MAGA's circular firing squad intensifies

[marmar]

MAGA’s circular firing squad intensifies
MAGA's true believers are realizing that Trumpism is about spectacle over substance — and they're angry

By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published December 29, 2025 12:10PM (EST)


(Salon) The MAGA movement has captured nearly every lever of power that matters in American life. Conservatives control the Supreme Court and dominate most red-state legislatures, while Donald Trump commands a compliant Republican Congress and maintains a suffocating grip on the GOP’s internal machinery. And yet, as 2025 winds down, the MAGA base is restless. Loyalists are complaining, right-wing influencers are sniping at Cabinet officials and now top Trump appointees are snapping back in public, often with visible contempt for the very people who put them there.

MAGA promised domination. While Trump’s second term has dismantled diversity, equity and inclusion programs with surgical precision and rolled out never-ending culture wars, the president is facing a rebellion of unmet expectations. A coalition that once prided itself on lockstep loyalty is fracturing into factions: the true believers who demand mass arrests and deportations yesterday, the GOP careerists urging patience and “process,” and the right-wing influencers who gin up rage for profit.

To be clear, there is no ideological disagreement in any meaningful sense. Instead there is a sense of rage that right-wing grievance doesn’t automatically deliver results. But with a president far more interested in monetizing power and trimming his abode in gold, there is a dawning realization amongst the MAGA faithful that Trumpism prioritizes spectacle over substance — and they are now speaking up.

Vice President JD Vance found himself on the receiving end of this fury over the weekend when he tried to inflame outrage over the ongoing Minnesota public assistance fraud scandal, which, according to federal prosecutors, involved the theft of “more than $1 billion in taxpayers’ money,” by tying it to his favorite scapegoat: immigration. But the base was unimpressed. Influencers and commenters piled on, asking why, if the situation was so dire, no one had been arrested, deported or denaturalized. They mocked Vance’s post to X as something a podcaster might say, not the vice president of the United States. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/12/29/magas-circular-firing-squad-intensifies/

[mercuryblues]

1. Who will be the last true magaT standing?