MAGA Is Starting to Look Beyond Trump

For months now, it seems that every day brings with it a new faction of MAGAworld getting angry with President Donald Trump over something he says or does.

In recent memory, to name a few, podcaster Joe Rogan has compared ICE raids to Gestapo operations; conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has questioned Trump’s cognitive abilities; former US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed Trump had “gone insane;” former Fox News host Tucker Carlson called the president a “slave” to Israel; and conservative influencer Candace Owens claimed Trump belongs “to the Epstein class.”

Even on Truth Social, a social media platform created by Trump as a haven to post without any backlash, there is backlash. “What!?! You are way outta line,” a Truth Social account holder called CaliMAGA69 wrote in response to Trump’s recent criticism of Owens, Jones, Carlson, and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly as “low IQ” losers. “Most of these people, especially Alex Jones, have been your Day 1s!! You need to step back and take a good hard look at who is whispering in your ear. Get back to America 1st!!”

This week, MAGA Christians have raged at Trump, which reached fever pitch on Monday when he posted an AI-generated picture seemingly depicting himself as Jesus. Some of MAGA grew incensed, with multiple major conservative pundits and influencers debating whether or not this all meant Trump was the antichrist.

The pileup has only continued. White nationalist Nick Fuentes, who has long broken with Trump, posted on X a laundry list of complaints about the failures of the second Trump reign, including “regime change war with Iran” and “attacking the Catholic Church.”

Some MAGA conspiracy theorists are even abandoning Trump. Instead of discussing how the assassination attempt on Trump’s life in 2024 was a deep-state plot, some are now debating whether it even happened at all. “Where’s his scar today,” former pro wrestler and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura asked in an appearance on Piers Morgan’s show.

In what appears to be one of the biggest recent schisms in the Republican party, it’s not totally clear how much of the party is actually abandoning Trump—or if the events and criticisms of the past few months are nothing but a blip. The answer, it seems, is a little bit of both.

MAGA, the most powerful US political movement in recent decades, is not merely a political ideology; it is more akin to a cult of personality where supporters have generally been willing to back Trump no matter what he says. And there are still many willing to defend him: Over the weekend, former adviser Steve Bannon compared Trump to former presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, claiming Trump will “return America to Her greatness.” Others have also spoken out in support.

But while key allies and outlets like Fox News remain loyal to the president, in recent years the right-wing media ecosystem has fractured. A new media landscape where figures like Carlson, Kelly, and Owens have huge audiences, and where their sound bites reach millions more on social media, is no longer willing to protect Trump no matter the cost.

As Dan Pfeiffer, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, notes in his latest newsletter, that’s a big problem for the GOP, especially when it comes to voters who may be wavering over their support for Trump and the GOP in the midterms.

“For these voters, the fact that the criticism is coming from Trump’s former allies matters a lot,” writes Pfeiffer. “When the criticism comes from someone with whom they share ideological affinity, it’s far more likely to land. One clip of Tucker Carlson attacking Trump is more effective than a thousand clips of Gavin Newsom, Hakeem Jeffries, or Pod Save America making the same point.”