Karen Bolger, a Boston native who has voted for Donald Trump in three consecutive elections, criticized the president during an interview with Newsmax, accusing him of drifting away from the "America First" agenda that originally won her support.

Bolger spoke with the conservative network as it traveled across the country interviewing Americans ahead of the midterm elections, contests in which every seat in the House of Representatives and roughly one-third of the Senate will be on the ballot. She said she has backed Trump since he first entered presidential politics in 2015, but that, nearly 11 years later, she is growing increasingly dissatisfied with where his attention appears to be directed.

"I believed in him since 2015. I still do, but I would love to see a little more America First, because right now it feels like it's 'world first' rather than country," Bolger said. The slogan has the centerpiece of Trump's political identity since he first ran for president in 2015, making it one of the most closely identified promises of his movement.

According to Newsmax correspondent Andrew Craft, Bolger is a retired nurse, mother, and grandmother whose income leaves her ineligible for federal aid, yet she is having difficulty meeting her daily expenses.

New England households have faced some of the highest electricity prices in the country in recent years, according to federal Energy Information Administration data, a backdrop to the concern Bolger pointed to in Massachusetts. "We have very, very high utility costs in Massachusetts, very high," she said. "And I worry about those costs. Being able to heat my home, being able to pay for the electricity. The costs have just skyrocketed."

Bolger's frustrations also extended to younger Americans, whom she described as finding it increasingly difficult to lead financially independent lives. She said young people are struggling to move out of their parents' homes, buy homes of their own, afford health insurance, and secure good jobs even after attending college. She worried that these pressures are making promises of government-subsidized benefits more appealing to younger voters, and added that the current political climate is driving youth toward "socialism." Cost-of-living pressures like the ones she described — housing, health insurance, and energy bills among them — have remained central themes in the national political debate heading into the midterm cycle.

When asked whether anyone currently represents the "America First" movement better than the president, Bolger chose a member of his own administration: Vice President JD Vance. She said she feels Vance is more in touch with the American people at the moment and has become more outspoken in his efforts to reach ordinary voters.

"J.D. Vance...I feel that he is more in touch with the American people right now. And he's really coming into his own, I think," Bolger said. "And he's, you know, being more vocal and just really reaching out to the American public. And I feel that he's just relatable."

Despite her frustrations with the president, Bolger said she has not completely abandoned the GOP. Vance, who ran as Trump's vice-presidential nominee in 2024, has not announced a campaign of his own, but if he runs in 2028, he appears to have gained a voter who has become disillusioned with his boss.