MAGA is breaking. Trump is losing. The sky is falling.
Our craven mainstream media are frothing at the mouth at the notion that MAGA could be fracturing. All of their juiciest, most lurid fantasies are coming true.
But as it turns out, MAGA is doing just fine — we&#8217;re just shedding some excess baggage here.
A brand new <a href="https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/54342-americans-suddenly-more-likely-to-see-economy-getting-worse-march-13-16-2026-economist-yougov-poll">Economist/YouGov poll</a>, taken March 13-16, asked what President Trump&#8217;s approval rating was on the American attack on Iran. Among MAGA: Voters, 87% supported; 6% disapproved. How about sending ground troops to Iran if necessary? 35% of MAGA said sure; 36% said no: a dead even split. How about on whether to end the war quickly or to stay until the objectives are achieved in Iran? Only 30% of MAGA supporters said that we should end the war as quickly as possible. 58% said that we should keep fighting until all American objectives have been achieved.
No, President Trump is not losing MAGA.
And yet, according to those who have had their brains rotted out by X along with our usual duds in the mainstream media, the base is totally fractured. And they know this because they have found some new heroes, heretic MAGA, who are targeting the administration for destruction. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2390-sub"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
And this brings us to Joe Kent.
Joe Kent is a former failed congressional candidate from Washington state who was elevated to the position of director of the National Center for Counter Terrorism — which you really had never heard of — by President Trump. Kent, a former Green Beret who served in the CIA, was serving under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Kent has a long political history. In 2020, he voted for Bernie Sanders. But then, in 2022, while running for Congress, Kent ran into a bit of trouble because of his associations with white supremacists. According to Nick Fuentes, Kent sought his support, but then was forced to disavow him when that support became public.
Kent has been, for a very long time, conspiratorially minded in the extreme. He suggested that the Secret Service might have been in on the assassination attempt on President Trump in July 2024, among other bizarre theories. He&#8217;s also been strangely supportive of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin&#8217;s aggression against Ukraine.
Before that, though, Kent had some bizarrely heterodox views. In 2020, after President Trump knocked off Iranian terror master Qasem Soleimani, Kent <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19/status/1214778671564611584">explained</a>, “We remain in striking distance by choice for no clear benefit. We should crush their ballistic and nuclear capes and get out of Iraq with sanctions to follow.”
Interesting, because that&#8217;s kind of what President Trump has been doing.
Way back when Kent was actually nominated to serve in the federal government, MSNBC was highly critical, <a href="https://www.ms.now/transcript/transcript-rachel-maddow-show-8-9-22-n1298426">saying</a>, “That man you heard speaking is a Trump-endorsed Republican who believes the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and he hired a member of the Proud Boys as a campaign consultant. He once told a white nationalist youth group, ‘I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s anything wrong with there being a white people special interest group.’”
Then yesterday, Kent released a bizarre and paranoid letter announcing his resignation from the National Center for Counter-Terrorism. In the letter, Kent <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19">announced</a> that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
You know who he&#8217;s talking about, don&#8217;t you? You know, (nudge, nudge.)
He then stated that Trump had been duped by “high ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media who deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.”
And then, just in case he wasn&#8217;t done blaming the Israelis, he blamed the Iraq war on the Israelis, too. And even then he wasn&#8217;t done, <a href="https://x.com/MelanieLatest/status/2033916987324137737">declaring</a> that his wife, who was killed by ISIS in Syria in 2019, was murdered “in a war manufactured by Israel.”
So to get this straight, according to Joe Kent, who was a Trump appointee in charge of the National Center for Counter Terrorism, President Trump is a dupe of the Israelis and unspecified media members, who knows? The Iraq war was the fault of the Israelis, even though it was opposed at the time by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. And also the Israelis are at fault for his wife being murdered by ISIS in Syria somehow.
This is, to put it mildly, nutty.
President Trump himself dismissed the notion he&#8217;s been manipulated by the nefarious “Juden” <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-meets-with-taoiseach-of-ireland/675656">yesterday</a>, saying, “I was against Iran long before I ever thought about Israel being against Iran. I was, if you look back many years ago, I talked about Iran was a big threat to this country, to this world of ours.”
Kent’s take is unsurprising, to be honest. His wife works for far-left propagandist Max Blumenthal, who&#8217;s worked for a wide variety of foreign propaganda outlets.
All of this calls into question why Kent was selected for his job in the first place. Obviously, Kent and his Ron Paul-esque foreign policy preferences have some allies in the administration. According to Fox News, Kent was “a known leaker,” and he was cut out of the president&#8217;s intelligence briefings months ago.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/karoline-leavitt-speaks-to-reporters-about-war-in-iran/675767">this morning</a>:
<blockquote>It&#8217;s been a while since the president has seen him here at the White House. It&#8217;s been a while since he&#8217;s been involved in the process of the presidential daily briefs and he&#8217;s been actually present for the president&#8217;s intelligence briefings. This was an individual who was not involved in any of the discussions pre-operation and throughout this operation, I think the president views it as deeply unfortunate that this individual, who the president gave the privilege of working for the administration, put out this resignation on government letterhead with many falsehoods throughout, essentially accusing the president of being manipulated by foreign governments. That&#8217;s laughable, and it&#8217;s insulting.</blockquote>
Kent’s resignation letter basically calls Trump a dullard working at the behest of the Zionists. That was enough to earn Kent the royal treatment from our usual friends. He is slated to appear on all the leaders of the anti-Trump Grievance Party podcasts: Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and all the rest. MSNOW has discovered newfound love for Joe Kent with some strange new respect. CNN is suddenly incredibly happy with Joe Kent, a guy that CNN hated until five seconds ago.
President Trump responded to Joe Kent&#8217;s resignation with a proper level of dismissiveness, saying <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-meets-with-taoiseach-of-ireland/675656">yesterday</a>, “I read his statement. I always thought he&#8217;s a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security. I didn&#8217;t know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy. But when I read the statement, I realized that it&#8217;s a good thing that he&#8217;s out because he said that Iran was not a threat? Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it.”
And then, for good measure, the president decided to dunk on Kent, showing his rather inconsistent feelings about the Middle East. He reposted a 2020 tweet from Kent that stated, “We should not sit and wait for the next attack, wipe Iran&#8217;s ballistic capability out and get our troops out of Iraq — they are only targets now. No US WIA/KIA is a tribute to the professionalism of our military and Intel professionals not Iranian restraint.”
So back in 2020 Kent was hawkish on Iran.
Leavitt released <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/2033932810709315865">a statement</a> detailing all the false allegations in Kent&#8217;s resignation letter.
She stated:
<blockquote>There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that &#8220;Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.&#8221; This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over. As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first. This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors. President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum. Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
The Iranian regime is evil. It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury. Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage.</blockquote>
The best comment came from Senator John Fetterman, who remains hilariously awesome. He told the Huffington Post, “I don’t really care. I know your readership loves that, and the New York Times love it. And then he&#8217;s going to be the national hero, you know, just like you made, MTG. That that was your mascot for a while. But now her crazy ass is now all about Tucker Carlson. … so, I don&#8217;t really care what he&#8217;s chosen to do, and I wish the best for him in his next life.”
Make no mistake: Trump is still very much in control of MAGA.
And when he wins the war, that control will solidify even further, as it should.

US-POLITICS-SHOOTING-KIRK

Media Hopes MAGA Is Fracturing. Not Even Close.

Ben Shapiro

Donald Trump

Federal Government

Iran

Joe Kent

MAGA

Middle East

Republicans

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) admitted during a Wednesday interview that Vice President JD Vance &#8220;scares&#8221; him as the potential heir apparent to helm the Make America Great Again movement going into the 2028 presidential election.
Newsom voiced his concerns to former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on MS NOW, calling Secretary of State Marco Rubio &#8220;a complete fraud&#8221; and telling her that Vance, in particular, worried him &#8220;almost more than&#8221; President Donald Trump.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Marco Rubio is a complete fraud. But no one tops JD Vance. Talk about a guy who put a mask on his face and grew into it. Pathetic. <a href="https://t.co/fNbTEYJY4z">pic.twitter.com/fNbTEYJY4z</a>
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) <a href="https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/2026863309660492132?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;There are some people waiting in the wings in the MAGA world who would love to be the chosen ones of the Trump orbit,&#8221; Psaki began, adding, &#8220;JD Vance is one of them. Marco Rubio is one of them. Do you think they can carry on the MAGA flame here?&#8221;
&#8220;No. But Vance, for whatever reason, scares me,&#8221; Newsom volunteered.
&#8220;Why?&#8221; Psaki pressed.
&#8220;Almost more than Trump. I don’t know. I just — I mean, talk about a guy who put a mask on and his face grew into it,&#8221; Newsom said, complaining that Vance and Rubio — as well as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — had been &#8220;effective&#8221; critics of Trump before coming around to his way of thinking.
&#8220;What frauds, what phonies. But JD is a unique fraud and phony. And he’s a little more dangerous. And — and the folks around him, these are not folks that believe — I mean, listen to some of its biggest funders, the way they talk. There’s a nihilism to the way they talk about the world,&#8221; Newsom continued, adding, &#8220;I know these guys. I literally know them, not figuratively know them. Some of them are in the book, knew them back when.&#8221;
&#8220;So, again, I don’t want to be overly hyperbolic about this,&#8221; Newsom said, just as he pivoted to be more hyperbolic: &#8220;So [Trump&#8217;s] going to try to run this out until right after the end, until he can pick and choose who goes behind him. Or, God forbid, we don’t take back the House of Representatives, he may be on that ballot.&#8221;
Psaki agreed, &#8220;He&#8217;ll try.&#8221;
&#8220;I just wouldn’t put it past him,&#8221; said Newsom.
Trump has repeatedly said that he will not seek a third term in the White House, and has demurred when asked who he might want to see replace him. Touting the skills of both Vance and Rubio, Trump has only said that either would be a good choice.

Governor Newsom And San Francisco Mayor Lurie Announce New Funding For Homelessness And Mental Health Ffforts In The City

Gavin Newsom Reveals The MAGA Successor Who Would Scare Him ‘Almost More Than Trump’

Gavin Newsom Admits He's Scared Of JD Vance

Gavin Newsom

JD Vance

Jen Psaki

Regular CNN analyst Bakari Sellers veered into Nazi territory when he referred to President Donald Trump as a &#8220;cancer&#8221; and suggested that the president&#8217;s voters were vermin or even demons who needed to be completely eradicated from the United States.
Sellers, during a recent panel discussion hosted by ousted CNN anchor Don Lemon, claimed that the nation was well on its way to requiring an &#8220;exorcism&#8221; or even a &#8220;fumigation&#8221; to remove the MAGA movement in its entirety.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Bakari Sellers tells Don Lemon: The country needs a “fumigation” of MAGA.
Is this acceptable rhetoric from your panelists, <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a>? <a href="https://t.co/yYu4ubBetx">pic.twitter.com/yYu4ubBetx</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/2020151901086457886?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You know, Joe Biden was somewhat of a bridge, he was supposed to be a bridge,&#8221; Sellers began, suggesting that former President Joe Biden&#8217;s election had been a means to an end — the tolerable middle ground that would allow the country to break away from Trump&#8217;s first administration and pave the way toward a real Democratic movement.
&#8220;A palate cleanser, or somebody who morally and ethically was antithetical to who Donald Trump was,&#8221; Sellers continued. &#8220;You know, Uncle Joe was the nice guy, an older white guy comes in and you want to eat ice cream with him, right?&#8221;
But then Sellers went on to say that President Trump&#8217;s decisive victory in 2024 had proved that using Biden as a &#8220;palate cleanser&#8221; had not been enough to put an end to the Trump&#8217;s support and clear the way for Democrats moving forward. He made no move to recognize that Biden may have failed to move the needle because he was not an effective leader, nor did he raise the possibility that Trump had coasted to reelection in 2024 because former Vice President Kamala Harris had not been a strong candidate.
Instead, Sellers responded to that assessment by arguing in favor of taking more drastic measures to &#8220;cleanse&#8221; the nation&#8217;s palate of its taste for Trump, comparing the president&#8217;s supporters to vermin that required &#8220;fumigation&#8221; and even demons in desperate need of an &#8220;exorcism.&#8221;
&#8220;I think what that episode in our country&#8217;s history showed us is that we really need some fumigation, right? We need a — a — exorcism, for lack of a better term,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We need a more aggressive approach to go in and surgically remove the cancer that is the Donald Trump and MAGA movement.&#8221;

Claflin University Spring 2023 Commencement Convocation

CNN Regular Says Trump Is A Cancer, MAGA Is A Demon In Need Of ‘Exorcism’

CNN Regular Says Trump Is A Cancer, MAGA Is A Demon In Need Of 'Exorcism'

Bakari Sellers

Cancer

Don Lemon

Media

Politics

Over the weekend, X (formerly Twitter) rolled out a major transparency feature called “About This Account,” which publicly displays an account’s home location, join date, username-change history, and all hell broke loose.
The purpose, according to the company, was to give users enough context to identify inauthentic behavior, spot foreign influence, and distinguish real users from coordinated bot activity. Verified government accounts with grey checkmarks are exempt &#8220;to prevent acts of terrorism against government leaders,&#8221; an X official <a href="https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1992370352677360022">said</a>.
The location data could be influenced by travel, temporary locations, or the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), X <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cd6xyjj0gnjt?post=asset%3A2243f0c6-f8ac-4d58-a13f-6acc6e6faf3f#post">said</a> over the weekend.
Within hours of the feature’s release, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/rightwing-influencers-outside-us-x-twitter-tool" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the social media platform told users</a> that many of the most prominent “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) accounts were not American at all but were operating from Russia, Nigeria, India, Thailand, Pakistan, and other foreign hubs.
Nikita Bier, X&#8217;s head of product, <a href="https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1992820294864732411">said</a> a Monday update to the feature would make it &#8220;nearly 99.99%&#8221; accurate.
“Cyber-enabled influence operations function on common principles that can be understood through an identification-imitation-amplification framework,” <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-foreign-governments-sway-voters-with-online-manipulation/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Scientific American</a> explains. “First, ‘outsiders’ (malicious actors) identify target audiences and divisive issues through social media microtargeting. Following this, the ‘outsiders’ may pose as members of the target audience by assuming false identities, through imitation which increases their credibility.”
“’Fake MAGA’ accounts co-opt MAGA and ‘America First’ branding to attract the same target audiences, yet our research has traced this activity to coordinated bot farms,” the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) <a href="https://networkcontagion.us/reports/6-18-25-false-flags-and-fake-maga-how-foreign-and-inauthentic-networks-use-fake-speech-to-destabilize-the-right-from-within/">reported</a>. “These operations emerge swiftly, often within 48 hours of  high-profile crises, and consistently use scripted tactics. Though these accounts often appear to  echo or profess MAGA values at surface level, they frequently disseminate narratives aligned  with adversarial foreign propaganda.”
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This pattern extended beyond U.S. politics. The same location-reveal feature <a href="https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/11/23/x-location-tracking-exposes-fake-gaza-accounts-pakistan/">exposed</a> global inauthentic networks: accounts posing as Gazan journalists, raising funds for supposed war victims, or engaging in anti-Israel activism, but actually operating from Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, or the United States. Israeli social media researchers noted large anti-Israel or “Gaza journalist” accounts tweeting from Pakistan and Bangladesh while pretending to be Western or Middle Eastern civilians. These findings demonstrated that X’s new tool was surfacing cross-issue bot networks, many of which appeared to serve overlapping geopolitical aims.
According to NCRI, these networks activate rapidly after crises—mass shootings, terror attacks, political scandals, or even natural disasters—injecting false-flag narratives, conspiracy claims, and divisive misinformation within minutes. One activation window produced 650,000 posts pushing false-flag claims with nearly four million interactions, fueled by Kremlin propaganda nodes, bot farms, and domestic influencers unknowingly amplifying messages seeded by foreign intelligence services. The same networks later pivoted to attack Donald Trump directly, accusing him of corruption or immoral behavior after a public rift between Trump and Elon Musk, revealing that the objective was not to support MAGA but to use its symbols to destabilize the movement.
This strategy fits a broader pattern outlined by analysts studying cyber-enabled influence operations, which follow a cycle of identification, imitation, and amplification. Foreign actors identify divisive issues, impersonate members of the target community, and amplify polarizing messages at scale—often through AI-generated personas, as shown by the Russian AI-driven bot farm <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-leads-efforts-among-federal-international-and-private-sector-partners">targeted</a> by the DOJ in 2024.
X’s new location transparency has made many of these impostors and bot farms visible for the first time, confirming what researchers have long warned: that numerous loud online voices claiming to represent MAGA or broader American conservatism were foreign-run operations aimed at fracturing U.S. political coalitions, sowing distrust, and undermining national unity.

Illustrative Photos Of Logos

Elon Musk’s X Now Disclosing Where Accounts Are Based. All Hell Breaks Loose.

Bots

Technology

Twitter

World

Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda was smiling for photos and giving two thumbs up as he donned a red “Make America Great Again” hat and a Trump-Vance shirt during an American-themed NASCAR event in Japan over the weekend.
“I’m not here to argue whether tariffs are good or bad. Every national leader wants to protect their own industry,” Toyoda <a href="https://www.autonews.com/toyota/an-toyota-akio-toyoda-maga-nascar-trump-japan-tariff-1116/">said</a> ahead of the exhibition. “We are exploring ways to make tariffs a winner for everyone. The people we want most to be winners are our customers.”
Japan now has a roughly 15% baseline tariff on auto imports, down from 27.5% following September trade negotiations.
The America-themed celebration at Fuji Speedway featured top NASCAR drivers, fans waving American flags, and an appearance from U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass. The ambassador posted photos of himself at the event alongside the caption, “Start your engines! &#8230; Looking forward to celebrating the culture of motorsports again next year, as part of our [America250] festivities in Japan.” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda showed up to a NASCAR event on Sunday repping MAGA gear.
BASED 🔥🔥🔥🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/NnkbuJaNfk">pic.twitter.com/NnkbuJaNfk</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1990855538045792277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The event came days before the carmaker announced on Tuesday a $912 million investment in its U.S. manufacturing operations, aimed at expanding hybrid production in Southern states.
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Per Motor Intelligence <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/toyota-hybrid-plants.html">data</a>, Toyota currently has more than 51% market share of hybrid vehicles through the third quarter of this year.
“Customers are embracing Toyota’s hybrid vehicles, and our U.S. manufacturing teams are gearing up to meet that growing demand,” Kevin Voelkel, Toyota Motor North America senior vice president of manufacturing operations, <a href="https://pressroom.toyota.com/toyota-boosts-hybrid-production-with-912-million-investment-creating-252-new-u-s-manufacturing-jobs/">said</a>. “Toyota’s philosophy is to build where we sell, and by adding more American jobs and investing across our U.S. footprint, we continue to stay true to that philosophy.”
Toyota announced last week it will invest as much as $10 billion into the United States over the next five years, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-11-14/toyota-confirms-up-to-10-billion-investment-in-u-s">confirming</a> what President Donald Trump had said in October after meeting with the company’s CEO.

Akio Toyoda

Toyota CEO Goes Full MAGA At NASCAR Event Then Drops $912M On U.S. Jobs

Toyota CEO Rocks MAGA Hat At NASCAR Event, Then Announces Nearly $1B Boost To U.S. Manufacturing

Business

Cars

Economy

Japan

Tariffs

There&#8217;s something very fishy about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
I&#8217;m not talking about just the scandal itself, which, of course, remains incredibly fishy. We don&#8217;t know where Jeffrey Epstein got his gigantic oodles of money from in the first place. We don&#8217;t know who he was trafficking to, if anyone besides himself. We don&#8217;t know a lot of things about Jeffrey Epstein.
What I am talking about is the response to Jeffrey Epstein. Many of the figures who have been largely associated with the question-asking about Jeffrey Epstein were, in fact, associates of Jeffrey Epstein.
This is where things start to get weird in Conspiracy Land, because Conspiracy Land suggests that there are the people who are in on the conspiracy, and then there are the people who are outside attempting to crack the code on the conspiracy.
But when you are talking about a hoax — and I’m not saying that everything associated with Jeffrey Epstein is a hoax — I&#8217;m talking about the political optics directed at President Trump, specifically regarding Jeffrey Epstein.
One of the ways you can tell when people are in on the hoax is when they themselves were close associates of the person at issue, and now they&#8217;ve decided to try and weaponize that same person as a weapon against the people whom they are targeting.
Case in point: Steve Bannon. I&#8217;ve known Steve for a very, very long time, having first met him in 2012 — Steve Bannon is not the easiest human being, to put it mildly.
Steve Bannon has a long history of attempting to associate himself with more powerful people, glomming on to them, and then making his way up the chain. He made a documentary about then-Congresswoman Michele Bachmann; after that documentary was made, he then used that as an entry card to make a documentary about Sarah Palin. After that documentary was made, he then used that as an entry card to make a documentary about Andrew Breitbart. He used that documentary in order to become a prominent person at Breitbart itself.
Andrew tragically passed away, and then Bannon used that position in order to leverage a position for himself in the first Trump administration. He ended by being ousted by the first Trump administration; President Trump, rather famously, called him “Sloppy Steve.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2320?elementPosition=5&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Bannon then went through a period in the wilderness where he was associating with some rather shady figures. He ended up doing a very short stint of jail time. And now he has his show, “The War Room,” where the media call him up routinely for quasi-leaks — I&#8217;m not sure how really empowered his access is to the administration — but the media is constantly using him as a window into the supposed dark side of the Trump administration, which is something that he really loves.
The reason that Steve has become an issue is because Steve — along with many other people who are attempting to wrest control of the MAGA movement away from President Trump — is making the assumption that President Trump is in the waning days of his political power, that President Trump is now close to being, if he is not already, a lame duck.
That means that the future of the Republican Party is going to be fought in an internal war, which will involve a war of people who have different perspectives on foreign policy and economics. Steve presumably believes that he is going to have a heavy voice in deciding the future of the MAGA movement without President Trump.
Let me be clear: There is no MAGA movement without President Trump. It does not exist. President Trump is MAGA. President Trump, as I have said before, is sui generis. It is the president of the United States who decides the direction of MAGA.
Every attempt to intellectualize or philosophize about President Trump, to turn his impulses, his instincts into a coherent political program, has failed. Why? Because the president holds a bunch of different, conflicting thoughts at the same time, and then he tends to come down on the side of pragmatic populism. He will try things. If they don&#8217;t work, he will then move away from them. He is not ideological. 
Thus, any attempt to peg President Trump to a “MAGA ideology” is destined to fail because President Trump could, for example, at one point articulate a version of MAGA in which support for Ukraine is bad, and then, when Russia is intransigent, articulate a version of MAGA in which support for Ukraine is good.
President Trump is not just the leader of MAGA. He is the definition of MAGA. There is no MAGA aside from President Trump. He&#8217;s very much like Barack Obama in this way. Barack Obama was able to kind of gloss over all of the various divisions inside the Democratic Party without a necessarily cohesive program. All attempts to boil Trump down into a philosophical or ideological package, which can then be transferred over to another candidate, whether that candidate is JD Vance or Ted Cruz or Steve Bannon or anyone else, are bound to fail because President Trump is too big for that. 
You can&#8217;t just take what Trump is, shrink-wrap it, put it in an ideological box, and then hand it over to the next guy.
One of the things that Steve Bannon has been trying to do for years is claim that he&#8217;s the intellectual mover and shaker behind MAGA, which is silly. There is no shadow president to President Trump. There is no one who is defining Trump’s program except for President Trump. 
The reason I bring this up is because Steve Bannon is one of many other people opposed to some elements of Trump&#8217;s agenda and trying to run a bizarre operation inside the Republican Party to remove support from Trump and move it over to his version of MAGA.
He, among other people, has been quite vocal about the so-called Epstein scandal. He&#8217;s been very vocal about this. He&#8217;s talked about it a lot.
But it turns out, again, that so much of what is happening right now is just fibbery. February. According to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/15/steve-bannon-jeffrey-epstein-text-messages-publicity">The Guardian</a>:
<blockquote>Hundreds of texts over almost a year show Maga influencer Steve Bannon and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein workshopping legal and media strategies to protect Epstein from the legal and publicity quagmire that enveloped him in the last year of his life.
The texts, released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday, show that as early as June 2018, the pair were devising responses to the gathering storm of public outrage about Epstein’s criminal history, his favorable treatment by the justice system, and his friendships with powerful figures in business, politics and academia.</blockquote>
Remember, that&#8217;s 2018, ten years after Jeffrey Epstein&#8217;s first conviction, after the controversial plea deal that he cut with Alex Acosta. 
We&#8217;re not talking about Donald Trump hobnobbing with Jeffrey Epstein in the late 90s. We&#8217;re not talking about going to parties with Jeffrey Epstein in Mar-A-Lago in 2004. We are talking about the fact that ten years after it was obvious to everyone that Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile, Bannon was acting not just as a friend, but as a confidante and PR advisor.
Which says something about somebody.
If you&#8217;re acting as a confidante and PR adviser to a convicted sex offender like Jeffrey Epstein, who was well-known to be into underage girls, I don&#8217;t know what that says about you or why you should have any level of authority in any future Republican Party.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/15/steve-bannon-jeffrey-epstein-text-messages-publicity">The Guardian</a> continued:
<blockquote>The texts, released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday, show that as early as June 2018, the pair were devising responses to the gathering storm of public outrage about Epstein’s criminal history, his favorable treatment by the justice system, and his friendships with powerful figures in business, politics and academia.
Bannon conspiratorially described the renewed scrutiny of Epstein as a “sophisticated op”, and over time he counseled Epstein in his adversarial responses to media outlets, the justice system and his victims.
All the while, both men were also strategizing how best to promote Bannon’s rightwing populist agenda, and the political fortunes of its standard bearer, Donald Trump. In all of Epstein’s messages, the identity of his correspondent is redacted. But Bannon’s identity in the threads cited in this reporting is clear from contextual clues including his documented activities at the time, details of his business and media pursuits, and other disclosures. In one document, the sender’s phone number is not redacted – and it is the same number linked to Bannon in a legal case against Trump adviser Roger Stone. &#8230;
The men were discussing Epstein’s problems even before he came to broader public awareness as a notorious sex criminal with odd connections to the Trump administration. Bannon left the Trump White House in late summer 2017, but enjoyed a vibrant career as a Maga influencer. On 22 June 2018, days after Epstein had been the focus of an anti-Trump protest at a Trump speech, the men began discussing the scandal that was beginning to loom over Epstein. 
At first they treated it as a publicity problem, with Bannon seeing it as an orchestrated campaign. &#8230; Bannon asked Epstein: “Who is running this op on u something serious going on.” Epstein replied: “First a protest at Clinton and then at trump. Lots of people very angry at our friendship.” Bannon responded: “It’s an op dude – I do this for a living – the pieces that are dropping are deeply researched,” adding: “This is sophisticated op.”</blockquote>
They were having these back-and-forths in which Bannon was attempting to guide Epstein. We know for a fact that there are hours and hours of tape between Epstein and Bannon that have not yet been released, which is strange.
What does this mean? It means that certain people are less trustworthy than others in political media.
And the fact that Steve Bannon has spent his entire career trying to find more powerful people to advise and glom onto in order to advance his own agenda says something about him and about his attempts to hijack the MAGA movement beyond President Trump.

Leaders In Finance And Business Attend Semafor World Economy Summit

The Bannon-Epstein Connection Revealed

Jeffrey Epstein

Opinion

Steve Bannon

Over the weekend, the long-simmering feud between Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and the president of the United States finally boiled over.
Greene — the Jewish space laser lady — has been attempting to run her own knockoff version of MAGA. She&#8217;s been out retailing it to &#8220;The View.&#8221; She&#8217;s been out retailing it to CNN and MSNBC.
She&#8217;s become the hot new thing in the legacy media. They now have “strange new respect” for Marjorie Taylor Greene because she has decided that she is going to attack Trump full-time.
President Trump put out a statement on Saturday slamming Greene for trying to undermine his administration. He wrote on Truth Social: 
<blockquote>Lightweight Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Brown (Green grass turns Brown when it begins to ROT!), betrayed the entire Republican Party when she turned Left, performed poorly on the pathetic View, and became the RINO that we all know she always was.</blockquote>
That followed Greene’s repeated attacks on President Trump, particularly over Jeffrey Epstein. 
On Friday, Greene <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-blasts-government-over-epstein-working-harder-to-protect-pedophiles-than-victims/">suggested</a> on CBS that the president of the United States was attempting to protect pedophiles, saying: 
<blockquote>The American people deserve to see transparency from their government. The Rich, powerful people should not be protected. That is completely wrong. And it&#8217;s a message to victims everywhere. Victims of rape, human trafficking, and children who are trapped in terrible situations that the government will not protect the predators, that we will work hard to protect the victims.</blockquote>
It is ridiculous to suggest the president of the United States is trying to protect predators. This line has been retailed by a wide variety of people who are supposedly allies of President Trump who have turned on him, using the Epstein files as a way of getting at him.
Thus, the president withdrew his support for Marjorie Taylor Greene and suggested that he might back her opponent in the primary.
Greene wouldn’t be known if it had not been for the president of the United States touting her, treating her as an ally and building her up. She got very angry because she wanted to run for Senate in Georgia and he pointed out to her she was going to lose by 20 points to Jon Ossoff if she ran for Senate in Georgia.
This ticked her off. So President Trump finally lost it on <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115551127714537339">Truth Social</a>, writing: 
<blockquote>I am withdrawing my support and Endorsement of “Congresswoman” Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the Great State of Georgia. &#8230; all I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN! It seemed to all begin when I sent her a Poll stating that she should not run for Senator, or Governor, she was at 12%, and didn’t have a chance (unless, of course, she had my Endorsement — which she wasn’t about to get!). She has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Countries, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day.
I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support,” he continued. “She has gone Far Left, even doing The View, with their Low IQ Republican hating Anchors.</blockquote>
Greene was excited about this because she&#8217;s attempting again to run an anti-Trump campaign inside the Republican Party.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2319-mtg-revolts-against-trump-maga?elementPosition=4&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
She <a href="https://x.com/RepMTG/status/1989518703507963940?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1989518703507963940%7Ctwgr%5E03448d1ad5006003a5ba80f2ee8c4fbcf3b68dd7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fmtg-shares-messy-breakup-texts-with-trump-over-epstein%2F">responded</a> by saying, “President Trump just attacked me and lied about me.&#8221;
Always playing the victim.
<blockquote>I haven&#8217;t called him at all, but I did send these text messages today,” she stated. “Apparently, this is what sent him over the edge. The Epstein files. And of course, he&#8217;s coming hard after me to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next week&#8217;s vote to release the Epstein files. It&#8217;s astonishing, really, how hard he&#8217;s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level. But really, most Americans wish you would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women of America who are fed up with foreign wars and foreign causes, are going broke trying to feed their families, and are losing hope of ever achieving the American dream.</blockquote>
What she is saying, that the president is trying to cover up the Epstein files, is not true. The president made absolutely clear on Sunday that that was not the case. He put out a post on <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115562626931599548">Truth Social</a> that read:
<blockquote>As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat “Shutdown.” The Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the Public on ‘Epstein,’ are looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!</blockquote>
Over the weekend, talking with CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash, Greene slammed President Trump for calling her a traitor, even though she has spent the last several months beating up on President Trump over and over and over.
“The most hurtful thing he said, which is absolutely untrue, is he called me a traitor,” she said. “And that is so extremely wrong. And those are the types of words used that can radicalize people against me and put my life in danger.”
The new line that&#8217;s being retailed by people like Marjorie Taylor Greene is that criticism of her puts her life in danger.
Greene&#8217;s idea is that President Trump has not only betrayed MAGA because of Epstein, but also has betrayed MAGA — because she has a different definition of MAGA.
And this brings us to what&#8217;s really going on under the surface: Marjorie Taylor Greene started caring about the Epstein files in a serious way with regard to President Trump about the same time she got angry at the president&#8217;s foreign policy with regard to the Middle East.
She, Thomas Massie, and a wide variety of commentators seemed to get very exercised about President Trump and the Epstein files by claiming that President Trump is in thrall to Israel, and that the Epstein files is somehow indicate some sort of Mossad agency operation.
What made them mad is that President Trump is not anti-Israel in the same way they are.
I&#8217;m in favor of all Jeffrey Epstein files being released. I believe the president didn&#8217;t want all of them released because he was tired of talking about it, and because his own FBI had told him there was nothing there.
But the evidence-free nature of this supposed conspiracy is the reason it&#8217;s being trafficked by people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. She thinks President Trump is somehow controlled by the Israelis.
The Israeli government would likely have been on board with the idea of toppling the Iranian regime. The president, however, was not, and that was that. The people making arguments like Greene’s are the same people who suggested that bombing the Fordow nuclear reactor was somehow going to lead to World War III and full-scale American involvement in Middle East warfare.
Which, of course, never happened.
This is the reason why they&#8217;re focused on Epstein. Let&#8217;s be clear about this — it is not because of Epstein. The Epstein files have been out there. None of these people were screaming bloody murder about the Epstein files when Joe Biden was president of the United States.
President Trump comes on the scene, doesn&#8217;t do the foreign policy they want, and suddenly they start screaming at the top of their lungs about the Epstein files.
This is all part of an attempt to turn MAGA into something it isn&#8217;t.
Let&#8217;s be clear about what MAGA is: President Trump, period. End of story.
All attempts to reduce MAGA to some ideological form or fashion are bound to fail because President Trump is sui generis: He contains multitudes. Which means that many people who voted for President Trump disagree with him on a lot of issues.
I have disagreed with the president of the United States quite frequently on matters ranging from foreign policy to domestic policy. 
But only the president defines what MAGA is. He has always defined what MAGA is.
There&#8217;s a new movement afoot to try and cobble together pieces of Trump&#8217;s coalition and move forward into something different, but to claim the mantle of Trumpism without Trump is a bizarre and ridiculous move.

President Trump Participates In National Day Of Prayer Event At White House

MTG Revolts Against MAGA. Trump Has Had Enough.

Congress

Georgia

Marjorie Taylor Greene

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) cozied up to a reporter and a man wearing a dress while laughing and mocking “MAGA women” based on their appearances.
Crockett was speaking to a reporter — while standing alongside a drag queen in full costume — and the three of them attempted to spin cosmetic treatments such as Botox or collagen fillers as “gender-affirming care” in order to downplay the invasive and destructive treatments given to trans-identifying patients.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett makes fun of how MAGA women look while standing next to a 6-foot-5 dude wearing a dress.
&#8220;You know a MAGA woman when you see one. They all have a look, right? Like, they lips be up to&#8230; anyway.&#8221;
&#8220;But yeah, they don&#8217;t even know.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/zLbDrode2y">pic.twitter.com/zLbDrode2y</a>
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href="https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1988736790140952962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Okay, a lot of the MAGA women receive gender-affirming care such as lip fillers, breast augmentation, et cetera,” the reporter began, prompting an apparently amused reaction from Crockett. “Why do you think they are so against gender-affirming care for trans people?”
Crockett, her mouth hanging open, stomped her feet several times before the drag queen beside her waved her forward: “You know you want to say it.”
“So I have this thing, where like you know a MAGA woman when you see one,” she said.
“1,000%” the reporter agreed.
“They all have a look, right?” Crockett continued, over comments from the drag queen out of frame. “But they lips be up to — anyway, that’s a whole other issue. But yeah, it&#8217;s — they don&#8217;t even know. &#8216;Cause when that was brought up on the House floor, &#8217;cause there was a discussion about this on the House floor, they were like, &#8216;How dare you say we use —&#8217; and it&#8217;s like, no, that&#8217;s exactly what y&#8217;all do. Y&#8217;all just didn&#8217;t realize that that&#8217;s what it is. But okay.”
Crockett, like the reporter and a number of others, has repeatedly conflated surgical enhancements of one’s natural biology with surgeries designed to subvert or outright erase one’s natural biology artificially.

House Oversight And Accountability Members And Watchdog Group Court Accountability Focus On Supreme Court Ethics

Jasmine Crockett Cozies Up To Man In Dress While Mocking ‘MAGA’ Women

Jasmine Crockett Cozies Up To Man In Dress While Mocking 'MAGA' Women

Jasmine Crockett

Transgender

transgender surgery

Women

After Jimmy Kimmel’s show was suspended on Wednesday over his false claim about Charlie Kirk’s assassin, early reports suggested the move was tied directly to the comments. Later details, however, revealed that a major factor was Kimmel’s planned follow-up statement for the next broadcast.
Kimmel had stated in his monologue, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
According to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/how-jimmy-kimmel-benched-by-disney-dana-walden-1236374959/">The Hollywood Reporter</a> (THR) — which had reported on Wednesday that Kimmel had no intention of apologizing — an inside source said that Disney wanted Kimmel to “take down the temperature,” but Kimmel planned to “fan the flames with the MAGA fan base.” A source with Kimmel’s show contended that the late-night host wasn’t planning on “making it worse,” but that he simply “wasn’t kowtowing” to the furor surrounding his initial comments.
“Inside of ABC, ‘multiple conversations’ with Kimmel were had at the ‘executive level,’” an inside source told THR, which reported, “The execs wanted to know: How was Kimmel going to address the situation on Wednesday night’s show? The answer was not satisfactory to management, sources say.” THR added, “Talks between Kimmel and Disney/ABC hit enough of a stalemate that executives there decided Wednesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! had run out of time to be salvaged.”
CNN Entertainment Correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister on Thursday <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cg/date/2025-09-18/segment/02">offered</a> some further inside information, stating:
<blockquote>
Jimmy wanted to go on his show last night. And in his monologue, I hear that he wanted to address the backlash from the right regarding his commentary about Charlie Kirk&#8217;s charged killer. And I hear that that monologue was very hot. It very much took aim at MAGA, and that is when the executive said, we can&#8217;t have him go on the air tonight. Now, I want to read you one quote from a source, Phil. They said, “If Jimmy went on the air, there would&#8217;ve been no way back from that monologue for Jimmy. We didn&#8217;t want that. Everyone deeply values him and wants him to come back, but he has to take down the temperature.”
</blockquote>

Jimmy Kimmel

What Really Got Kimmel Suspended? ‘I Hear That That Monologue Was Very Hot’

suspension

As Michigan lawmakers debate next year&#8217;s budget, the Democratic lieutenant governor — who&#8217;s running for governor in 2026 — floated an idea to hit back at some of the Trump administration&#8217;s spending cuts and get more money into the state government&#8217;s coffers: raise taxes on the wealthiest Trump supporters.
In a video obtained by The Daily Wire, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist told a group of Democrats earlier this month that the Trump administration has &#8220;attacked our people&#8221; by cutting funding to universities and &#8220;attacking those of us who are getting our health care from Medicaid.&#8221; Gilchrist made the remarks during a video call with the Kent County, Michigan, Democratic Party on August 13 as he gears up for a competitive Democratic primary in the 2026 Michigan governor&#8217;s race.
&#8220;We&#8217;re going to fight back and say, &#8216;Hell no, we&#8217;re not going to accept that,'&#8221; Gilchrist added. &#8220;And frankly, it pisses me off that we don&#8217;t have enough money in Michigan to be able to afford to backfill this $1.1 billion hole we&#8217;ve blown in the budget. I know how we could get a little bit more of that money — if we actually tax the wealthiest mega MAGA rich people in this state &#8230; if we actually went after the biggest companies that got a tax cut from [former Republican Governor] Rick Snyder and the Republicans.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
In a video I&#8217;ve obtained for <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDailyWire</a>, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist — a top candidate for governor — tells a group of Democrats via video call that he wants to raise taxes on a specific political class: &#8220;mega MAGA rich people.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/2rsPUCgFDK">pic.twitter.com/2rsPUCgFDK</a>
— Zach Jewell (@zach_d_jewell) <a href="https://twitter.com/zach_d_jewell/status/1961099735743557634?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Raising taxes on some people based on their political leanings wouldn&#8217;t be possible and would run into numerous legal issues if it were even attempted. Gilchrist&#8217;s suggestion to hit wealthy Trump supporters with higher taxes is also a questionable political tactic, given that Michigan is a swing state that President Trump won in both 2016 and 2024.
The lieutenant governor&#8217;s comments, however, played well with the Democratic base, as the audience broke out into applause and cheers when Gilchrist suggested taxing wealthy Trump supporters. In the video, Gilchrist calls into the meeting from an airport in New York City despite the Kent County Democratic Party <a href="https://midems.controlshift.app/events/kent-dems-august-2025-monthly-meeting?partner=kent-county-democratic-party&amp;source=facebook-share-button&amp;time=1754939773&amp;utm_source=facebook&amp;share=ac60ac7d-0558-48bf-a953-e21fa4e54b6f&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawMIbFVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHouCBhh02s5zXqIir3YTKs5Y9jSlIg_Y_sBS2GI86HNcKWrnwXnL_WB4Mho0_aem_fMy07Q0O2DqWgzEbplvKxg">saying</a> that the &#8220;Social Hour&#8221; would be &#8220;hosted&#8221; by the lieutenant governor.
The $1.1 billion figure referenced by Gilchrist refers to a report released last month by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, which claims that because of Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Big, Beautiful Bill,&#8221; the state will have to come up with a massive chunk of money to make up for Trump&#8217;s cuts to Medicaid and SNAP food benefits, according to <a href="https://bridgemi.com/michigan-government/report-big-beautiful-bill-will-blow-11-billion-hole-michigan-budget/">Bridge Michigan</a>. The report <a href="https://crcmich.org/publications/the-one-big-beautiful-bill-act-and-its-impact-on-michigans-budget">stated</a> that Michigan &#8220;will need to cut around $1.1 billion in General Fund/General Purpose appropriations from the FY2026 Executive Budget proposal.&#8221;
Republican state Rep. Ann Bollin, however, told The Daily Wire that the House has put forward a plan that incorporates all of the federal guidelines under the &#8220;Big, Beautiful Bill,&#8221; such as the work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP, without putting the state in a financial hole.
&#8220;We have managed to build a budget that takes into account what those federal requirements are,&#8221; Bollin said. &#8220;Those federal requirements are not extensive. I mean, they are work requirements. That is not a high threshold.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;re implementing the research and development tax credit, we&#8217;re incorporating the $250 million that the feds are giving us for rural hospitals. We are offering relief to individuals with the elimination of taxes on tips, overtime, and social security,&#8221; Bollin continued.
She added that it&#8217;s good for the Trump administration to implement work requirements for programs like SNAP, saying that &#8220;Michigan has to address its very high SNAP error rate,&#8221; and root out fraud.
&#8220;I think we&#8217;re going to find that this budget is going to deliver on protecting the most vulnerable and keeping within some financial constraints, but also that it&#8217;s fiscally sustainable for us as a state,&#8221; Bollin said.
The Michigan legislature is currently negotiating a budget for fiscal year 2026, which begins on October 1. Lawmakers have already passed the July 1 statutory deadline to present a budget plan to the governor, as the Democrat-controlled state Senate and Republican-controlled state House work to get something passed, The Detroit Free Press <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/26/whitmer-budget-negotiations-shutdown-brinks-hall/85813967007/">reported</a>.
While Gilchrist is suggesting raising taxes on Michigan residents, Republicans have proposed slashing state government spending. On Tuesday, Michigan House Republicans, led by Republican Speaker Matt Hall, unveiled a $78.5 billion budget proposal that would cut state government jobs and spending, while still putting forward a $3 billion plan for fixing the roads, an issue that Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer said must be included in any budget proposal.
Michigan currently has a flat 4.25% income tax for all residents and a 6% corporate income tax, with a 1.8% alternative rate for small businesses. Last year, under Democratic leadership, the income tax increased from 4.05% to 4.25%.
The Gilchrist campaign has not responded to a Daily Wire inquiry asking how much Gilchrist wants to raise taxes on Michigan&#8217;s wealthiest Trump supporters.

Garlin Gilchrist/Trump supporters

Top Dem Gov Candidate Proposes Tax Hike On ‘Mega MAGA Rich People’ To Fix Potential Budget Hit

Democrats

Michigan

Taxes

Trump Supporters

President Donald Trump called Hulk Hogan a &#8220;great friend&#8221; on Friday after the professional wrestling legend&#8217;s passing a day earlier, adding that the six-time WWE champion was &#8220;angry at himself&#8221; for not getting political sooner.
Hogan, whose real name was Terry Gene Bollea, died Thursday in his Clearwater, Florida, home surrounded by his family after <a href="https://www.today.com/health/news/hulk-hogan-cause-of-death-cardiac-arrest-rcna220837">suffering</a> a cardiac arrest earlier that morning. He was 71.
&#8220;He was a great guy. He was an unbelievable showman. I&#8217;ll tell you what he really was. He was a physical specimen,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-speaks-to-reporters/663066">told</a> reporters outside the White House on Friday. &#8220;I&#8217;ve watched him lift 350-pound men over his head and throw them out of the ring.&#8221;
Hogan was a WWE Hall of Famer who became a pop culture icon in the 1980s with the growth of cable television. As the face of Hulkamania, he emerged as the most recognizable wrestling star in the world.
&#8220;He was the real deal. He was MAGA all the way,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;He said, &#8216;I&#8217;ve always loved you.&#8217; You know, we&#8217;ve always been friends, but he wasn&#8217;t a political guy, and in the last three years I&#8217;d say, he became really political.&#8221;
&#8220;He said, &#8216;I&#8217;m so angry at myself for not doing it earlier.&#8217; He was happy,&#8221; Trump said.
Hogan gave a rip-roaring speech in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention in July last year, which began just two days after Trump was shot in the ear in an attempted assassination at a Pennsylvania rally.
&#8220;When they took a shot at my hero, and they tried to kill the next president of the United States, enough was enough, and I said, let Trumpamania run wild, brother! Let Trumpamania rule again! Let Trumpamania make America great again!&#8221; Hogan shouted as he ripped off his shirt to reveal a Trump campaign shirt underneath.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
HULK HOGAN GOES FULL WWE AT THE RNC
TEARS HIS SHIRT OFF, CROWD ERUPTS IN USA CHANTS 🔥 <a href="https://t.co/ymwRvd5I7B">pic.twitter.com/ymwRvd5I7B</a>
&mdash; johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) <a href="https://twitter.com/_johnnymaga/status/1814111561893491087?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Trump also said Hogan had long suffered from various health issues before his death due to his career in the wrestling industry.
&#8220;You know, he took a beating. When you look at the life that they lived, he would wrestle sometimes 200 times a year. Think of that. I say, what, do you wrestle every weekend, no, he said, sometimes you wrestle every night, and it&#8217;s hard to believe,&#8221; the president said.
&#8220;Being a friend, I got to see his wife a little bit, and his knees were in trouble, his back was in trouble. He was in such trouble, but he was great,&#8221; Trump said.
Hogan had undergone neck surgery in May. Before that, he had gone through several other back surgeries that did not <a href="https://www.messalaw.com/hulk-hogan-alleges-medical-malpractice-in-lawsuit-against-spine-surgeons/">completely</a> resolve his problems.
&#8220;He was a great man, he was an incredible showman, and he was really a great friend, and he was a great friend to MAGA,&#8221; the president said.

2024 Republican National Convention: Day 4

Trump Says ‘Great Friend’ Hulk Hogan Was ‘Angry’ At Himself For Not Getting Political Sooner

Trump Says 'Great Friend' Hulk Hogan Was 'Angry At Himself' For Not Getting Political Sooner

Celebrities

Executive

Hulk Hogan

U.S.

For years, the diplomats and pundits who inhabit Washington have painted the MAGA movement as “isolationist.” And while they correctly identify MAGA’s antipathy for spending money on bloated international bureaucracies, they typically get its actual foreign policy preferences entirely wrong.
This caricature doesn’t survive statistical scrutiny. According to new polls from the Ronald Reagan Institute and the Vandenberg Coalition, MAGA voters overwhelmingly reject withdrawing from the world stage. In fact, a whopping 73% of MAGA Republicans want the United States to be more engaged overseas — beating out Democrats at 65% and non-MAGA Republicans at 59%.
The Vandenberg polling shows the same trend: 80% of MAGA voters support America taking a leadership role in global affairs, and 87% back increasing military spending to keep the United States strong.
Nowhere are these preferences clearer than in Europe. The Left loves to characterize the MAGA movement as soft on Russia and dismissive of NATO. But a majority (76%) of MAGA Republicans say the United States should defend NATO allies if they’re attacked by Russia. That’s a firm commitment to deterrence, not a giveaway to Vladimir Putin.
Even more striking, Reagan Institute data show nearly six in 10 Republicans, including MAGA voters, support increasing the U.S. military presence in Eastern Europe despite years of freeloading off the American taxpayer. MAGA supporters see how President Donald Trump pushed NATO countries to spend more on their own defense and succeeded. The MAGA movement is not abandoning allies–it’s seeking to strengthen them by pushing them to carry their fair share of the security burden.
China is where MAGA voters are sounding the loudest alarm — and for good reason. They don’t view the Chinese Communist Party as a distant strategic competitor but as a direct threat to the homeland.
According to the Reagan Institute’s new data, 91% of MAGA voters are “extremely” or “somewhat” concerned about Chinese land purchases near American military bases, 89% are concerned about CCP-linked companies like TikTok spying on Americans, and 86% are concerned about military-age Chinese men entering the U.S. illegally. They intuitively understand what many in Washington still downplay: that the CCP is infiltrating our society, stealing our data, manipulating public discourse, and using every tool of economic and political influence to weaken America from within.
That urgency extends to China’s global ambitions: Vandenberg polling shows that 84% of MAGA voters say it’s extremely important for the U.S. to maintain superiority over China in military, economic, and technological power. MAGA voters don’t value more summits or empty gestures. They want a strategy that defends our borders, counters CCP espionage, reclaims our technological advantage, and confronts China’s aggression head-on.
That same clarity extends to Taiwan. Once MAGA voters consider what’s at stake — control of the world’s semiconductor supply, protection of vital sea lanes, and preservation of American credibility — 84% say the United States should defend Taiwan if China invades. They know that if America retreats, our enemies advance — and global chaos fills the vacuum.
MAGA voters are even more focused on the Iran threat. Recent polling lists preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon as one of MAGA voters’ top national security concerns — second only to illegal immigration at the southern border.
An overwhelming 90% of MAGA voters say this issue directly impacts American security and prosperity — and that was before President Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. After those strikes, 74% of MAGA conservatives said they would support additional military action, and 68% said the world is now safer because of them. A staggering 92% agree it is extremely important to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
For decades, American foreign policy was mired in either overextension or half-measures, endless negotiations, and failed attempts to buy peace. That record eroded the American people’s appetite for deploying power overseas. But they watched in dismay as the Biden Administration acted with weakness, unfreezing billions of dollars in Iranian assets, ignoring proxy attacks on U.S. troops, and groveling for a nuclear deal. President Trump, by contrast, has shown what it means to project strength without starting wars.
MAGA voters don’t want to remake the world in the United States’ image. They want a foreign policy that puts American security first, prioritizes deterrence, and uses force sparingly but decisively.
This worldview rejects the false choice between interventionism and isolationism. It’s a foreign policy grounded in the prudent use of American power. MAGA voters are asking for an alternative to Biden’s weakness: a foreign policy rooted in sovereignty and strength.  They want a foreign policy through which our enemies fear us, our allies respect us, and deterrence protects us — and a foreign policy that never apologizes for putting America First.
Yousif Kalian is a Policy Advisor at POLARIS National Security. He has over a decade of experience advancing U.S. interests in the Middle East and Eurasia.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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