They were easily fooled because they didn't want to educate themselves about the candidates and what they would really do when elected.

It is way too easy to blame the voters. Trump distanced himself clearly from Project 2025. Their fault, if trust is a fault, was to take that liar at his word. Nobody "really" knew what he would do, probably including himself.
Regardless, Biden was an old senile fool, and Kamala an empty vessel, who did not understand what Americans wanted and needed. Biden could have backed up Powell with a tighter fiscal policy and tamped down inflation in 2022 or earlier, but no Democrat understands how to NOT tax and spend.
Same with immigration. Vance wasn't too far off in saying that too many people were taking advantage of tge deliberately loose asylum process, and Biden/Harris had let in too many people with dubious claims of persecution.
Please let us not cast the last election as good vs evil. It was log vs snake.