Does MAGA have legs?

Does MAGA have legs?

Will MAGA survive the departure of Donald Trump as president? Will Trump become the voice of the republican party when he is no longer president? Will his protegees continue his policies and be elected president? All good questions. Right now it looks like the Trump support is fraying around the edges. First there was the fallout with Elon Musk. Then Marjorie Taylor Greene fell into disfavor. Another MAGA in congress, Colorado’s Lauren Boebert who also supported release of the Epstein files and was summoned to the White House and told to end her support for the release. She refused but was not humiliated like MTG. With the House republicans wanting to release the files, the president relented. Many republicans have criticized his pardon of former Honduran president Hernandez who was a convicted drug lord. Some say that this means that the president is losing his grip on the congressional republicans. Maybe and maybe not. But at least on these issues, he apparently has.

Over on the Senate side, the president constantly badgered majority leader John Thune to eliminate the filibuster. Thune refused. Even one of Trump’s most vigorous supporters Lindsey (Bomb them All) Graham resisted. There are openly anti-MAGA republicans in the senate, Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowsky of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, possibly Iowa’s Chuck Grassley and Utah’s John Curtis of Utah. The question is are there more but are simply quiet because they fear the wrath of Trump? Yet, the total lack of dignity and coarseness of this president must be embarrassing to even MAGA republicans in Congress.

The president successfully pushed the Texas legislature to gerrymander their congressional seats to include more republicans and to push out two of his fiercest opponents, Al (Full of Fire) Green and Jasmine Crockett. Yet the same effort in Indiana failed. As a result, the president has of course threatened to primary all the republicans who refused to go along with his wishes. Trump trumpeted “I will be strongly endorsing against any State Senator or House member from the Great State of Indiana that votes against the Republican Party, and our Nation, by not allowing for Redistricting for Congressional seats in the United States House of Representatives as every other State in our Nation is doing, Republican or Democrat.” Recall that the threat of a Trump supported primary opponent was the reason that MTG decided to resign from the congress. But the Indiana republicans have held firm even in the face of such threats. I wonder if they would have done differently a year ago?

I haven’t heard much support from either the House or the Senate republicans over Trump’s suggestion of a $2,000 tariff rebate to offset the coming end to the ACA subsidies. But I also have heard little criticism of Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes and those on the fringe of the MAGA movement who embrace the ugliness of the political discourse. The president actually defended Carlson and his sympathetic interview with Fuentes, an avowed antisemitic racist. However, the vice president is on record for attacking Fuentes who questioned his bona fides for having an Indian wife. Fuentes said if “we really expect that [Vance] who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity”. Vance then called Fuentes a total loser. However Vance did say that he hopes his wife, who is Hindu, will convert to Christianity. “But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.” 

The president calls his opponents names that once were banned from the public eye. He even posted an AI-generated video of a fighter jet dumping feces on Americans who oppose him.  When Trump leaves, if his vice president is nominated to replace him, the coarseness is bound to continue. Vance has been an attack dog and has been every bit as uncouth as the president. While the president remarks about “firing the chairman of the Federal Reserve’s ass” the vice president called a critic a “dipshit.” (Sorry for the language). This president and his vice president demonstrate that decorum and dignity do not matter. Or do they?

When the six congressional democrats called for members of the military to disobey illegal orders the president went ballistic. He said that the democrats were engaged in “seditious behavior, punishable by death.” Although I think the message was stupid and the democrats especially Mark Kelly should know better, the president’s response was a bit over the top.

Then there is the report that Pete Hegseth allegedly ordered the murder of two survivors of one of the attacks on alleged drug boats off Venezuela. Could he really be that stupid? Both the House and the Senate’s Armed Services Committees have announced investigations. Since the killing might constitute murder, I wonder if this is what the democrats were referring to as to disobey “illegal” orders. There has been no declaration of war so I guess that this would not have the Navy prosecuted as a war crime. But the mere fact that both committees are chaired by republicans and referred to Hegseth as Secretary of Defense rather than of War and their promise to conduct a vigorous investigation is said by some to be in defiance of the president. But would the president actually defend Hegseth if the allegation were true? Nonetheless, observers said that the republicans are now challenging the president because they think that he is weak. So now, if found to be true, will Hegseth voluntarily resign and go back co-hosting a show on Fox or will he be impeached? Surely the president would not allow him to continue. Would he?

I don’t think that Vance will be elected president. I think that the only way he succeeds Trump is in the case of the president’s death. Then I don’t think that Vance has the wherewithal to hold onto power. First, the congressional republicans do not fear Vance and will not bend to his will and threats. Second, Trump’s cabinet won’t be Vance translators like they are for Trump defending the indefensible. Treasury secretary Bessent who is full of himself would likely steer a more independent path rather than cater to Vance’s wishes. Do you think that Vance would command the same loyalty from Pam (Blondie) Bondi? I bet that he would have to replace Trump’s chief public defender, Karoline Leavitt as soon as possible. Trump has surrounded himself with loyalists like Stephen Miller, Stephen Miran, Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth, Bill Pulte and IRS commissioner Frank Bisignano. Do you think that any of them would swear fealty to Vance? It pains me to say this about a fellow Ohio State Buckeye but at the core, Vance is simply unlikeable.