"The first clear sign of trouble came last Christmas, when a debate over high-skilled H-1B visas pitted the "America First" base against Elon Musk and Trump's new allies in Silicon Valley. DOGE adviser Vivek Ramaswamy was castigated online after arguing American culture had "venerated mediocrity over excellence," and that the U.S. needed to recruit top global talent to stay competitive. The tech vs. MAGA clash - which featured a wave of anti-Indian racism - marked the opening salvo in a broader conflict over whether "America First" should be defined more by economic or cultural nationalism."
"MAGA's deepest foreign-policy divide burst into the open in June, when the U.S. joined Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear facilities. The strikes split MAGA between pro-Israel factions that cheered Trump's show of strength, and isolationists - led by Tucker Carlson - who warned the U.S. was being dragged into another Middle East war. Though the conflict only lasted 12 days, Trump's intervention - paired with the brutality of the war in Gaza - accelerated the rise of explicitly anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric inside parts of MAGA."
"The Justice Department triggered a months-long backlash by releasing a memo in July that concluded notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in prison and had no "client list." Trump's repeated attempts to move on from Epstein shattered expectations - stoked for years by MAGA influencers - that he would expose a hidden network of elite corruption and pedophilia. Congress eventually mandated the release of the Epstein files - defying an intense Trump pressure campaign that culminated in the shock resignation of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)."
A series of events over the past year exposed major fractures within MAGA. A debate over H-1B visas and Vivek Ramaswamy's critique of American "mediocrity" sparked a tech-versus-populist clash and anti-Indian racism, highlighting tensions between economic and cultural nationalism. U.S. strikes on Iran split the movement between pro-Israel hawks and isolationists, and intensified anti-Israel and antisemitic currents. Release of the Justice Department memo on Jeffrey Epstein and subsequent pressure around the Epstein files undermined promises to expose elite wrongdoing and produced political fallout, including a notable congressional resignation. These moments deepened factionalism and radical rhetoric inside MAGA.
Read at Axios
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