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Samizdata quote of the day – Is this how MAGA falls? The ideological divide within MAGA has grown increasingly harsh. Trump is not, at heart, a professional politician. Rather, he is a blend of New York developer and carnival barker. His uneasy alliance with ‘tech bros’, Wall Street insiders and fervent right-wing nativists was never stable. It was held together mostly by Trump himself – and by the awfulness of the Democrats.
Even as he strikes a populist pose, some people influential in MAGA flirt with ideas like eugenic Darwinism and a permanent ruling aristocracy. Others within MAGA embrace isolationism and attacks on minorities, particularly Jews. Trump rejects such notions, but too many top GOP figures, argues Senator Ted Cruz, seem terrified of alienating the odious Tucker Carlson to do so.
– Joel Kotkin
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I was kinda taking this seriously until “Tucker Carlson” as the object of fear showed up. Give me a fucking break.
The Republicans are a big tent party, there are a broad range of views that barely get along together at the edges.
The Democrats are much more conformist: ‘All within the Party, nothing outside the Party, nothing against the Party.’
I don’t think anyone is terrified of alienating Carlson.
But there are people very intent on using Carlson’s mistakes to pull their own audience of followers out of the main MAGA crowd. There’s a huge opportunity here – especially since the new paradigm pays out many many dollars to people who attract lots of followers.
It has become far more important to many who are supposedly on the Right to attract that big audience, because of the riches that can be obtained by doing so.
I really doubt that Carlson et al hate Jews. I think it more likely that they love money, see it dangling, and are willing to join the BAMN crowd to get it. Because of their own large followings, they have the potential of derailing an uneasy coalition that supports all things Trump. When Matt Walsh grows his monthly checks by loudly insisting that a Big Tent must include anyone slightly to the Right – even the antisemites – it can all come unraveled.
The Laura Ingraham interview with Trump was a car crash.Trump was pretty embarrassing. Also the 50 year mortgage idea that was floated this week is awful.
The era of disavowal has long needed to be over. Buckley started it, and we’ve got a long history of ‘conservatives’ who cannot conserve anything. Cruz just wants to turn the Trump movement into the same slop they’ve been serving us all along. Since this Fuentes thing I’ve been getting unsolicited texts wanting to talk about ‘peoples views of Israel.’ I’ve been tempted to tell them to get AIPAC to make congress pass whatever Trump wants. It would actually be a good idea, because it isn’t that people hate Israel so much, but that we keep seeing our needs not being met, while others seem to be getting preferential treatment. The pro-Israel crowd makes the crazies look more legit, because the obvious play here is fix your bad pr by helping Americans rather than trying to destroy or lecture us.
Trump has largely done good with his foreign policy, in large part because that is where he is able to do something. Most things domestic need Congress and an overhaul of the courts. But even the Republicans thwart him most of the time.
I’m sorry but whoever this guy Kotkin is, he obviously is part of the “I hate Trump” people. I think this “The MAGA coalition is coming apart” notion is really mostly wishful thinking on the part of the left.
The main tiff going on is over Israel, and it seems to me that since things seem mostly settled there it isn’t at all important. I watched some of Carlson’s interview with Cruz and I thought he was pretty unfair on him, however, I mostly side with him on the Israel thing, namely that AiPAC is a foreign government advocacy organization and, insofar as we have FARA regulations, they need to declare what they are. And also that though I wish Israel the best of good wishes but have no idea why they need material support from us or why we are obliged to help them. They seem perfectly capable of dealing with it on all their own. And also, I agree with Carlson that the notion that “Israel is out most important ally in the middle east” is simply preposterous.
I do think Carlson has gone a bit looney tunes, but the idea that he is anti-Semitic is simply ridiculous. Opposing the Israeli government or opposing our support of this foreign government does not at all denote anti-Semitism and more than me opposing Joe Biden makes me anti American. And the idea that he is in it to make big money or that he has sold out is equally preposterous. He just seems to me to be utterly without a desire for power, he just wants a free space to be able to speak his mind and give his opinion, and spend most of his time huntin’ and fishin’, which I can definitely respect. FFS he lives in the backwoods of Maine, not suburban Washington.
I also think that Carlson, especially since he went looney tunes, really has much diminished influence. Megyn Kelly on the other had absolutely does. TBH I think, outside of politicians, she is the epicenter of media weight on the MAGA side these days. I mean Fox News, for example, is almost irrelevant these days. She interviewed both Carlson and Shapiro (which is really the biggest name on the pro-Israel side), and Shapiro did not come off well. To be honest I think he has put himself in a corner and is going to suffer a large loss of influence. I mean politicians aside, what MAGA folks care about is immigration, deportation, taxes, an improved economy and onshoring of industry. If you are for or against Israel, most MAGA people don’t give a shit. Really it is only politicians and the pundit class that care much about that issue.
The truth is that the biggest problem for Trump is that the economy is not doing all that great, and frankly I think that is the only thing that matters. The mid terms next year will be entirely decided on the state of the economy (and maybe the cost of healthcare which — since Obamacare — has become utterly ridiculous). Everything else is just bluster and nonsense.
As an aside, as I have said here before, probably up there with the state of the economy, the assassination of Charlie Kirk is an absolutely incalculable loss in terms of the election. It is hard to measure just how much impact he had.
And if the Republicans do lose the house next year we are in for a rough ride, and the one horse that America can ride to some form of redemption from its inevitable spiraling into doom will be taken out back, shot and sent to the glue factory.
Spiked is definitely a mixed bag nowadays ranging from the heroic (Brendan O’Neill) to the risible (Ann Furedi). Kotkin’s snarky projections along with his self-view as the adult in the room place him nearer the Furedi end of the spectrum albeit nowhere near as deranged.
Anyway Spiked is still pretty good, after all it could have descended to the level of Unherd or even Takimag (Steve Sailor and Theodore Dalrymple excepted).
Anti-Trump Monetisation (ATM) perhaps?
There is a fundamental misunderstanding here – it is not understood that the people who support these terrible ideas (or who pretend to) do NOT support President Trump – they are NOT “MAGA”.
It is clear from leaked e.mails that Mr Tucker Carlson has always hated (viciously hated) President Trump – so to call Tucker Carlson “MAGA” is an error of the worst order. Does Mr Carlson really believe the things he says about space aliens visiting the Earth or about the Jews and “Christian Zionists” (who he says he hates even more than Jews)? Most likely he does not believe the things he says – it is very likely that he is an “asset” of elements of the security and intelligence services – “paranoid”, NO it is not paranoid to hold that view.
Mr Nick Fuentes is very much the same – expressing his love of Hitler and Stalin (yes – both) and his delight in how he “fucked” Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA by infiltrating racialists into his organisation. Obviously for the purpose of discrediting it.
It is so obvious that Mr Fuentes is an “asset” of elements of the security and intelligence agencies (engaged in a “psyop” to discredit conservatives) that he might as well be wearing a shirt with “FED” written all over it.
I am reminded of Mr Ray Epps strongly encouraging people to enter the Capitol Building on January 6th 2021 – and then carefully not entering it himself, Mr Epps is an “asset” of elements of the security and intelligence agencies – and his function is the same as that of Mr Carlson, Mr Fuentes and others – their function is to discredit conservatives.
“Conservatives believe that the Jews are behind everything bad, that space aliens are visiting the Earth, that the Moon landings were faked, that Madam Macron is a man, that the dinosaurs were not real….” and-so-on.
It is astonishing that anyone falls for such obvious “False Flag” operations.
Specifically on the Ted Cruz versus Tucker Carlson dispute.
Senator Ted Cruz is a life long conservative – and one of the leading students of the Constitution of the United States of his generation.
Mr Tucker Carlson is, if we are to believe what he says (I doubt we can have much trust in anything this man says – but leave that aside) is a fan of President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt – the first American President to openly despise the limited government Constitution of the United States, and the only leading Republican to support LYNCHING (yes – mobs hanging people to death, people who have been convicted of no crime) – for example the lynching of some Italian men who were alleged (but not proven) to be members of the Mafia – no other Republican politician supported lynching (it was a Democrat Party thing). And then there is the demented platform of the Progressive, or “Bull Moose”, Party of 1912.
According to this Party Platform – the Platform of the Party that Theodore Roosevelt created, property (farm land, mines and so on) does NOT belong to the individual and family ownership, NO property belongs to “the whole community” and this “community” (read – the Federal Government) is to decide how the land is to be used – not individuals and families.
Even in the worst stages of his mental illness, King George III would never have come out with something so extreme, and something so utterly vile, as this. It is at least proto Fascist – it might have come straight from Mussolini “everything for the state – nothing outside the state”.
Another absolute banger from Brendan today.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/11/15/zohran-mamdani-and-the-ugly-rebirth-of-the-socialism-of-fools/
Kotkin loses me when he tells me how to “feel” about his subject- the “odious” Tucker Carlson.
Carlson is inded odious & frankly a bit bonkers.
I am always wary of overhyping the influence of online stuff on the general public, but the fact is that Tucker’s show is the third most popular podcast on Spotify. That’s 30 places above Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin isn’t even top 100. Also the fact is that the whole conversation is a reaction to what Tucker has said and who he has had on his show, not what’s happened on Ben Shapiro’s or Mark Levin’s shows. I would say that if you’re the one people are reacting to, you are probably setting the agenda, not them. If Tucker has ‘diminished influence’ why are they wasting their time getting so worked up? Why is Mark Levin rediscovering that cancel culture is conservative after all? All the attention and reaction just objectively suggests Tucker Carlson’s influence is still high and potentially even rising.
Do you think this is what happened when Ben Shapiro and Daily Wire pushed Candace Owens? I’m sure they made MILLIONS out of her show while they employed her.
No-enemies-to-the-right is just as insane as no-enemies-to-the-left.
Not least, because “right” and “left” are arbitrary labels.
Should i accept Tucker Carlson in my Big Tent because we have been assigned the same label?
The fact is, there are substantive differences between Tucker and yours truly:
1. If an American does not recognize the historical obligations of the US to Ukraine and especially Israel, then how can i trust him/her to take my side when i need support?
2. Part of the reason (a big part) why i have been expressing my opinion that many if not most *American* Jews are objectively antisemitic, is to highlight the insanity of the antisemites who hold the polar-opposite opinion. Such as Tucker, but mostly on the “”left””.
3. Anybody who expresses sympathy for Putin, or for people (such as Fuentes) who express sympathy for Hitler and/or Stalin, must have a philosophy which is blatantly incompatible with mine. Why should i accept them in my Big Tent?
I don’t mind if they support me (or, more realistically, Trump); but they should not expect me to reciprocate their support.
PS: I have mixed feelings about Kotkin.
He has some insight in the diagnosis, but no insight that i can detect about the cure.