President Donald Trump is pressuring journalists to rile up the MAGA base, but that has its problems, according to a political analyst.
The president’s war with Iran has affected even the most ardent supporters of the Republican Party, and it appears Trump is now pulling out all the stops to try to convince the influential core of his voter base to take action. Amanda Marcotte believes the ploy from Trump will not work, as prominent figures in the MAGA sphere, such as Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, turn their back on the president and the party.
Fuentes, a far-right white nationalist, called on his followers, predominantly Trump supporters, to vote Democrat at the next election. Carlson, too, says he personally met with the president a number of times to persuade him not to strike Iran.
Marcotte wrote, “Mostly, what we’re seeing right now is desperation. As Jamelle Bouie writes at the New York Times, Trump is surrounded by sycophants and ‘has filtered out information that might challenge’ him. Also, he’s almost certainly surprised that things are going so poorly and, in his childish fashion, is lashing out at the messengers.
“But if there is an actual strategy at work here, it’s mostly about base management. Right now, a number of major MAGA influencers are expressing skepticism — or even outright opposition — to the Iran war.
“By invoking a longstanding grievance on the right about the mainstream media, Trump and his goons are sending a message: Republican voters who believe facts are being disloyal. Might that work? Maybe! Trump convinced the base to reject scientific facts during the pandemic, even though that wound up kill[ing] many of them.
“The difference here is that many right-wing demagogues who’ve been fervent MAGA supporters, such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, aren’t on board with this war.”
But the fact that Carlson, Owens, and Fuentes are not on board with the war in Iran does not mean they cannot be swayed back into Trump’s favor, Marcotte warned.
“People like them have no loyalty to truth, of course, since they’re hardcore conspiracy theorists,” she wrote. “But that just makes things worse for Trump, because what folks like Carlson and Owens are telling the GOP base has nothing to do with facts.
“They’re saying this war will eventually be lost, which is depressing and emasculating. That’s about the only kind of message that can cut through to the base and cause them to question their loyalties.”
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