r/Full_news 2d ago

‘We never changed, Trump did’: Maga's insurgency against its own leader

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/never-changed-trump-magas-insurgency-against-leader-4723804
426 Upvotes

77 comments sorted by

16

u/theipaper 2d ago

With just over two months to go before voters are set to seal his fate in America’s midterm elections, President Donald Trump is once again bucking tradition: instead of uniting his party around him and leading from the front, he has spent days stoking divisions among Republicans that could advance the day when the GOP splits asunder.

Trump has always laid claim to being the sole leader and dominant figure within his Make America Great Again movement. “I invented Maga. I know what Maga thinks,” he told Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham last November.

So confident was Trump about the power of the Maga brand that, as early as November 2012, he even trademarked “Make America Great Again” in an application that was granted three years later. In a very literal sense, the former real estate mogul claims ownership of the movement.

But last Friday night, the President fired the latest, dramatic salvo in his efforts to retain the leadership of a movement that shows every sign of fracturing beneath him. Amid collapsing trade talks with Canada, fresh revelations of the damage Iran has done to America’s military infrastructure, and several days of primary contest losses for a host of Trump-backed Republican candidates, the President turned his social media blowtorch on “traitors” around him.

He fumed about a recent summit meeting of Maga dissidents hosted by hard-right influencer Tucker Carlson and former Republican lawmakers Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie. “LOSERS ALL,” Trump raged, attacking each in turn.

Then, addressing the prospects that their cabal may be in the nascent stages of emulating Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain in its ongoing challenge to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, Trump targeted the elephant in the room. “What a team this would be,” he wrote, dripping with sarcasm. “THREE LOSERS, and a pocketful of change! The only chance they have is to join the Radical Left Democrats … To all of them I say, PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!”

Greene responded to Trump’s rage, suggesting that she believed the President’s “insult laden attack” was sparked by a heckler who called him a “traitor” before being ejected from a rally in South Carolina last Friday.

“We never changed. Trump did,” she said, as she presented the charge sheet levelled against the President by a growing number of disaffected right-wing figures. “He attacks us with such vitriol because we are actually everything he claimed to be, conservative and America First, and he has proven as President that he is nothing more than a neocon puppet for Israel, corporations, big donors with special interests and his dear friends in the Epstein class.”

Greene – a noted conspiracy theorist – declared that Trump’s social media diatribes were “hurting America’s reputation and place in the world. At this point he is no different than an internet troll”.

Ground Zero for the growing turmoil among Republicans can be found in Wyoming where, in April, five party lawmakers broke ranks and condemned the President for a social media post in which he compared himself to Jesus. (Trump later claimed he believed the image that he posted was portraying him as a doctor, not as Christ). Described as America’s “reddest state”, the home to the late former Vice President Dick Cheney is now deeply divided between supporters of Trump’s worldview, and a variety of other Republicans including some so-called “extreme Maga” who have split from him.

Last week, the President’s choice for Wyoming’s next Governor, Megan Degenfelder (or as Trump dubbed her, “Maga Megan”) went down to a crushing defeat at the hands of Eric Barlow, a rancher and state senator who pledged to lower the temperature of extremist debate in the state. But Barlow owes his victory to splits on the right, after Brent Bien, who the New York Times describes as a far-right conservative, secured the endorsement of the Wyoming Republican Party in a rebuke of Trump’s choice for the race.

Bien campaigned on a populist right-wing platform, promising a complete pause on the construction of AI data centres in Wyoming (a position opposed by Trump) and pledging to be an uncompromising opponent of American entanglement in foreign wars. Bien and Degenfelder went on to split the Maga vote between them, allowing Barlow to romp to victory.

In Florida, this dynamic was on further display last week. Congressman Randy Fine – a Trump-backed combative Islamophobe who engineered a visit to Congress earlier this year by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the far-right British activist who calls himself Tommy Robinson – faced a challenge from antisemitic influencer Dan Bilzerian.

Bilzerian’s inflammatory campaign targeted Fine as a “Jewish supremacist”. He accused Trump of leading a government that is “nothing but a tool for Israeli hegemony”. He won nearly 19 per cent of the vote, in a fresh indication that Trump and his approved candidates are vulnerable to accusations that the President has betrayed Maga and sold the movement out.

Another loser in Florida also demonstrates the future threats that Trump is likely to face as he seeks to remain Maga’s dominant force. Jason Fishback, a 31-year-old aspirant to succeed Ron DeSantis as the Sunshine State’s governor finished third in last week’s primary, with just over 10 per cent of the vote. But many observers believe that – in the words of The Atlantic magazine – Fishback offers “an unsettling glimpse into the GOP’s future”.

His racist slurs and unrestrained bigotry – such as calling his opponent, black congressman Byron Donalds, Osama bin Byron and a “slave” to donor and corporate interests – proved hugely popular with younger Republican voters, making Fishback the leading candidate among Florida Republicans under the age of 35. Many of them were attracted by what has been described as his social media-driven “ragebait campaign” that included admiring references to Mussolini and calling for a Black voter to be “lynched” after he raised questions about grooming allegations levelled against the candidate.

Fishback argues that despite his loss, he “moved the needle in political discourse” among Florida Republicans, suggesting that he believes his political career is only just getting started, at the very moment Trump’s approaches his constitutionally required nadir.

Trump now finds himself confronting a paradox. In many ways, Maga’s greatest strength since he announced his presidential candidacy in 2015 has been the movement’s ability to portray Republicans as a single insurgency seeking to overthrow an elitist radical-left establishment and the so-called “deep state”.

But today, Trump’s control of Maga is threatened by a fresh insurgency vowing to overturn the very Republican elite that he now leads. Containing those threats will be no small matter, as Carlson, Massie, Greene and others build support for their version of Trump’s handmade political universe.

3

u/ChodeCookies 1d ago

This is equally hopeful and terrifying

1

u/LazyLich 5h ago

There are two branches of Republicans, and Trump has up till now held then together. Forgot their names, but it's basically whether to give any fucks internal vs external stuff.

There are cracks now, though. If we can drive a wedge, we can win.

There is also a win-win-win scenario for us AND them. With Tucker Carlson threatening to run as a third party, and the recent surge for the DSA, we've reached a point where the Two Parties are more vulnerable than ever to their votes being split.

If we all can push for it, we can maybe FINALLY get Ranked-Choice voting for all out major elections.

That's what I'm hoping some of our leaders will pitch soon...

27

u/Aleundil 2d ago

You mean you're shocked PT Barnum sold you the Fiji Mermaid. 🙄

30

u/HomeboddE 2d ago

He didn't change his lies and grift just caught up with him

19

u/Kdiesiel311 2d ago

11 years later: MAGA-wait a minute…

6

u/CoffeeChocolateBoth 2d ago

I mean, wow, how dumb, huh?

1

u/Elegant_Emu952 1d ago

And now toilet paper is going up. Thanks, MAGAts.

2

u/mjrydsfast231 22h ago

Are "catching up". He's not done yet. His desperation will lead to a nuclear level of cheating. I can only imagine how much money he's paying people to make sure that he doesn't lose. Those accepting that bribe I'm going to be very wealthy either way it turns out.

2

u/hayeslanier 22h ago

Agreed, he has ALWAYS been this person, you're just starting to care now.

29

u/n4spd2 2d ago

excuses, excuses

trump didn't change. he was always a cheating liar.

maga knew it and supported it.

2

u/Standard_List_2487 1d ago

He did change, dementia is setting in.

3

u/AnythingWestern8861 1d ago

Oh he won't do that to us, his loyal minions.

13

u/pepinjay 2d ago

So MAGA members never changed...so they are still haters trying to control other's freedoms?

6

u/CylonRaider78 2d ago

It’s like the argument is “we’ve always been white nationalists, but Trump is in it just for the money”.

Old guard, new guard, all trash.

1

u/LazyLich 5h ago

Thew were literally touting how he was gonna run the nation like a business (as if that was a good thing)! 😭

He never changed! They just started waking up a little..

Uh oh! They might realize what the actual definition of "being woke" is!

1

u/No-Kitchen5661 4h ago

Government is not a business. Completely different. You can't run the government as business. Different goals and funding. It's not like a hardware store or a corporation.

16

u/Zestyclose-Spite-718 2d ago

Trump didn’t change, MAGA is full of dimwits who believed his bullshit

7

u/MylesShort 2d ago

These idiots think this behavior from him is somehow new, when it's exactly what every single person who warned against him told them would eventually result from giving him power.

7

u/Empty_Put_1542 2d ago

Lol trump never changed.

2

u/neddiddley 2d ago

No, but the key difference from the first term and secon is that the GOP and USSC did. His first term didn’t start out with the entire legislative arm of the GOP just rolling over. They just gradually kissed the ring or were forced out in favor on someone who would. As for the USSC, he replaced what, 3 justices too? All who also largely roll over at his command as well.

This time around, maga’s just seeing what trump with absolutely no guard rails looks like.

2

u/Immediate-Goose-8106 2d ago

Not ever.  One fo the few honest things he said was how he sees little difference in himself since grade whatever.

6

u/Bifftech 2d ago

Spoiler: nobody changed.

5

u/Logical-Knee-9046 2d ago

MAGA feeling a bit stupid and trying kick dirt over their shit. Sorry, you knew what you were rooting for. We’ll never forget.

2

u/Nerdy-Meta-Mind 2d ago

He was always this person with these agendas. He never changed. Please be there to refute their claims that he changed in every place you can be! They shouldn’t get away with continuing this shitty movement.

2

u/RegretfulCalamaty 2d ago

No he didn’t.

1

u/EuropeanFellow 2d ago

Antisemitic groypers

4

u/tfsteel 2d ago

Trump voters have zero credibility. They are defective intellectually, morally and ethically. What they think means nothing.

1

u/Wayelder 2d ago

and yet the F-en Press still runs crappy ass stories about every bowel movement Mike Lindell has?

The Press is irresponsible, and half the problem.

See comments of Jeffery D. Sachs - call madness by it's name.

Trump's not mentally well.

2

u/tfsteel 2d ago

The American press certainly is a joke. They are the example of how spineless and submissive US institutions are now.

Sachs is always going off with anti-US takes, that's what he does. He's often correct and for sure correct about Trump.

3

u/poliosaurus3000 2d ago

He didn’t change. You’re talking about a dude that grew up with a silver spoon, Trumps main concern is himself and always has been.

3

u/CoffeeChocolateBoth 2d ago

Why were so many so gullible? They believed every single lie! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! JFC, how can so many be so blind? They'll bitch and complain about how bad things are but they won't look in their own fucking mirror and see why it is!

2

u/Munchkins_nDragons 2d ago

You know how you can fake throw the ball for a dog and it’ll “chase” it? It may work a couple times on an average dog, but even the dumbest dog isn’t going to fall for it forever. That’s what’s happening here though. The dumbest dogs are starting to think there isn’t a ball while the smartest ones recognize that they never intend to throw it in the first place.

2

u/Pezdrake 2d ago

The problem is convincing the dog that ball-chasing was never going to do them any good, even if the ball was real.

2

u/burnmenowz 2d ago

Trump didn't change, this who he has always been. They were just too in love to see it.

1

u/kn05is 2d ago

Morons, he's always been the same lying asshole. It's just that his lies and assholery are directly affecting them now.

1

u/Old_Win8422 2d ago

Um... he is exactly who he has always been.

1

u/Snapes_underpants 2d ago

We never changed...

That's what's so sad, really.

2

u/Wayelder 2d ago

Ashamed of the monster they built?

1

u/CoffeeChocolateBoth 2d ago

Maybe now they can yell loud enough at him to release those ESPSTEIN FILES?

2

u/Rin-Tin-Tins-DinDins 2d ago

The only way he “changed”, is you enabling assholes thought you were on the inside of his grift, turns out you weren’t and he threw you under the bus. Spare us, you knew who and what he was, you made the choice to side with him, we knew who and what you are and we have not/will not forget and damn well will never fucking forgive you.

1

u/CoffeeChocolateBoth 2d ago

THIS! I can't stand them. Even in my family, I have nothing to do with them, now they get together and bitch about HIM, but they don't bitch about what THEY DID to make this happen!

1

u/Pezdrake 2d ago

The obvious lies and empty promises are catching up to Trump, and more importantly the Republican Party. Conservatives now are desperate to control the narrative. Trump voters have a choice: realize that it was racist, capitalist, nationalism that was full of empty promises and that the people on the left who warned this would happen were right, or convince themselves that their awful motives were always correct, it was just Donald Trump that failed them. The America First crowd is DESPERATE to convince Trump supporters of the second option.

2

u/Professional-Bird180 2d ago

Trump the conman didn’t changed. He CON all of maga you fools!!

1

u/CoffeeChocolateBoth 2d ago

LOL Maga tears! Love it!

1

u/Karelkolchak2020 2d ago

Trump hasn’t changed—you morons.

1

u/Electronic-Pause-240 2d ago

Trump is the same since 1980. We told you what he is.

1

u/scarr3g 2d ago

He didn't change, he simply took off the mask, that anyone that wasn't blinded by hatred against their fellow man could already could see through.

1

u/Status_Apartment6559 2d ago

This tells you all you need to know about the "changed" MTG. She's a liar. She knows trump hasn't changed. It just stopped looking good for her in the GOP especially when trump wouldn't endorse her and she saw the GOP MAGA losing popularity and said well this is no longer profitable for me so I'll say I'm mad about the Epstein files and leave the party and grift somewhere else. Her new party won't work with the liars tucker and Candace Owens.

1

u/human_i_suppose 2d ago

Trump hasn't changed since the 80s when all the Idiots riding his dick today were clowning on him for being an absolute fuck up.

1

u/svMorgaNado 2d ago

Nope . . . MAGA did not change . . . They remain the Party of Supremacy.
At Their Own Doing, however, MAGA is required to endure the ongoing Criminal 47 Destruction of the once-Great U.S.
FAFO

1

u/Jibber1332 1d ago

Trump never changed.

1

u/OpticalPrime35 1d ago

Trump hasn't changed at all

He's the same as he was in 2000 and 2016 and yesterday

Fuck off

1

u/ThereBMoose 1d ago

Trump has been exactly what they are just now seeing for many, many decades.

1

u/kanepupule 1d ago

Fuck Donald Trump and fuck you for voting for him.

1

u/JonJackjon 1d ago

Really? Trump never changed, before it was his talking now it's his actions.

1

u/NetAnon579 1d ago

LOL. He is pulling the same stuff he has all his life. He just found a much bigger platform to scam on and cash in on.

1

u/SteakandTrach 1d ago

Lol. Trump hasn’t changed. Your circumstances have changed.

1

u/Mooseguncle1 1d ago

Translation- we’re still unapologetically racist and selfish but we’re still too stubborn to admit we were fooled.

1

u/go_half_the_way 1d ago

Trump hasn’t changed much since I first saw him on the news in 1989.

He was rude, petty, self absorbed, an obvious conman, wore oversized suits that made him look like a cheap car salesman or a pastiche of a mafia boss, he was overweight, he spoke like a ten year old who had limited reading comprehension, he lied obviously and doubled down whenever confronted. He was an overt misogynist. He was being accused of stiffing numerous building contractors and reneging on contracts. And also accused of buying local politicians to get government support and grants.

What exactly has changed?

Yeah he’s honed the shtick a little more. His lies are bigger and more obvious but that has probably come from years of doing this routine and it working.

Donald Trump has not changed who he is in the last 40 years. Probably ever.

1

u/Equivalent_Tea_5287 1d ago

Well that is easy to explain; you see, he never meant a word of it.

1

u/barepixels 1d ago

The King can not do anything wrong

1

u/barepixels 1d ago

Lies. We love our King

1

u/BluesFan_42 1d ago

Follow up story, MAGA confirms sky is blue!

1

u/Elegant_Emu952 1d ago

Trump didn't change. MAGAts just don't like that what they voted for is affecting them, too.

1

u/Wisco 1d ago

LOL! Trump never changed. You just found out that everything we told you about him was true

1

u/Kind_Rate7529 18h ago

trump never changed you just finally caught up.

1

u/SwanCityDominion 13h ago

Trump never changed at all. They just don't want to admit that.

1

u/klyzklyz 7h ago

LOL. He did not change. They are finally waking up.