Some of President Donald Trump’s most aggressive online supporters seem to have forgotten that they’re supposed to be attacking Democrats and not each other.
A full-blown civil war has erupted between MAGA influencers fighting with one another over geopolitics, Nazism, and the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
Months of tension over policy differences and the GOP’s electoral chances have now boiled over into bizarre, deeply personal attacks featuring a level of vitriol that was previously reserved for the left, Axios reported.
The infighting mirrors a broader splintering of Trump’s base, as key demographics that helped power him to victory last year—including young men and Hispanic voters—have abandoned the president.
Here’s a rundown of some of the most explosive fights detracting from MAGA’s usual mission of championing Trump’s policy agenda.
Candace Owens v. Friends and Family of Charlie Kirk
Candace Owens has drawn the ire of both Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, and his podcaster friend, Tim Pool, for claiming that members of his organization Turning Point USA played a role in his death, which she called an “inside job.”
Owens, who was friends with Kirk, suggested that his chief of staff knew he would be murdered and was happy that he died because he was told he would be the “next Charlie.”
TPUSA finally issued an impassioned denial this week and challenged Owens, who previously worked for the organization, to join one of their regular Monday livestreams in-person. On Wednesday, Erika Kirk went on Fox News Wednesday to blast unnamed conspiracy theorists.
Owens had told the group to pick a time and place for a meeting, only to turn down Monday’s offer because it supposedly interfered with her children’s homeschooling, according to Axios.
In the meantime, Pool went on a verbal rampage against Owens on Monday, calling her a “degenerate c—” and a “vile evil scumbag” who was “milking” Kirk’s assassination.
This week, he also said unknown suspects had shot at his property, and that he was considering shutting down his studio.
Owens responded to the outburst on X, writing, “He is genuinely not well right now… It’s hard to run a business and he’s under pressure. Pray he comes through it.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Pool for comment.
Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes v. Laura Loomer and Ben Shapiro
If Charlie Kirk’s death represents the Eastern Theater in the MAGA civil war, the Western Theater started with heated foreign policy debates about U.S. support for Israel and Qatar’s success at cozying up to the Trump administration.
Things escalated when MAGA veteran Tucker Carlson sat down for a friendly interview with the Holocaust-denying, Hitler-praising Nick Fuentes, who insists that one of the most notorious sociopaths of the 20th century was “f—ing cool” because of his uniforms and parades.
After the interview, podcaster Ben Shapiro raged at the former Fox News pundit, calling him “a conspiracist and a crank and a pathological liar” and “the most virulent super-spreader of vile ideas in America.”
Shapiro played a montage of some of Fuentes’ most offensive takes—including that “a lot of women want to be raped”—but made it clear that he was most upset about Tucker “normalizing” and “fluffing” Fuentes instead of pushing back on what he said.
Carlson later defended the softball interview by saying he was trying to “understand what people think.”
MAGA attack dog Laura Loomer has also taken aim at Carlson since his interview with Fuentes, calling him out for remarks he made at Kirk’s funeral.
“The GOP has a Nazi problem,” Loomer, 32, wrote on social media in mid-November.
“When you have top podcasters saying Jewish Americans are disloyal, saying Trump is controlled by Jews, saying Jews need to self deport to Israel, Gen Z glorifying Hitler and doing Seig Hiels all over Tik Tok, @TuckerCarlson infiltrating movements to say the people who killed Jesus killed Charlie Kirk at Charlie’s memorial… That is a Nazi problem,” she added.
Carlson had compared Kirk’s death to the death of Jesus and said he could imagine people in a lamplit room sitting around eating hummus and asking, “What do we do about this guy telling the truth about us? We must make him stop talking!”
Over the weekend, Carlson announced during an interview with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani that he was buying property in Doha.
“As we all know, real estate is another way to launder money,” Loomer wrote in response. “Tucker isn’t fooling anyone.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Carlson for comment.
Tucker Carlson v. the Former Influencers of the FBI
Carlson hasn’t only gone after fellow podcasters; he’s also ripped into former influencers Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, who are now the director and deputy director of the FBI, for their leadership at the agency.
“I just don’t have a ton of confidence in the FBI or the men who run it,” he told the Trump-friend Theo Von Show this week. “And I’m not saying that out of ignorance at all.”
“This dumb Twitter [now X] s–t,” Carlson added in reference to Patel announcing on social media that Kirk’s suspected killer was in custody, only to walk back the statements less than two hours later.
He and Von agreed that Patel’s chaotic messaging was responsible for the conspiracy theories surrounding Kirk’s death, not influencers like Owens.
The FBI did not respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Milo Yiannopoulos v. Benny Johnson
If the Civil War’s Naval/Atlantic front was all about seizing river access in a bid to crater Confederate trade and morale, the Milo Yiannapoulos/ Benny Johnson feud is similarly soul crushing.
All roads seem to lead back to Carlson, whose show this week featured an incredibly bizarre interview with far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos declaring both the late Sen. John McCain and MAGA mouthpiece Benny Johnson gay.
Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart News editor who has worked with Fuentes, previously identified as gay but says he’s now straight after undergoing conversion therapy “treatment,” which has been widely debunked.
Johnson responded to the interview by writing on social media he was “duty bound” to “take action to protect my family against those who maliciously defame and attack us.”
“Pray for healing for some really sick and delusional people. Jesus is about redemption. The legal system is about justice,” he wrote.
Yiannopoulos responded with a lengthy screed about how Johnson could never meet the burden of proof for showing actual malice in a defamation case, and warned that discovery would “destroy” Johnson’s career.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Johnson for comment.
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