The MAGA movement has grown in novel ways over recent weeks, with disaffected Democrats taking center stage to the point where it has alarmed certain conservatives.
Most notable is President Donald J. Trump’s alliance with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Democrat-turned-independent recently endorsed Trump with much fanfare after the two men had exchanged hostile comments during the campaign. Now, RFK Jr. is a staple of the Trump campaign and is being considered for a role in a future Trump cabinet, which is excellent news for health freedom activists concerned about Big Pharma’s ominous influence over politics.
Another former Democrat emerging in the Trump mix is former Democrat congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. She recently endorsed Trump during a National Guard Association event in Detroit. Gabbard’s foreign policy views are anathema to the neoconservative orthodoxy that has dominated Republican thought for at least a generation. As a top Trump campaign surrogate, Gabbard will push restraint in foreign intervention and de-escalation rather than escalation with the Russian Federation.
Trump’s recent embrace of techno-libertarianism has also opened the MAGA tent wider. Since his surprising appearance at the Libertarian National Convention, Trump has fully embraced Bitcoin and the broader decentralized finance space. His support for Bitcoin shows the evolution of MAGA as a forward-thinking political movement. The Trump campaign, for wanting to restore and renew the best of America, has been pigeonholed as regressive and stilting. However, by embracing technological innovations like Bitcoin, Trump presents a positive vision for how America will remain an economic powerhouse in the 21st century and beyond. It will be a world of opportunity, freedom, privacy, and strength.
In addition to embracing Bitcoin, Trump has sought support from friendly tech elites who previously spurned him. The wise choice of JD Vance as his running mate helped to smooth the transition. Vance is a former venture capitalist in the tech industry with close ties to PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who has been hot and cold on Trump throughout the years. Additionally, Trump held a long-form discussion with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on the tech billionaire’s X platform. Musk is another substantial contributor to Trump’s campaign. TikTok investor Jeff Yass has emerged as the top donor to Trump’s GOP, and Trump surprisingly joined the platform in June, gaining hold of a captive audience that Republicans typically are unable to access.
Notwithstanding these forays into untapped sources of support, Trump has also taken measures to ensure that the original MAGA base has a foothold in the movement. Trump recently added Corey Lewandowski, an early architect of MAGA, and Alex Bruesewitz, a pro-Trump social media powerhouse, to his campaign advisory team. The set of new campaign advisors is running a tight ship, and the return of Lewandowski, author of Let Trump Be Trump, revives the authentic feel of the Trump campaign that won over so many disaffected voters. Bruesewitz will similarly keep MAGA tethered to its original mandate and will be a terrific resource to blacklist those who have not been sufficiently loyal to Trump from the campaign’s sphere of influence.
This simultaneous expansion and retrenchment of the MAGA tent will ensure the movement's future and the transformation the conservative movement requires. Big Conservatism is poisoned with grifters at every level, replete with paid “activists” beholden to entrenched special interests. These America Last figures receive more money when Republicans are out of power, and they can falsely claim to be fighting with indefatigable vigor for Americans’ interests. Whether it is pro-life, pro-2A, anti-tax, free market dogmatism, or any other pet issues of the American Right, they are all in a better position when Democrats are in power. This puts them in a better position to scaremonger donations out of desperate conservatives, selling them the pablum that if they can get the establishment Republicans back in there one more time, this evil agenda will be vanquished. As RINOs are elected and break campaign promises at a breakneck pace, the organizations and activists who helped them win power might have to be held accountable, and they fear that. Losing and complaining in fundraising letters is far easier and more lucrative.
Trump is the antidote to the failed state of affairs that put the Republican Party in the doldrums. Trump is a breath of fresh air because he governs on instinct, not based on arcane white papers or the familiar tastes of out-of-touch elitists. His inner circle includes Vance, Musk, Gabbard, RFK Jr., and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. This cadre represents the next generation of the Republican Party, which speaks the language of disaffected independents and appeals to them in a way that Democrats cannot. It may irritate haughty “True Conservatives” from their ivory towers, but this is an alliance that is going to bring in new voters, put Trump back into office for a second term, and pave the way for a Republican Party viable for generations to come.
The interests that deserve to be scorned and ejected from the Republican mix are disingenuous uni-party hacks controlled by special interests–neocons who egg on foreign conflict while neglecting the homeland and sinecurist conservatives beholden to the ways of the corrupt system. These are the true enemies of MAGA, not well-intentioned former Democrats with integrity who might be wrongheaded on a few issues but are quickly coming around. MAGA is evolving into a pragmatic ideology that will reject its refuse and promptly replace them with better people who bring fresher ideas and more integrity. Contrary to the experts, Trump is laying the blueprint for a bigger tent Republican Party than previously imaginable.
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