Trump’s MAGA base is starting to fray over a diverse set of issues, the president’s biographer says.
Michael Wolff told the Daily Beast podcast Inside Trump’s Head on Saturday that the Trump administration’s multi-billion-dollar bailout of Argentina’s government flies in the face of the “America First” crowd. Wolff also highlighted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s break from Trump when it comes to releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files and ending the ongoing government shutdown.
After co-host Joanna Coles mentioned the Trump administration’s gift to the South American country, whose president Trump likes, Wolff said that that “is part of the split that is going on in MAGA,“ and one which he sees ”increasing on an almost daily basis.”
“The implicit promise to MAGA was ‘America first’—a profoundly isolationist policy,” Wolff explained. “‘We do not want troops, any American troops, anywhere. We don’t want American money anywhere. We don’t want it.’”
While Trump “showed a real inclination to turn away from the world” during his first term, Wolff went on, “I think in this administration, the world has caught up with him.”
“It is very difficult to turn away from, and also, it turns out he loves it,” he said.
Wolff added he didn’t think there’s “any pretense” about the bailout given Trump’s good relationship with Argentinian President Javier Milei. Trump has referred to Milei, who attended the 47th inauguration, as his “favorite president.”
But Greene and others took issue with the move, especially since U.S. farmers are struggling to export soybeans. Argentina, one of the world’s leading soybean producers, removed its export tax after the U.S. bailout, and promptly conducted a large sale to China, which has refused to buy U.S. soybeans in part due to Trump’s tariffs.
“What are we doing? We’re buying out and doing a buyout with Argentina? Like, huh?” Greene said on The Tim Dillon Show last week.
Greene “has stepped forward in a way that seems to confound everybody,” Wolff said, “because she is breaking from the president in real ways… some ways that liberals are suddenly finding common cause with.”
Coles then mentioned Greene has also not only called for the release of the Epstein files, but has said the government shutdown should be ended in part to reaffirm tax credits for health insurance purchased on the marketplace through the Affordable Care Act.
“No I’m not towing the party line on this, or playing loyalty games,” Greene wrote on X earlier this month. “Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung previously called Wolff a “lying sack of s—.”
“He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain,” Cheung previously told the Beast.
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The post The ‘Real Ways’ MAGA Is Now Breaking With Trump appeared first on The Daily Beast.
