MAGA Takes A Strange Turn

In February 2016, I wrote a piece formally endorsing Donald Trump for president. By then I had been on the Trump Train for six months. I viewed his candidacy as an insurgency to shake up the status quo. I decided to jump on the train after Trump attacked St. John McCain’s military and survived. I figured his candidacy could go all the way and I was right. Nevertheless, I always knew he was a roll of the dice and stated as much in my endorsement:

Many of my friends are appalled at my support for Trump. They just cannot understand how I could vote for such a vulgar, bombastic blowhard. He is just a reality television star, they say, while ignoring the fact that Trump has been a successful businessman operating in the toughest political and business environment in the country. Others agree with me that the status quo is unsustainable but claim that Trump is not the answer. I agree that Trump is a roll of the dice — but look at the other candidates. They will only deliver more failure, and we can’t afford it.

As the Trump Administration began to stumble in the spring of 2017, I still kept the faith – allow time for Trump to familiarize himself with DC and find his groove. I blamed Priebus and Pence for the mistakes and general sense of chaos. However, by the fall of 2017 I reached the conclusion that Trump was never serious about his signature issue and was trying to renegotiate what MAGA meant:

After the events of the last few days, I believe I finally have my answer: Trump was never serious about building the wall or having illegal immigrants leave the country. He only used his immigration stance to win the election, and ever since he reached the White House, he has been buying time while working to find a way to ditch his campaign commitments without losing his base.  

I am quite certain that by now Trump thought he would have Obamacare repealed, plus infrastructure and tax reform finished. He would then have enough points on the board to begin persuading his voters to forget about the wall and instead settle on something like “massive border security”. Trump wants his supporters to dismiss as harsh rhetoric his calls for illegal immigrants to leave the country, and instead embrace amnesty for the vast majority of them, DACA being the first step. I can visualize Trump, the great salesman, at work. He would say to his supporters: “True, it’s not exactly what I promised — but it is very close! Besides, look at all the winning that’s already taken place. Obamacare is gone, thousands of great new working class jobs have been created, and taxes are lower. It’s not exactly the deal I promised. It’s a better deal!”

As the months passed, it was clear that Trump was not serious about most of what he campaigned on. I concluded that he was a superb showman who stumbled on a winning platform:

In all likelihood, Trump came up with his policy agenda as follows – again with the exception of trade. He read Breitbart and other right-leaning sites, listened to talk radio (probably Michael Savage) and picked up a copy of Ann Coulter’s “Adios, America” and scanned through the book. I seriously doubt he read it through — he doesn’t strike me as someone who will take the time to read an entire book on any subject. He picked up certain themes and went about testing them with the audience. Building the wall along the southern border proved to be an immediate hit and more hits were accumulated along the way such as the Muslim ban.

Once Trump reached the White House he found himself with an agenda that he wasn’t committed to and nearly impossible to get through Congress. He surrounded himself with different factions presenting different approaches to governing – the showman again trying to find the next hit. He probably felt like a pinball bouncing from one faction to another, trying to get his popularity up but that’s his only measure of success and not what is right for the country or what he promised on the campaign trail.  And that is why there is no end in in sight to the wild roller coaster ride that began a year ago. 

How could MAGA be saved? For a moment I thought we could separate MAGA , as a policy agenda, from the man, Donald Trump:

It’s just the latest of a string of policy reversals: he’s open to amnesty and gun control, there’s no wall, he’s funding Planned Parenthood, and he’s even contemplating rejoining TPP. Trump’s core supporters are asking themselves whether he is compromised, simply not up to the job of changing Washington, or simply lied to get elected. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Trump is a lost cause. Trying to decipher his latest move or tweet is now a waste of time. Defending him against Mueller, the Deep State, or the Mean Media is just a waste of energy that could be better used to advance the MAGA agenda. So I say: forget Trump. It’s time to look for our silver linings and focus on the future.

The reactions to my proposal from Trump supporters was swift and unequivocal: THERE IS NO MAGA WITHOUT DONALD TRUMP! In other words, it was never about policy. It was always a personality cult. MAGA is what Trump says it is that month, day or even hour. So what does MAGA stand for today?