Decryption | Where is the MAGA movement going?

(New York) There are days, and they are becoming more and more frequent, when Donald Trump confuses or worries the followers of the political movement he founded.

The most recent came last Friday when the president welcomed New York City Mayor-designate Zohran Mamdani to the Oval Office. We expected a tense, even explosive, meeting between the occupant of the White House, who had already described the young democratic socialist as a “100% crazy communist”, and his guest, who had called him a “fascist” and a “despot”.

However, to everyone’s surprise, this first contact between the two men took place in the greatest cordiality, Donald Trump affirming that they “agreed on more things (than he) would have thought” and promising to provide “considerable help” to his visitor.

The president didn’t stop there. He added that he would happily live in a New York run by Zohran Mamdani. And he rejected the epithet “jihadist” attached to the New Yorker of Muslim faith by the Republican representative of the State of New York Elise Stefanik, candidate for the post of governor of the state.

MAGA influencer Laura Loomer made no secret of her confusion.

“If socialists are doing a good job, then I guess no one needs to vote against them in the midterm elections,” she wrote on X.

Charles Gasparino, columnist at New York Post and Fox Business, two pillars of the MAGA media ecosystem, was equally disconcerted.

“I really think the Trump presidency is going off the rails, wow,” he wrote on X.

Epstein files and H-1B visas

Of course, Donald Trump could quickly find a pretext to declare war on Zohran Mamdani and his city. But this meeting at the White House followed other situations where the president expressed a position contrary to that preferred by the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

There has obviously been a lot of talk in recent weeks about his opposition to the publication of the Epstein files, one of the most pressing demands of MAGA followers. Opposition that he abandoned two days before a vote in the House of Representatives intended to make him lose face.

But another controversy, which made less noise, broke out within the MAGA movement during the same period.

During an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham broadcast on November 11, Donald Trump defended H-1B visas which allow American companies to recruit employees abroad.

When the host suggested that this program hurts efforts to raise Americans’ wages, the president responded: “Well, I agree, but you also have to bring in talent when a country…

– Well, we have a lot of talented people here, interjected the host.

– No, that’s not true. No, you don’t have certain talents and people need to learn,” Donald Trump responded.

“Where is my president? », asked Kylie Kremer, organizer of one of the rallies held in Washington on January 6, 2021, the day of the assault on the Capitol.

“What an atrocious thing to say,” wrote actor Kevin Sorbo, a prominent MAGA personality, in a message also published on X.

The resignation of MTG

H-1B visas are among a long list of policies that Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized Donald Trump and his congressional allies in her statement last Friday evening announcing her surprise decision to vacate her seat in the House of Representatives on January 5.

Some saw the resignation of the Georgia representative as a demonstration of the power of Donald Trump. The latter would thus have succeeded in driving out of Washington an ally transformed into a critic.

We can also see this resignation as a manifestation of the cracks appearing in the MAGA movement. Cracks that Marjorie Taylor Greene could herself try to exploit in 2028 during a presidential campaign where she would pose as the true heir of the movement.

Other Republican leaders, including Vice President JD Vance and podcaster Tucker Carlson, could challenge him for this status, pulling the MAGA movement in the direction of an even whiter and more Christian nationalism.

The recent controversy surrounding Tucker Carlson’s decision to interview neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes may be a prelude to this.

In the meantime, Marjorie Taylor Greene predicts for the Republicans a defeat in the mid-term elections and a third impeachment procedure for Donald Trump. In such a context, she does not see why she would stay in Washington to defend a president who would have spent “with hatred tens of millions of dollars against (her) and tried to destroy (her)”.

“I refuse to be a ‘battered woman’ who hopes this will all go away and get better,” the Georgia representative said in her statement last Friday.

The story of Donald Trump and his movement is obviously not at its last twist.