I would wager that just about everyone has experienced both sides of an exchange centered around the phrase “I told you so.” We are all human, and despite ample warnings from our friends, colleagues or even total strangers, we often do stupid things. 

The opposite is often just as likely. Despite our best efforts to persuade someone from doing something dangerous or ill-advised, they end up stepping right on the proverbial rake. 

In that moment, as “I told you so” escapes your mouth, it is so easy to feel a sense of vindication. One might even get a bit of schadenfreude — a hint of joy from the downfall of whoever ignored your advice. 

As we near the halfway point of Donald Trump’s first hundred days, many are beginning to feel the effects of his second term. Grocery prices continue to rise, despite Trump’s pledge to bring them down “on day one.” Meanwhile, consumers are getting surprised when they have to pay a tariff on their drop-shipped goods.

None of this is surprising, at least not to the people who spent months trying to explain how tariffs actually work. Despite those warnings, people who voted for Trump are still confused as to why their Shein package is being held by customs until they pay the tariff. 

Whether you call it comeuppance. just desserts, or getting their due, it is hard not to find a morsel of entertainment in the irony of the situation. 

There’s a popular community on Reddit called r/LeopardsAteMyFace. The name is a reference to a tweet from 2015 by a user named @Cavalorn that reads “‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.”

The subreddit is full of stories of those who are facing the consequences of their support for Trump. Small business owners who have lost federal grants. People who have had their job offers rescinded. Civil servants who have been employed by the federal government for decades, only to be fired via email. 

Among all of this was a screenshot of a Facebook post from a former federal employee. In the post, addressed to Trump, she writes that she voted for him in the past three elections. She worked for the USDA for 16 years and was terminated by “the Doge” at 9:00 p.m. on Valentine’s Day. 

She tells Trump that she believes the work she does is “vital and important.” Despite her termination letter saying she was let go for “performance reasons,” she writes that all her colleagues agree that she is an important asset to the USDA’s mission in Kentucky. 

So, she pleads. “Each time I voted for you, it was because I knew you’d make things right and you’d fix the wrongs,” she wrote. “I’m counting on you now to make this right too. I’m pleading with you to reinstate my employment and give me my job back. Please, Mr. President.”

Your first reaction might be that gut feeling of schadenfreude. To scoff and say “I told you so.” To see this as embarrassing and pathetic. Despite all the damage Trump has caused, even to them personally, people will still believe that he is looking out for them. That he gives one ounce of thought to their struggles. 

I feel sorry for these people. I don’t know what it is — cognitive dissonance, sunk cost fallacy, obstinance. In the face of tangible, material harm to their livelihoods and security, it is depressing that so many Americans still cling to such blind loyalty and faith to a man who has demonstrated in every possible way that he has always been a con man.

I hope these people have that revelation. That they can take off their partisan blinders and see the reality that they have been led astray from. I don’t know if that is possible, though. On an individual scale, maybe. But for the millions who still believe that Trump is going to be their savior, I don’t know what will change their minds.

I didn’t want to be right. I never wanted to gloat and say “I told you so.” Millions of Americans saw the plans laid out bare, from Project 2025 to the tariff policy. They were warned, countless times, from every authority under the sun. In the end, those warnings were right on target. 

I wish we had gone down the path where these people, like the rest of us, get hurt. But in the end, the adage “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes” rings true. Or to refer to a less polite idiom, we are in the “Find Out” phase. 

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