Trump Voter LEAVES MAGA in DISGUST...in VIRGINIA

What this episode is about

Stephen Francisi, a former supporter of the MAGA movement from Virginia, reflects on his journey of disillusionment, detailing how his upbringing in a tough New York environment shaped his initial attraction to the MAGA ideology, characterized by a desire for approval, toughness, and masculinity, but ultimately led him to seek a more compassionate and inclusive perspective. Their conversation explores the impact of early conditioning and experiences of bullying on his worldview and eventual decision to leave the movement.

Key takeaways

• Stephen's journey highlights how childhood trauma often steers people toward extremist movements, seeking belonging and validation.
• The allure of tough-guy politics, like Trump's, ties back to personal insecurities and a desire for approval.
• Isolating narratives from media can leave minds susceptible; Stephen realized he absorbed biases without critical thinking.
• Like many, Stephen's pivotal life crises—like his motorcycle accident—sparked a reevaluation of deeply ingrained beliefs.
• MAGA's appeal may resonate with those harboring unresolved trauma, as a comforting facade for personal chaos.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Rich (Host) · 8 min speaking
• Stephen Francisi (Guest) · 13 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Leaving MAGA, Stephen Francisi
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Leaving MAGA, Donald Trump
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Leaving MAGA
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Leaving MAGA, From A-Hole to All Right, Amazon, healing roots on up

Notable quotes from "Trump Voter LEAVES MAGA in DISGUST...in VIRGINIA"

• The MidasTouch network. We have a brand new Leaving Maga testimonial for you today. We are joined by Stephen Francisi from the state of Virginia.

  about Stephen Francisi · at 0:06

• And all of the Christian communities that I was in around and a part of were all supporting Donald Trump and so I felt like this was the guy and almost some of them were saying…

  about Donald Trump · at 8:35

• Focusing on writing my story and I often think about how I was and hence the title from a-hole to all right is the name of the book and it's it's just what broke me open and…

  about From A-Hole to All Right · at 18:22

• No, I just I so appreciate you being so honest with us, Stephen. I want to welcome you to our leaving MAGA community. I also want to welcome you to the Midas Touch Network community. I encourage people to check out your.

  about Leaving MAGA · at 19:33

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Stephen Francisi — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:12
• Donald Trump — Person · 1 mention · first at 8:40

Books & papers

• From A-Hole to All Right — Book · Primary recommendation · 1 mention · first at 18:30
  Stephen Francisi's memoir detailing his journey from a toxic mindset to self-awareness and healing, central to his personal story shared in the podcast.

Companies & orgs

• Amazon — Company · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 18:46
  Mentioned as the platform where Stephen Francisi's book 'From A-Hole to All Right' is available for purchase.
  And conscious thinking and making better choices. So, that actually came out today and it's published and it's available on Amazon and I'm excited about it and I have lots of…

Products & tech

• healing roots on up — Product · Business focus · 1 mention · first at 19:13
  Stephen's Instagram handle and community, focusing on mental health advocacy and support for those dealing with trauma.
  Congratulate you here. What are the names? what are the handles for your social media? You can find me the main one Instagram. It's just healing roots on up or Stephen…

Concepts & topics

• Leaving MAGA — Concept · Core topic · 4 mentions · first at 0:04
  The process and reasons behind individuals deciding to leave the MAGA movement, as shared by Stephen Francisi and others in the podcast.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 I'm Stephen and I left MAGA. Hey everybody, Rich coming to you here at Leaving MAGA at leavingmaga.org with the MidasTouch network. We have a brand new Leaving Maga testimonial for you today. We are joined by Stephen Francisi from the state of Virginia. Stephen, first off, thank you for being here with us. Really appreciate you making the time.

0:24 Good to be here. So, let's get right into it and take us through what some of the reasons were that attracted you to the MAGA movement, what you found alluring, what you found enticing about it.

0:39 Absolutely. You know, I think it's important to um name some context about uh childhood conditioning and programming early on. I I grew up in New York City, um Brooklyn and Queens, and growing up was it was pretty tough up there. It was a tough place to uh to grow up. Uh Italian-Americans, you know, we have there was a lot of pride up there. Um masculinity was pretty alpha male. Um toxic, I would say. Um there were some things I learned about uh race and identity um that I absorbed as I was growing up um in New York. One of the important things as well is I was often looking for approval from my dad. I love my dad. My dad passed away a couple of years ago. Um, but I often followed in his footsteps. So, if he was doing something, um, I found like, hey, that's what I need to do if I want to be successful or that's the way I need to be. So, I I spent a lot of time around um, folks like my dad. And then, of

1:42 course, in New York there's the mob and that mentality. And um, so there's this tough guy image that I found to be really kind of sexy. Like that was something that I felt like, hey, I want to be like that. And um I started to lose a lot of emotions early on, like sadness and tears and crying, that kind of went out the window. And um I started to turn into a pretty angry dude, you know. So um but on top of that, I also experienced a lot of bullying. So, um it it just it developed me into a person that was a pretty angry kid, you know. So, by the time I reached, um 18, I joined the military and I was off into the Navy.

2:26 And um yeah, so I spent seven years in the Navy. Um and during that time, I had met, you know, my first wife. And I was turning into a pretty self-centered dude. I was pretty uh pretty toxic. I wasn't as much into politics, but when I was in the military, I wanted to have someone um a president that was looking out for us and looking out for our wallets. So, I tended to gravitate towards um what everyone was saying in the military. I wasn't that politically informed or or savvy, so to speak. Um but I off I often listen to a lot of Fox News growing up. I I often heard my dad listening to Fox News and that was something that that I would often um repeat in talking points, but I really didn't even know what the hell I was talking about to be honest with you. So, you know, that's also important context.

3:20 And then, you know, 9/11 happened and, you know, I became, you know, I was listening to rhetoric uh being told to me and I became pretty Islamophobic. I, you know, I was afraid of Muslims and um I was ready to go to war and that was the mindset that I had. Um but the danger was when you're listening to the news and you're not being objective or critical about what you're hearing, you tend to absorb this stuff into your psyche and it makes you a pretty angry dude. So psychologically I was easily manipulated and um so when you know when Trump came along in uh 200 uh he 2016 you know I was I was a pretty narcissistic guy. I was pretty self-centered. I lack comp uh you know compassion um for anyone. Um but something really you know important happened in 2015. I nearly died in a motorcycle crash. Um, and it was about that time I I spent a lot of time trying to recover, trying to go back to work. Um, had a brain injury,

4:27 but all that unresolved trauma from childhood and unquestioned beliefs about, you know, what was right and what was wrong. I mean, it was just building up and the accident just made everything worse. So needless to say, um I was already into my second marriage at that time and the marriage was falling apart and 2016 um you know I talk about this u in my book that I just wrote but in 2016 I was in a really dark place and I almost I almost took my life and I won't get into the details about that on here but just to give you some context of how unhealthy I was mentally and you know when Trump was there, you know, his demeanor and his approach and his tough guy look, it seemed familiar to me. It seemed like, yeah, I can resonate with that, you know, and of course, he was on The Apprentice and I was a business major and I was all about business and I thought this guy I I wasn't too familiar with this past, but I thought he was the

5:34 best thing since sliced bread at the time. I was like, "This is what we need. someone totally different from, you know, he was the guy who just spoke what was on his mind. Um, so yeah, I mean like I tended to um follow that. It was familiar and that was what attracted me to him and so yeah, so that's that's what kind of led me into following Trump and MAGA.

5:59 Thank you, Stephen. I think that there are times for lots of our leaders who are with us at leaving MAGA where there for some of us I feel like we were ready made for MAGA and something that is quite common throughout all of the stories of people who who have left and the stories we've told which people can find at leaving.org is trauma. Mhm.

6:28 You know that someone endured some kind of trauma growing up. Whether it was in one case with one of our leaders it was intergenerational racial trauma with another it was alcoholism with another it was a lady who was traumatized by her Christian nationalist church which was her entree into MAGA. And I'm hearing you very candidly and vulnerably which I appreciate that and you and thank you for being being that way in telling your story here that I feel like that maybe you were ready made for MAGA and you know talking about the trauma, the rage.

7:04 I remember being in MAGA and I was always paranoid and angry and outraged about something. It was it was a constant dopamine hit of being addicted to rage.

7:19 Mhm. And and that was my life for more than half a decade. So I appreciate you admitting that and saying what you're saying and being so open about it. So talk talk about what life was like for you in NAGA. What what happened with the trauma, with the rage? How were you, how did you process and internalize the world as you were someone who became uh a member of this MAGA community?

7:50 Well, I I would say as I, you know, started to get into the movement, um, like I said, there was a lot of things that seemed to resonate with me at the time and my emotional level of intelligence was was was kind of low. Uh, one more thing for context that I do want to mention is that in the early or mid 90s, um, I was, you know, moving down into Virginia in the Bible belt, I I became a born-again Christian. I became an evangelical Christian. So, that also helped shape my, uh, beliefs and reasons for becoming more conservative and more right, you know, more right-wing, uh, so to speak. uh because the two kind of go hand in hand and that also played a big part of it and all of the Christian communities that I was in around and a part of were all supporting Donald Trump and so I felt like this was the guy and almost some of them were saying like hey he's the chosen one to lead this country and

8:50 and I believed it and I was like yeah you must be right you know um but again I mean constantly watching um the news and Fox News and being rage baited, so to speak. It was really frustrating and my mental health was just completely suffering. My relationships were falling apart. Um, and the one thing I I didn't want to let go of was the beliefs I had that our way was right and there was no other way. And that that's tough. That's a really tough place to be. It's it's really uh an unhealthy place to be. Um I didn't I didn't have any critical thinking. So again, I would watch Trump and some of the cruelty and things he would do and making fun of disabled folks and um and at the time I I didn't really think anything of it. So, you know, watching him and how outspoken, how brash he was at the time, like I said, it just it it it really resonated watching his policies around um the border and

9:58 immigration. Again, at the time, these were things that I was starting to think like, yeah, this is this is what we need to do to keep this country great, you know? And so, um, he mocked people and, you know, he he he did some pretty horrible things with women and, you know, so, um, but I I want to say that being involved in in in MAGA and following Trump and being a huge supporter of him, um, it it gained I had a community of people that a lot of them were like-minded and people, you know, So I I was able to connect with um and talk about this stuff with them. So um but yeah so things didn't really switch overnight. I started in therapy in 2016 or 2015 after my motorcycle accident, but I started the process of learning about emotions and becoming more aware. And I think that was also an integral part of me waking up. While I didn't really wake up right away, it's a slow process and that

11:10 is what kind of led me um to where I was to um a point where thing my relationships were falling apart and and you know that's kind of where I got really stuck. So I always uh I like to say in a lot of the media I do and interviews and conversations, it took me an entire year to leave MAGA. So to paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, my epiphany happened gradually and then suddenly all at once and

11:43 you're talking about a process as well. So I relate to this very much because even though we all go through this individually, there are some overlapping sentiments and emotions that I think occur for those who decide to leave. What were some of the reasons that compelled you to to eventually say that MAGA does not comport with my values anymore and then caused you to leave?

12:12 Yeah. So after Trump lost the second election and um the insurrection happened and I was like yeah this is this is what we need to do to to protect our democracy. But as I was starting to um you know I got remarried a third time and as I was in that relationship and I was struggling again. It was around that time around 2021 in that time frame where I really started to get into traumainformed therapy where I really started to work on my emotions. Um and I started to understand understand how manipulation worked, what narcissism looked like, what control looked like.

12:54 and and and it's and these were all the things that I was I was highly narcissistic. I was highly controlling. I could be very manipulative. And so as I start to see that more clearly in myself, especially being full of shame, toxic shame, I was starting to look outside of myself and to see where I would see it in others. And that was where I started to notice how I could see that behavior in people like Trump and other people. But it was like a slow awakening. It wasn't overnight. And and slowly but surely I would start to see the things that he was doing and some of the cruelty towards people. And I was like, you know, something's just not right. And I just started to question.

13:40 But again, it it still was a bit of a slow awakening for me. Um, I started to gain more compassion for myself. And what I found is that we really can't give to others what we can't really give to ourselves. And when I started to give myself more love and kindness and speak to myself more kindly, my heart just softened. And then I also went through a grieving process. And it wasn't just MAGA or Trump. It was everything that I ever thought I believed to be true. And that was my reckoning so to speak. That was some people would call it a spiritual awakening or midlife crisis. Um that was one of the darkest moments of my life when I was literally even after the suicide attempt and the motorcycle accident. This was the point where I was questioning everything from childhood all the way up to present day. And um so like I said, that's when I just started to see Trump more clearly. Um gaslighting, I started to understand

14:45 what that was because I was seeing things and then I was hearing rhetoric or talking points that didn't match the reality of what I was seeing. And that was important. That was important for me. And that is where I was like, wait a minute, like I I really need to make some different choices here. and all the way up until the election in into him being elected in the third term and Joe Biden dropped out of the race and Kla Harris stepped in. Um I still was questioning so it it literally was that long for me. Um and I ended up voting for Kla Harris. I was like, I cannot vote for someone that doesn't align with any sort of compassion or kindness and someone that lacked integrity. How can I trust a leader that was lying to me and lying to others? And it was doing it without blinking.

15:44 So that was really where the breaking point started um for me in the 2000 the end of 2024. And then after he got elected and I started seeing these policies roll out and I started hearing about project 2025, I'm like, what is project 2025 and this just roadmap um and this web of Christian nationalism intertwined with everything they were trying to do in order to um dismantle what I feel dismantle our democracy and to almost bring us into a theocracy. and they had Trump. And personally, I don't know if I think Trump is more of an asset for a lot of other people behind him, but he he's he's the one they chose and he's the one who's doing all the damage and saying terrible things and and getting us involved in conflicts where I don't feel we need to be in. So, this was where it really all boiled down to where I was like, I can't do this anymore.

16:51 That's really well said, Stephen. And you know, I I hear a lot about in your story, it's reminding me of anecdotes in my own MAGA life. And, you know, I look the other way on the cruelty on on a lot of the abhorrent statements that he made about women and about Muslims because I believe that the alternative was worse. And I thought that Hillary and the Democrats and Joe Biden and the Democrats were existential threats to our country. So I just defended the indefensible and I was all in on MAGA. You know, for me it just became uh I think similar to your story, it became one lie, one betrayal too many. Mhm.

17:36 And it eventually just led us to say that this is not a movement that we can any longer support or a man whom we can any longer follow and offer our our devotion to. And you've got you've got a memoir coming out. So talk a little bit about that and where people can find you online on your socials.

17:57 Yeah. No, I I appreciate that. Um, you know, in 2022, I started an Instagram uh community and I became a mental health advocate where I helped support people um who have been dealing with trauma their whole lives and help people to start thinking more clearly and that has grown to quite a a decent following and uh there you know I'm on other places but that's my main following. But um over the last couple of years I started focusing on writing my story and um I I often think about how I was and hence the title from a-hole to all right um is the name of the book and it's it's just what broke me open and it's a life rewritten through pain self-reflection and conscious uh thinking and making better choices. So, um, that actually came out today and it's published and it's available on Amazon and I'm excited about it and I have lots of people in the international community that are reading it and um, some people have

18:58 already read it early on and really appreciate the work that I'm doing and I'm excited about it.

19:02 Well, I was one of the early readers and I'm excited for you and you know, let me congratulate you here. What are the names? Uh, what are the handles for your social media? You can find me the main uh one Instagram. It's just healing roots on up or Stephen Francesy. If you uh search in any one of those on Instagram, you'll see my face pop right up at the top. Uh I am on Tik Tok. I have a smaller following on there and I have a a smaller following on Facebook and then of course on thread, same handle. It's healing roots on up.

19:33 No, I just I so appreciate you being so honest with us, Stephen. I want to welcome you to our leaving MAGA community. I also want to welcome you to the Midas Touch Network community. Um, I encourage people to check out your social media. I look at your content all the time. It's inspirational. It's uplifting. And I'm so excited for your memoir coming out as well because I know how hard you've been working on it. So, I just wanted to I just wanted to acknowledge everything that you've done and just tell you how much I I admire the fact that you've gone and come so far with what's happened to you in your life. We like to close every episode on a positive affirmation and I hope you'll join me here. I'm Rich and I left MAGA.

20:23 I'm Stephen and I left MAGA. We're with Steven Francisi here from the state of Virginia. Stephen, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.

20:32 Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it, Rich. Hey everybody, if you like this video, make sure you subscribe, drop comment down below, and make sure you follow Weaving Mag at all of our socials and our newsletter, which you can sign up for at weaving.org. As always, appreciate you watching. Thanks so much for your support. Love this video? Support independent media and unlock exclusive content, add free videos, and custom emojis by becoming a paid member of our YouTube channel today. You can also gift memberships to others. Let's keep growing together.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Trump Voter LEAVES MAGA in DISGUST...in VIRGINIA"?

Rich (Host), Stephen Francisi (Guest).

What is "Trump Voter LEAVES MAGA in DISGUST...in VIRGINIA" about?

Stephen Francisi, a former supporter of the MAGA movement from Virginia, reflects on his journey of disillusionment, detailing how his upbringing in a tough New York environment shaped his initial attraction to the MAGA ideology, characterized by a desire for approval, toughness, and masculinity, but ultimately led him to seek a more compassionate and inclusive perspective. Their conversation…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

6 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Leaving MAGA, From A-Hole to All Right, Amazon, healing roots on up, Stephen Francisi, Donald Trump. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump Voter LEAVES MAGA in DISGUST...in VIRGINIA"?

The episode runs 21 min; the transcript is about 3,478 words in 30 timestamped sections.

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