For the most part, President Trump has received rave reviews from the MAGA faithful. In recent weeks, anger over military interventions and the handling of the Epstein files have created division inside the movement. Critics are questioning whether the president can mend the wounds.
For the first five months, the second Trump administration saw nothing but smooth sailing with his loyal base, but now some of his biggest cheerleaders are threatening to abandon the team.
The far right inside MAGA is done. Podcaster Nick Fuentes declared, “We’re going to look back at the MAGA movement as the biggest scam in history.”
“I voted for none of this. He’s doing the exact opposite of everything I voted for,” Podcaster Andrew Schultz said. “I want him to stop the wars; he’s funding them. I want him to shrink spending; he’s increasing it.”
Inside the movement, especially the ‘no forever war crowd’, there’s deep concern with a number of Trump’s moves, including the surprise push to arm Ukraine against Russia, and bombing Iran, risking another war.
For the influential Elon Musk, it came down to the spending in Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”
Popular Trump-friendly podcaster Joe Rogan has complained about ICE raids targeting non-criminals. And the president’s mentioning the idea of a special work program for illegal migrant farm workers has riled up the base as well.
Grant Stinchfield on his “Stinchfield TONIGHT” program said, “If I was in the Oval Office, I would say respectfully, Mr. President, MAGA does not want any form of amnesty. Not a work program, not amnesty.”
And then there’s the handling of the Epstein files. The entire MAGA base calling for transparency, names, and answers sees all of this as a deep state coverup. President Trump just wants it to go away and sees it as a distraction to his winning agenda.
He has lashed out at the faithful who won’t let it rest by calling them weaklings and saying he doesn’t want their future support. “That kind of thing really rocked people more than anything,” Texas-based GOP strategist Bobby Eberle told CBN News.
“When the name-calling starts being directed at us, that’s where people, I think, really reacted, and kind of the hurt feelings and the slight damage was done,” Eberle said.
The million-dollar question: Is this a MAGA marriage spat or something worse?
“As far as full wholesale support, I think it is limited to the edges. I think it does affect that enthusiasm,” Eberle said. “We need to be as strong as possible. And this is one of those energy moments.”
