stay-at-home mom.<\/p>

Speaking out against MAGA cost the Kelleys relationships with friends and family members who support Trump, but in sharing their story, they hope to inspire others having doubts about the GOP. <\/p>

\u201cIt’s okay to be wrong. You made a mistake, it was a bad choice, but it’s not the end of the world. We can fix it. We just got to ride it out and hold strong and support each other through it,\u201d Ron said.<\/p>

\u201cIt widens the field for everyone so that they can feel comfortable coming out saying they supported this guy instead of being embarrassed and trying to hide it.\u201d <\/p>

\u2018Bought into the lie\u2019<\/h2>

The Kelleys\u2019 journey into MAGA took place over many years.<\/p>

Chrissey said she became a Republican as soon as she started voting.<\/p>

\u201cYou were just a conservative. There was no thought behind it. You listen to Fox News, and you listen to conservative outlets, and you’re spoon-fed,\u201d Chrissey said.<\/p>

\n

\"Ron<\/figure>\n Ron and Chrissey Kelley (Photo courtesy of Chrissey Kelley)<\/small><\/p>

When Trump ran the first time she remembered thinking, \u201cHe’s gonna fix everything. He’s a businessman. He’s gonna help us.\u201d<\/p>

Ron, who served in the military for 25 years, said the 2008 housing market crash left him \u201creally disillusioned with the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>

When he couldn\u2019t find work in Detroit, he moved to Georgia. He supported Republicans because he associated them with bigger spending on defense.<\/p>

Ron said he supported Trump with donations, bumper stickers and the \u201cwhole nine yards\u201d of MAGA.<\/p>

\u201cI bought into the lie about the stolen election and all that, and I thought January 6 insurrectionists were actually patriots,\u201d Ron said.<\/p>

Read more \u2018Gaslighting 101\u2019: Three-time Trump voter appalled as admin spreads \u2018laughable\u2019 rumors<\/a><\/p>

\u201cI just remember being content with thinking that he was what we needed, and he was going to drain the swamp in Washington until he got into office this third term, and realizing that I was dumb as a rock, and I believed everything that I was spoon fed.\u201d<\/p>

\u2018Lie after lie after lie\u2019<\/h2>

Ron came to regret his vote when he said Trump’s executive orders started to \u201cdestroy my life, which affects my family.\u201d<\/p>

Months later, Ron said DOGE is still complicating his work at HUD.<\/p>

\u201cThey brought DOGE in and created a whole new layer of bureaucracy that we’re still suffering from,\u201d Ron said.<\/p>

\u201cThey’ve created so much headache and so much overhead.\u201d<\/p>

In addition to Ron\u2019s furlough, Chrissey said the Trump administration\u2019s handling of the Epstein files and its treatment of immigrants pushed her away from MAGA. <\/p>

\u201cJust watching the policies of what’s happening in our world today unfold one by one by one, I just started drawing up very different conclusions and found out that I was clueless, and most people are today, but now I’m awake and looking at it for what it is, and I cannot believe that he had my support,\u201d Chrissey said.<\/p>

\u201cIt’s lie after lie after lie.\u201d<\/p>

Others in the Leaving MAGA community have been vocal about the extremes they went to while supporting Trump \u2014 from embracing Christian nationalism<\/u> to believing conspiracies<\/u>, losing friends<\/u> and marriages<\/u> and committing crimes<\/u> in Trump\u2019s name.<\/p>

Ron said while there are some people in \u201cdeep, deep red MAGA that you’re never going to convince that Trump is not who they think he is,\u201d he thinks more people are turning away from MAGA quietly. <\/p>

\u201cI believe that the more that we share, the more of the fringe MAGA are dropping off,\u201d Ron said.<\/p>

\u201cAs you see in the polls that they keep taking, that Trump is dropping lower and lower and lower almost daily, so the only way that that could happen is that his base is leaving him, which means that MAGA is moving.\u201d<\/p>

Ron said he now votes for Democrats, and Chrissey said she considers herself an Independent but has voted for Democrats three times now, something she \u201cnever thought in my entire life\u201d would happen. <\/p>

\u201cThe road we’re headed down now, if we don’t turn this truck around, we’re so close to going off the edge of the cliff that we need to stick together,\u201d Ron said.<\/p>

\u201cWe need to put our country back together. It might take decades, but don’t give up. We need to be vocal. Stay strong, and follow our laws and Constitution, and hold strong with our values, not the values that the MAGA claims that we have, but the values that we’ve had in the past 250 years from the founding of the country til Joe Biden’s era.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Trump\u2019s latest midterm gaffe shows we\u2019re headed for a \u2018very messy moment\u2019: biographer<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After voting for Donald Trump multiple times, longtime Republicans Ron and Chrissey Kelley turned on the president and his MAGA movement when his second administration\u2019s policies threatened their livelihood.Last October, Ron, a 55-year-old construction analyst for the U.S. Department of Housing and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigation"],"yoast_head":"\n'I was dumb as a rock': Hardcore MAGA couple ditches Trump after getting 'kick in teeth' - Property Relocation USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/propertyrelocationusa.com\/?p=877\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'I was dumb as a rock': Hardcore MAGA couple ditches Trump after getting 'kick in teeth' - 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