The Fragile MAGA Coalition
Can such a diverse group survive the end of Trump?
On November 17, 2024, Donald Trump Jr. posted a funny picture that featured Robert F. Kennedy Jr — alongside President Trump, Elon Musk, Rep. Mike Johnson, and himself — nervously grimacing over a McDonald's Quarter Pound meal, with French fries, nuggets, and a soda under text that read, “Make America Healthy Again starts TOMORROW. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸”
Kennedy had good reason to be nervous. Given his reportedly extremely healthy diet, it is likely that he has not developed the necessary immunities required to handle eating the greasy, salty, saturated fat deliciousness of a McDonald's meal without going into toxic shock. The Trumps, however, like Musk — and yes, like myself — have digestive systems well inured to such culinary decadence.
It was a captured moment as portentous as it was amusing. One cannot imagine that it would be the last such moment for Kennedy or many on the Trump team. Team Trump is comprised of individuals who have a history of diverging on issues far greater than what should be served for lunch. Like MAGA itself, it is a team marked by such diversity, such a wide range of ideologies, that moments of cringing seem inevitable.
Kennedy, of course, possesses a surname that is iconic in political circles, but even more so among Democrats. He may have been the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee had his party allowed a fair primary. Yet, he is still not the most liberal member of Trump’s cabinet.
Nor is Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, though her record of opposing school choice and attacking right-to-work laws made her nomination irksome to many conservatives.
Kennedy and Chavez-DeRemer are like William F. Buckley and Mollie Hemingway compared to our new National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard. It is not enough to say she, like Kennedy, is a former Democratic presidential candidate. To truly emphasize how liberal Gabbard is, we must point out that the American Conservative Union (ACU), which scores politicians based on how conservatively he or she votes, gave the Vice-President JD Vance a lifetime rating of 95% for his voting record as a U.S. senator, which is comparable to our most conservative senators like Ted Cruz (96%), Rand Paul (97%), and Mike Lee (99%). In contrast, the ACU gives Gabbard a lifetime score of 7.63%, in line with Nancy Pelosi (3%) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (3%).
Trump, thankfully, has many solid conservatives on his team, such as Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, Tom Homan, and Kristi Noem. However, with so many non-conservatives and non-Republicans present, and a vice-president who once compared him to Hitler, one wonders what these meetings are like behind closed doors.
We may have been given a sense of the tone of at least some of these meetings, thanks to a report of an alleged dispute between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has been described in the past as a “Democrat mega-donor,” and fellow former Democrat mega-donor Elon Musk.
As reported by the New York Post:
Elon Musk aggressively body-checked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the White House after being called a fraud — igniting a fiery clash that sparked the billionaire’s messy falling-out with President Trump, a new report claims.
The heated scuffle broke out in mid-April after the men pitched rival plans for the Internal Revenue Service to Trump in the Oval Office, with the president ultimately backing Bessent’s choice, the Washington Post quoted former White House official Steven Bannon as saying.
The pair left the meeting hurling insults at each other within earshot of the president’s office, Bannon told the outlet.
There is also a noteworthy feud within the MAGA coalition — particularly between the conservative wing and the libertarian-isolationist wing — which comes to the fore during debates over to what extent, if any, the U.S. should support Ukraine and Israel in their wars against Russia and Hamas, respectively.
This scuffle is best illustrated by the blows being thrown by two of the most prominent voices on the right: Mark Levin and Tucker Carlson. Carlson, who is the apparent leader of the libertarian-isolationist wing, considers Levin to be a warmonger and accused Levin of visiting the White House to lobby for war with Iran. Carlson describes Levin as “a repulsive ghoul whose entire sex life consists of people getting blown up.”
Levin, in response, began calling Carlson “Chadsworth Qatarlson” — a reference to Carlson’s privileged upbringing and his alleged connection to Qatar.
So far, these quarrels within the MAGA movement amount to little more than popcorn theatre. As Trump says, he is MAGA, and with an approval rating of 90% among Republican voters, there is little danger that the movement will fracture during his administration.
However, Trump will not be president forever.
MAGA is not a cult, nor is it a political philosophy. It is a coalition, an alliance of opposing actors, bound together by a single individual. One wonders if Trump’s successor will be able to hold the coalition together.
Already, Elon Musk has announced that he is forming a third party he has labeled the America Party, which he declared will, “crack the uniparty system” and “give you back your freedom.”
This America Party will be yet another strange hodgepodge of individuals who politically won’t have much in common other than a dislike for Trump. Eventually, one assumes, the party will attract some disgruntled Democrats, libertarians, and Never Trumpers. The only prerequisite to being an America Party member, it appears, is that one must hate Trump.
Musk seems to envision himself as a modern-day Ross Perot, who was a successful businessman who undermined George Bush’s reelection campaign in 1992 and Bob Dole’s campaign in 1996 in large part by promising to reduce the federal budget deficit with tax increases and spending cuts.
Unfortunately for Musk, the Americas Party is without a compelling leader or defining cause. It has no Donald Trump or even a Ross Perot. It may not even have a nominal presidential candidate. If they do, it won’t be Musk. Musk was born in South Africa, so he is banned by Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution from running for president. Even if he could run, Musk’s history of having been a socialist, an Obama Democrat, a Hillary Democrat, a Biden Democrat, an Andrew Yang supporter, and a MAGA Republican, all in a relatively short period, shows that he is politically unmoored. Furthermore, we have seen enough Teslas vandalized in recent months to know that his primary issue — cutting government spending — has earned him few friends.
It is unlikely, then, that the America Party will find traction in 2028. That does not mean, however, that other challenges to MAGA won’t emerge.
To forestall these challenges, MAGA will have to find a cohesion that will unite its supporters, even while Donald Trump is enjoying his retirement.
— DK