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The Record and NorthJersey.com columnist Mike Kelly asks people about President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office and what they feel are the issues facing their region of the country. CHRIS PEDOTA/NORTHJERSEY.COM

A Republican approached me last week. He wanted to confess a deep secret he had been keeping for months.

I didnt vote for Trump, he said.

He was not the only repentant Republican to say this. By the end of the week, I heard the same sentiments from three other GOP loyalists.

A trend? Maybe. Maybe not. But something is clearly changing with Americas love affair with Donald J. Trump as some Republicans are privately asking if they have made a gross mistake. A few are even coming forward to suggest that Vice President Mike Pence would be a fine replacement. Or as conservative blogger Erick Erickson wrote last week: Republicans who are reflexively defending the self-inflicted wounds of this president have no need for him with Mike Pence in the wings.

Can Mike Pence escape the controversies engulfing the White House?

Kelly: Sleepy Bedminster settles into new role as Trump getaway

So much for loyalty. And its only May just four months into Trumps administration.

Even Kellyanne Conway, the presidents special adviser from Alpine, found herself mired in the doubting-Republican fray last week. The just-engaged-to-be-married co-hosts of the MSNBC show, Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, disclosed that Conway complained extensively off-camera to them last fall about trying to defend Trumps policies and gaffes as his campaign manager. Brzezinski, the progressive foil to her conservative fianc, Scarborough,even quoted Conway as saying, after one of her appearances on the show, that she would have to take a shower because it feels so dirty to be saying what Im saying.

Conway quickly denied that she expressed any disloyalty toward Trump. No surprise there. If she admitted her doubts, she would have been fired. My beliefs, commitments and loyalties are plain to see, she wrote in a Twitter statement.

You will recall that Conway once pledged her loyalty to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, when the Texas Republican was challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination. You might also recall that Conway has an odd habit of falling into rhetorical potholes. One of her most recent and notorious examples told to this columnist in response to a simple question on whether she believed that President Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower was her claim that microwaves could be used to secretly spy on unsuspecting people.

Conway tried to deny that statement too. But in this case, there was a video by The Record and for all the world to watch, just as there was a video when she wrongly suggested "alternative facts" would prove that Trump had a larger audience than President Obama at his inauguration.

Paradox of Kellyanne Conway: A smart political operative prone to rhetorical missteps

Kellyanne Conway alludes to even wider surveillance of Trump campaign

Kelly: What happened when I asked Kellyanne Conway about wiretapping

The point here is not whether Conway is loyal to Trump. Maybe after her experience with Ted Cruz, she felt the need for a conversion to the man with the golden hair and orange makeup. Or perhaps the world of consultants and advisers that Conway inhabits allows for political loyalty to become just a giant shell game. One day, youre shilling for Ted Cruz; another day, its Donald Trump. And next year? Who knows?

Dont expect Conway or anyone like her in the high levels of the Trump administration to make a public repentance yet. Look to the rank-and-file Republicans to lead the way.

President Donald Trump's Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway talks about alternative facts and Bowling Green with Record columnist Mike Kelly. Michael Karas/NorthJersey.com

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President Donald Trump's Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway talks about how shes been treated by critics, women, and the media, with Record columnist Mike Kelly. Michael Karas/NorthJersey.com

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President Donald Trump's Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway talks about selfies and Google with Record columnist Mike Kelly. Michael Karas/NorthJersey.com

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President Donald Trump's Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway talks about wiretaps with Record columnist Mike Kelly. Michael Karas/NorthJersey.com

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President Donald Trump's Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway talks about her childhood and conservative feminism at her home in Alpine, N.J., with Record columnist Mike Kelly. Michael Karas/NorthJersey.com

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Video: Kellyanne Conway on 'alternative facts' and Bowling Green

Video: Kellyanne Conway on critics and media

Video: Kellyanne Conway on 'what goes viral'

Video: Kellyanne Conway: 'There are many ways to surveil each other'

Video: Kellyanne Conway on her childhood and feminism

What seems to be happening is that Republicans are seriously starting to examine the deal they made with Donald Trump. All you have to do is listen to the snippets of conversation.

What Im hearing from many Republicans is that they never liked Trump. He did not seem to hold clear views on such moral issues as abortion. And then, there is his treatment of women. Remember that Access Hollywood tape about all the grabbing he likes to do with his pick-up gal-pals?

Nor did Trump seem to have a clear focus on the nuances of international politics. Remember those statements about threatening to nuke North Korea, then proclaiming he would be honored to sit down for a talk with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Republicans wondered smartly whether this was a new version of good-cop, bad-cop. That strategy works nicely on TV.North Korea is another reality.

Yes, Trump spoke off the cuff on issues many Republicans like that. And, yes, he embraced the Tea Partys faux-revolutionary mantra of draining the swamp in Washington and remaking the federal government into some sort of low-tax, low-budget operation that would still be able to pave roads and fight wars, but also offer all sorts of personal freedom to all those Americans who claim to feel oppressed by the evils of "big government."

Donald Trump(Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

For a while, people actually believed this narrative. But now, we are seeing the unraveling of an unraveled man and his presidency.

Each week seems to serve up a new omelet of craziness. The most recent foibles range from Trumps disclosure of classified information to Russian officials to the presidents brazen admission that fired FBI Director James Comey because Comey refused to halt the Bureaus investigation of allegations that the Trump campaign may have illegally colluded with Russia in the presidential election. Trump's admission of why he fired Comey led Republicans in Congress to quietly wonder if Trump may have tried to obstruct justice.

In case you wondered, obstruction of justice is a federal crime punishable by impeachment. Having interviewed plenty of criminals here in New Jersey, this columnist knows all too well that only a fool would ever admit that he was trying obstruct justice. The FBI has a solid track record here in New Jersey of sending crooked politicians to jail for trying to impede their investigations. Trump seems to be daring them. (Memo to Trump: Daring the FBI to investigate you is not smart.)

100 days later: Road trip through a divided nation

Kelly: A journey through forgotten America

Maybe this cloud will pass over Trump. But more Republicans are now opening their eyes and realizing that the conservative agenda they hoped would be part of Trumps legacy is being slowly choked by a thicket of questions about corruption and incompetence.

On Friday, Politico reported that Trumps approval rating among voters had dropped to a new low, with only 41 percent of Americans saying they thought the president was doing a good job and 53 percent disapproving of him. No president in the last 60 years has managed to disappoint the nation as much as Trump has. Whats next? A 30 percent rating? A 20 percent? Chris Christie knows how easy it is to sink to that low.

Trump blames the media yes, the fake news produced by hard-working journalists like many of my colleagues at The Record and NorthJersey.com who have an annoying habit of working long hours to double-checkfacts and followup leads.

Kelly: Welcome to the Divided States of America

Kelly: Why Trump's latest dilemma is a crisis for journalism

What America is starting to realize at least those Americans not handcuffed to blind ideology is that we are seeing old-fashioned journalism at its best now, the daily grind of following the trail of facts. And so far, that trail has revealed a president who is rapidly becoming little more than a laughing stock.

Yes, Republicans are finally starting to open their eyes. A few are even admitting that they did not vote for Trump. Stay tuned. More will come clean.

Confession is a wonderful thing.

Sometimes it changes hearts.

To contact Record columnist Mike Kelly:

Email: kellym@northjersey.com

Twitter: @MikeKellyColumn

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Kelly: Why more Republicans are questioning their loyalty to Trump - NorthJersey.com