MAGA Loyalty

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MAGA marching orders

Military officials didn't know what was in store when President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned them, from posts around the world, to an in-person meeting in Virginia.

• The answer: An ultimatum to embrace a MAGA vision or quit.

? "If you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room," Trump said onstage. "Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future."

• Hegseth criticized recent military leaders and said the service has gotten soft. He took aim at "fat" recruits and women who couldn't pass muster, Axios' Colin Demarest writes, as well as men with beards and "dudes in dresses."

"No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses," the defense secretary said. "No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions."

• "No more distractions, no more political ideologies, no more debris."

?️ Militarizing American cities "is gonna be a big thing for the people in this room," Trump said.

• "I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military," Trump said. "We're going into Chicago very soon. That's a big city with an incompetent governor."

Go deeper: 11 key quotes from Trump and Hegseth

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? MAGA redefines "hate"

MAGA activists are going after two of the nation's most storied civil rights watchdogs, accusing them of smearing conservatives as extremists.

• Why it matters: MAGA leaders, backed by the Trump administration and Elon Musk, are trying to undermine the longtime influence of the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center, Axios' Tal Axelrod and Zachary Basu write.

? Zoom in: FBI Director Kash Patel severed ties this week between the bureau and both the ADL and SPLC, the government's decades-long partners in tracking extremist networks, training FBI agents and consulting on hate-crime enforcement.

• The rupture followed MAGA outrage that both organizations had listed Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA in their online resources about hate groups.
• The ADL accused Kirk's group of drawing "support from anti-Muslim bigots, alt-lite activists and some corners of the white supremacist alt-right," while the SPLC included the group on its "hate map," saying it has ties to "hard-right extremists."

Both pages predated Kirk's assassination, which MAGA activists argue was incited by the left's use of charged labels such as "fascist" and "Nazi."

• The ADL and SPLC both condemned the assassination.

MAGA influencers have accused the groups of embodying the type of hate they were founded to combat. "They are both part of an ecosystem leveraged by radical left vigilantes to dehumanize conservatives and stoke political violence. They provide the sheen of legitimacy for the left's violent foot soldiers," Andrew Kolvet, Kirk's spokesman and executive producer, wrote on X.

• Musk, who previously blamed the ADL for advertisers fleeing X over anti-semitic content, called both organizations "evil" and guilty of inciting Kirk's slaying.

Between the lines: Kirk drew scrutiny for comments about Islam being "incompatible with the West" and warnings about the "great replacement" of whites — rhetoric the watchdogs saw as echoing extremist talking points.

? Zoom out: Hate crimes have hit record levels in the past few years. Analysts say antisemitic crimes rose again in 2024.

• More than half of hate crimes recorded last year involved attacks motivated by race or ethnicity, the FBI Crime Data Explorer database showed.
• Black Americans were the most targeted group, followed by Jewish Americans, then gay men, according to the data.

Axios' Russell Contreras contributed. ...

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MAGA Demanded ‘Holy Hell Fire’ Before Judge’s Home Exploded

Some called for “something to be done” about the judge.

A judge who had outraged the Trump administration received an onslaught of violent threats before an explosion tore through her home.

South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein was walking her dogs on the beach when her $1.1 million Edisto Beach home went up in flames Saturday. The fire, now under investigation by authorities, left three people severely injured—including Goodstein’s son and her husband, former Democratic state lawmaker Arnold Goodstein.

Before the explosion Goodstein, 69, had come under fire from the Trump administration because she issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Department of Justice from accessing voter registration data held by the South Carolina Election Commission.

On Sept. 5, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump appointee, posted on X that the DOJ “would not stand” for Goodstein’s ruling.

“This [DOJ’s] Civil Rights will not stand for a state court judge’s hasty nullification of our federal voting laws,” Dhillon wrote. “I will allow nothing to stand in the way of our mandate to maintain clean voter rolls.”

What followed was a barrage of threatening replies, some calling for Goodstein’s disbarment, others suggesting imprisonment—or worse.

“Thank you. I’m so sick of these activist ‘judges’ thinking they run the country. Isn’t there something that can be done about them?” wrote one X user with more than 6,000 followers.

Another user with over 11,000 followers replied: “Rain Holy hell fire onto these judges who interfere with the Executive branch.”

“Diane S. Goodstein, may all your evil wishes and evil deeds directed towards Trump and the MAGA boomerang back and stick to you and yours a thousandfold. Shmsm. Amen,” another wrote.

According to local outlet FITSNews, Goodstein had reportedly been receiving death threats for several weeks before the fire.

The incident comes as Trump officials continue to lean on public intimidation tactics to pressure judges who rule against the administration. Trump himself has referred to members of the judiciary as “USA hating” and “monsters.”

On Saturday, the same day as the blaze, White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted on X that “left-wing terrorism” is being “shielded by far-left Democrat judges,” in a message viewed more than 6.8 million times.

“There is a large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country. It is well organized and funded. And it is shielded by far-left Democrat judges, prosecutors and attorneys general,” Miller wrote.

“The only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks.”

Democratic congressman and attorney Daniel Goldman, who served as lead counsel during Trump’s first impeachment, tagged Miller in a post containing footage of the fire on Sunday.

Stephen Miller and MAGA-world have been doxxing and threatening judges who rule against Trump, including Judge Goodstein,” Goldman wrote.

Miller fired back, calling Goldman “vile.”

“While the Trump Administration has launched the first-ever government-wide effort to combat and prosecute illegal doxing, sinister threats and political violence you continue to push despicable lies, demented smears, malicious defamation and foment unrest,” Miller replied.

While the cause of the fire remains undetermined, the threats facing members of the judiciary are increasingly coming into public view. Since Trump returned to office in January, a number of judges have begun speaking out about the harassment and intimidation they’ve faced.

From October 2024 through September 2, more than 500 threats were logged against federal judges—an increase from the previous year—according to U.S. Marshals Service data.

Earlier this year, the chief federal judge for Rhode Island told NPR his court received 400 “vile, threatening voicemails,” including half a dozen “credible” death threats, after he issued a ruling that blocked President Trump’s freeze on federal aid.

Even members from the highest court have weighed in. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts voiced his own concerns at the American Law Institute’s annual meeting in 2023. “A judicial system cannot and should not live in fear. The rule of law depends on judges being able to do their jobs without intimidation or harm,” he said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-called-for-violence-against-judge-in-days-before-fire/?

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MAGA Demands ‘The View’ Host Pay Up on Televised Trump Promise

Republicans are already flooding the TV star’s social media.

Donald Trump Jr. and other key MAGA voices are demanding that The View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin follow through on a promise she made about the president and the Middle East last year.

Griffin started as President Trump’s White House director of strategic communications in April 2020 before quitting in December that year. She revealed in November 2024 that she was voting for Kamala Harris.

The next month, Griffin, who became a panelist on The View in 2022, said in a segment on the popular daytime show that she had “concerns about Donald Trump” ahead of his second term as president but remained optimistic about his negotiation skills.

“If he does good,” she said last December, “If he gets the Israeli hostages out, I promise I will wear a MAGA hat for one day on the show and say, ‘Thank you for doing it!’ You have to be able to cheer for wins when they happen and then call out, relentlessly, the wrongdoing.”

An emotional Griffin on Monday praised Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff for negotiating a ceasefire agreement. Kushner and Witkoff met with Hamas last week to lock in the hostage release and ceasefire deal, according to Axios.

“If this peace deal holds, which I pray that it does, it’s historic, it’s a massive diplomatic achievement. The whole world can breathe a sigh of relief,” she said on The View.

“I used to be of the mind, ‘We don’t negotiate with terrorists,’ but sometimes the only way to get peace is to sit down with some of the most evil people and try to come up with what we can do to end the bloodshed.”

However, Griffin was apparently missing one thing—and MAGA voices were quick to remind the 36-year-old. Sharing footage of her earlier promise to wear a MAGA cap, Donald Trump Jr. posted on X, “Sending this to the top. Let’s go.”

Trump’s official War Room X account even weighed in with a suggestion of which cap to wear, posting “How about a ‘Trump was right about everything’ hat??”

Griffin’s X handle has since been tagged with a string of mocked-up photos of her in a MAGA cap, while U.S. Representative for Georgia Mike Collins added his own design on his account. Florida Congressman Greg Steube posted his collection of red caps on X with the caption, “Feel free to borrow one of mine!” Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn echoed that sentiment on X, while Fox News host Joe Concha asked Griffin “How is this coming along?”

Senator Ted Cruz told Griffin he was looking forward to it, noting “We’ll be watching!”

Griffin is yet to specifically comment on her promise. While she shared her commendation of Trump on her own X page, she made no mention of the possibility of a seeing a MAGA hat on The View’s set any time soon.

Speaking on CNN on Monday night, Griffin was not asked about whether she would be the donning the Trump merchandise, but again repeated that Trump deserved “tremendous credit.”

“The fact that President Trump has received such a significant outpouring of support-former President Bill Clinton, former President Barack Obama acknowledging this significant moment in history regardless of politics-I think we can all praise,” Griffin said on CNN Monday night. “I think that does put him on strong footing domestically.”

The Daily Beast has reached out to Griffin, The View and The White House for comment.

Griffin revealed on The View last November that she voted for Kamala Harris, after being a Republican voter all her life.

“Four years ago today, I was in the White House with Donald Trump on election night,” Griffin said.

“I believed he deserved to lose that night, at that point. I thought he hadn’t fought to win the election, but I thought the next four years would be the Republican party rebuilding and becoming something I could believe in and turning the page on Donald Trump, and it didn’t do that. So, this weekend, on Saturday, for the first time in my life, I voted for a Democrat.”

She added at the time, “I worry the direction that Donald Trump will take this country, and I take my own warning seriously.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-demands-the-view-host-pay-up-on-televised-trump-promise/?

ps:You make a promise you need to pay up!!

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MAGA’s Hunter Biden Ukraine Bulldog Now Working for Foreign Spies

GOP lawyer Ted Kittila helped push claims of foreign influence peddling against Hunter Biden even as he worked for an abusive foreign regime.

A top attorney behind MAGA’s rabid crusade to have Hunter Biden jailed for breaching foreign influence laws was working for an authoritarian foreign government at the same time.

Ted Kittila—a Delaware-based lawyer who previously ran on a GOP ticket for state attorney general and seats in the state’s House and Senate—served as legal counsel to the House Ways and Means Committee’s years-long probe of the Biden family. As part of those efforts, he lobbied for the courts to review explosive Republican claims that the son of former President Joe Biden may have peddled the influence of foreign actors on American soil.

Now, the Daily Beast can reveal that Kittila also worked on behalf of foreign actors on a secretive New York lawsuit.

The suit was brought against a U.S. firm by an agent of the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq. It accused the American company of failing to deliver on a contract for sinister high-tech surveillance software.

Authorities in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq—ruled by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and President Nerchivan Barzani, son and nephew, respectively, of the region’s former president—have faced repeated accusations of human rights abuses, including attacks on journalists, activists, and political dissidents.

The specific type of spyware sought by the Barzani regime, known as “zero-click” software, enables users to remotely access devices without requiring any action from the target, such as clicking on a harmful link. It had gained notoriety in 2021 following a series of journalistic exposés on Israeli firm NSO Group’s sale of Pegasus spyware to malicious actors around the world, whose victims included heads of state in France, South Africa, Pakistan, Egypt, and Morocco.

In a further twist, Kittila’s work on the secretive Kurdistan lawsuit came as he pursued a still-ongoing, separate case against the U.S. government, brought by nonprofit Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability, in which he accused the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency of spying on American citizens, and called for greater transparency on domestic surveillance operations.

President Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 stemmed from his alleged efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the Eastern European country. Trump and his allies claimed the younger Biden had engaged in corruption while serving on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, while Joe Biden was serving as vice president under President Barack Obama.

After the Republican-controlled Senate acquitted Trump on charges of abusing his presidential powers and obstruction of Congress, the House Ways and Means Committee later launched an investigation into the Biden family to further probe those allegations and other claims of wrongdoing against Hunter Biden.

Kittila first made national headlines in July 2023 when he filed a brief at a federal court in Delaware, where Hunter Biden’s plea deal on federal tax and gun charges was then under review. He was acting on behalf of Rep. Jason Smith, the Republican chairman of the committee, who alleged the Biden family had made “millions of dollars as a result of Hunter Biden’s foreign influence peddling and the selling of the Biden brand.”

In his brief, Kittila argued Biden’s plea deal was suspicious because there was “unprecedented and unusual interference, delays and roadblocks” at the Justice Department that “appear to have hindered the investigation” into his tax affairs. He argued the plea negotiations may therefore have been “tainted by improper conduct at various levels of the government.”

As evidence of those claims, Kittila attached testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who’d told the committee they’d seen evidence Biden may have violated U.S. laws on foreign influence, but “were precluded from doing anything” by their superiors. The deal, under which Biden would have pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses in exchange for a likely probationary sentence, unraveled as a result.

It was only the day after Kittila submitted his brief in the Delaware proceedings against Biden that his complaint on behalf of the Barzani regime was filed in New York. While the docket for the Kurdistan lawsuit remains under seal, the Daily Beast obtained a public copy of that document from an online service providing open access to U.S. court records.

According to the complaint, an agent of the Barzani regime tried to purchase zero-click spyware worth around $11 million from a U.S. cybersecurity firm in late 2022, a year after the Pegasus scandal first broke. But the firm failed to prove its system’s effectiveness at a scheduled demonstration, so the agent sued after the company refused to refund his $360,000 deposit.

Kittila successfully urged the court against publicly naming the foreign government on whose behalf the agent had sought the software, because doing so would “irreparably harm” them by “reducing the utility of the system or similar technology if acquired in future,” as well as advertising any “weaknesses in [their] intelligence and surveillance capabilities.”

The Daily Beast was nevertheless able to identify Kurdistan’s ruling clan from otherwise sealed depositions in the case that feature as exhibits in a separate New York action against members of the Barzani family. That case alleged the Kurdish political dynasty’s involvement in a years-long corruption, fraud, and money laundering scheme.

The MAGA lawyer’s arguments in the highly secretive spyware suit contrast with filings in his later case against the Defense Department and NSA, brought in April 2024, where he slammed the U.S. intelligence agency’s failure to produce records on domestic surveillance operations against American citizens for “depriving the public of necessary and important information with which to hold the government accountable.”

Kittila is not the only attorney at Halloran Farkas & Kittila, the law firm he founded and where he works as managing partner, with ties to the GOP. Former Delaware Attorney General and Superior Court Judge M. Jane Brady, who joined the group in November 2024, was a founding member of the Republican Attorneys General Association.

Nor is it the first time the Barzani family has made headlines in the U.S. An investigation this month by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed how former President Massoud Barzani’s sons, who have long fended off allegations of kleptocracy at home, spent tens of millions dollars on luxury real estate in Virginia, Florida, Texas, and California.

In October 2023, the Daily Beast reported how, in 2019, Virginia Sheriff Scott Jenkins accepted bribes from an Iraqi fixer tied to the Barzanis in exchange for deputies’ badges. The badges grant bearers qualified immunity from civil liability and the right to carry concealed service weapons, as well as access to areas otherwise restricted to law enforcement. Trump pardoned Jenkins in May.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act, which imposes public disclosure requirements on agents of foreign interests in the U.S., contains an exemption for legal professionals, like Kittila, representing foreign clients in the course of normal court proceedings.

Responding to request for comment on this story, Kittila said his firm “represents a wide variety of clients from many different political views, including high ranking Democrats and other political organizations,” and that “our partners also hold a diversity of political views.”

He added the Kurdistan lawsuit had been placed under seal “for the safety of the parties and the firms and the lawyers,” and that the release of its details by other parties “has needlessly placed people at risk.”

Lawyers for Prime Minister Barzani did not respond to emailed requests for a statement in time for this story’s publication.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/magas-hunter-biden-ukraine-bulldog-ted-kittila-now-working-for-foreign-spies/?

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Why Young MAGA Men Are Turning on Trump: Top Pollster

The president’s young male supporters are thumbing down his failure to deliver on his biggest promises, according to a top pollster.

Even the young men supporting President Donald Trump are tapping their feet impatiently on the release of the notorious Epstein files, a prominent pollster revealed on the Daily Beast Podcast.

John Della Volpe, founder of the youth-oriented opinion research firm SocialSphere, said the Epstein files came up as one of the promises that Trump supporters are holding the president to during a focus group conducted over the weekend.

“It’s basically two promises that this young man remembered, right? One is, you’re gonna give me a fighting chance to live my best life. And, are you gonna release the Epstein files? Literally, that is what he said—those two things,” he told host Joanna Coles.

“So that was one of the very first times, honestly, of the probably 50 focus groups I’ve done, that his name came up organically, but it did come up, and it came up within this, like, anti-establishment, ‘Maybe he’s not what exactly he promised to be.’”

Trump, who was close pals with the disgraced financier for years, signaled an intent to release the legal files from the Jeffrey Epstein sex abuse investigations on the campaign trail last year, despite his own long-term friendship with the billionaire pedophile. “I’d certainly take a look at it,” he said. “I’d be inclined to do the Epstein. I’d have no problem with it,” he said.

But the Trump administration sorely let down its own base in July when the FBI and DOJ announced there was no “client list,” contrary to an earlier statement by Attorney General Pam Bondi that it was “sitting on my desk.”

Volpe said SocialSphere conducts a monthly poll asking participants whether Trump is having a positive or negative impact on their lives.

Days before the inauguration in January, 55 percent of younger men said Trump had a positive impact on them, citing a positive outlook for the economy and “feeling like they could be the providers that they want to be.” By the end of September, however, that number had plummeted to 31 percent.

But it’s not just economic issues driving young men away from the president. Volpe said Trump’s young male supporters were also paying attention to controversies surrounding the deployment of the National Guard to blue cities, Venezuelan boat strikes, and the East Wing teardown.

“They feel like they’re basically a distraction from what is the reason that so many younger men voted for him in the first place, which is, ultimately, he promised to help them be a better provider. And many are beginning to feel betrayed,” Volpe said.

“He needs to begin to deliver on the core promise,” he added. “When you have only 31 percent of younger men saying he’s making their life better, I can’t think of a worse number for him right now.”

Volpe raised the possibility of “significant backlash” in the 2026 polls as younger voters react to developments under Trump 2.0.

“Their kind of political identity is being developed through the first year of the Trump 2.0 term. Mostly, all of it is negative,” he said. “That is going to be the vibe that they’re taking in ’26 and in ’28 in terms of, ‘He’s not delivering what he said. There’s more chaos, there’s less safety, there’s more economic concern. What is he doing about that?’”

In response to Volpe’s comments, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “The Daily Beast knew about Epstein and his victims for years and did nothing to help them while President Trump was calling for transparency, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-voters-really-hate-epstein-harvard-pollster/?

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MAGA's war within

Illustration: Maura Kearns/Axios

The MAGA movement is increasingly at war with itself. The central issue: a purity test over MAGA inclusion. Why it matters: The MAGA fight, ignited by ideological differences over Israel, pulls on a lot of -isms — nativism, antisemitism, racism, sexism and Trumpism, Axios' Tal Axelrod reports. This is a live, all-consuming debate among powerful MAGA stars with megaphones. And it's really important: It's going to determine how powerful a strand those -isms will be in the future of MAGA and therefore Republicanism. ? Zoom out: For now, MAGA is being held together by Trump's personality. But open disagreement has broken out over who should, and shouldn't, be accepted under its tent. U.S. support for Israel's operations in Gaza inflamed America First diehards and hardened Israel's MAGA allies. The online divisions have raged during the tenuous ceasefire, including tropes over Jews' supposed disproportionate influence in the U.S. That dynamic was clear this week when white nationalist Nick Fuentes appeared on Tucker Carlson's podcast for an amiable two-hour interview. Critics blasted Carlson for platforming Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who on Carlson's podcast referred to "organized Jewry." ? Within MAGA, battle lines are being drawn over how supportive Trump followers should be, or how skeptical they should be of foreign entanglements. Laura Loomer — a Trump loyalist and MAGA enforcer, and vocal Israel supporter — told Axios: "I always said that you had to be a Trump loyalist and America first. But there are people out there that say that I don't belong in MAGA because I'm Jewish." Fuentes told Axios: "One side is obviously dug in on supporting Israel, and this kind of berserker strategy of attacking anybody that dissents against Israel. "And then on the other side you've got Tucker and, of course, people like the groypers, who have also become intractable themselves in response," Fuentes added, referring to his Christian nationalist and white nationalist followers. "I think it's going to get ugly." The fight has broken out beyond grassroots MAGA: Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a video statement in which he defended Carlson, "I disagree with, and even abhor, things that Nick Fuentes says. But canceling him is not the answer either." Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) shot back: "If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool and that their mission is to combat and defeat 'global Jewry' — and you say nothing — then you are a coward." ? What's next: For a movement largely united by one personality, internal debates are unlikely to go away. In a warning to Vance, Fuentes told Axios his "groypers" would hold Vance's feet to the fire over his decade-old comments criticizing Trump, and whether he'd continue longstanding support for Israel. Vance is "going to be the frontrunner, so politically he'll have the target on his back," Fuentes said of the 2028 presidential race. "We'll be in Iowa, and we will be there to remind everybody what Vance really is, which is a never Trumper."

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? New shots fired in war within MAGA

Data: Axios research; Note: Tucker Carlson's TikTok follower count includes 3m personal and 1.7m network followers; Chart: Axios Visuals The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro torched Tucker Carlson today over his interview with far-right firebrand Nick Fuentes, Axios' Tal Axelrod reports. Shapiro's broadside escalates the war within MAGA over tolerating — and defending — racism, sexism and antisemitism. Both men have online followings that are bigger than many old-school media figures. ?️ Shapiro used his entire show Monday to lambast Carlson as an "intellectual coward" and "dishonest interlocutor." ⚡️ Shapiro insisted he's not interested in "canceling" Carlson or Fuentes. Both should be allowed to host their shows and have their social media accounts remain active, Shapiro told his audience. But "it is not cancellation to draw moral lines between viewpoints," he said. Fuentes and a spokesperson for Carlson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Post-Kirk MAGA reality

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch. Photos: Getty Images

Many feared the assassination of Charlie Kirk would tear apart the country.  Instead, it's ripping apart some of MAGA's biggest celebrities, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. Why it matters: Kirk's death unleashed an escalating MAGA fight over Israel, antisemitism and the normalization of hate speech on the right. The fallout has riled MAGA, with Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes and critics of Israel vs. Ben Shapiro, Laura Loomer and the most intense Israel supporters. ?️ The big picture: We've told you about three tectonic plates shifting in America — AI, politics and how our realities are formed. On reality-forming, we've emphasized how America has hundreds of "realities," based on your politics, age, passions and profession. This fight takes you deep inside the reality for many MAGA activists — especially men, and especially young men who get most of their reality shaped by YouTube, podcasts and X influencers on the MAGA right. ? If you listen to or watch Carlson or Shapiro — and tens of millions do — the weeks after Kirk's death have included never-ending fights over Israel's power in America, Qatar's funding of anti-Israel influencers on the right, and what Kirk would think if he were still alive. The enormous audience size for both Carlson and Shapiro shows why this debate echoes through and beyond MAGA. ? Both boast millions of social media followers — for Carlson, 16.7 million X followers and nearly 5 million YouTube subs; for Shapiro, almost 8 million X followers and over 7 million YouTube subs. Carlson yesterday topped the news category on Spotify's podcast charts and hit No. 7 for the same category on Apple's charts. Shapiro hit No. 10 and No. 8 on the respective charts. A ferocious attack yesterday by Shapiro on Carlson — calling the former Fox News star an "intellectual coward" and "dishonest interlocutor" — drew 6.1 million views on X in under six hours, with another nearly 130,000 YouTube views. Carlson got clobbered by Shapiro and others for a soft, friendly interview last week with Nick Fuentes — a proud white nationalist who amplifies racism, sexism and antisemitism, and has grown popular among hardcore America First nationalists. Carlson didn't grill Fuentes on his most outrageous positions, from doubting Holocaust death counts to proclaiming his adoration of Stalin. Over two hours of conversation, Carlson did little to push or challenge Fuentes. Carlson's interview with Fuentes has racked up 17.3 million X views and 5.2 million YouTube views. Shapiro said on his podcast yesterday: "This is how Tucker Carlson's ideological laundering works. You bring your dirty, ugly ideologies to Tucker Carlson's rhetorical car wash. He mixes it with some of the vestigial respect Americans have for him, from his Fox News days. And, voilà: Hideous ideas suddenly become mainstream." Axios' Tal Axelrod, who tracks MAGA media full-time, said Fuentes' audience is hard to gauge. His show isn't supported by Apple or Spotify, so it doesn't appear on their charts. He doesn't have a YouTube channel. His X account was reinstated just last year by Elon Musk. Still, he has roughly 1 million X followers and almost 470,000 followers on Rumble — the conservative video streaming alternative to YouTube, where his Monday-Friday show, along with other content on his channel, has racked up almost 62 million views. His less inflammatory takes, often showcasing humor, regularly circulate on Instagram, TikTok and X, garnering many more views. ? Inside MAGA: Alex Bruesewitz, a close friend of Kirk's who's influential in MAGA social media, told us there have "always been competing factions within the right-wing internet; the media just covers the spats now! Our party allows for debate of ideas ... I think public spats and debates strengthen our party in the long term." But it's hard for MAGA celebrities, GOP leaders and conservative groups to avoid getting sucked into this. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) told The New York Times (under the headline "G.O.P. Figures Seek Distance From Tucker Carlson, Denouncing Antisemitism"): "We've got to be very clear we don't support antisemitism and we do support Israel." Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts defended Carlson after the Fuentes sit-down, infuriating Republicans who find Fuentes deplorable. Some staff and Heritage supporters were livid. A Heritage shakeup did little to mitigate the fury. (Heritage told us there was one related departure out of nearly 350 employees — Roberts' chief of staff resigned.) The day after the video defending Carlson, Roberts also condemned antisemitism and Fuentes: "I denounce and stand against [Fuentes'] vicious antisemitic ideology, his Holocaust denial, and his relentless conspiracy theories that echo the darkest chapters of history. " ?️ "The New Right's New Antisemites," jeered yesterday's headline of a Wall Street Journal editorial. "Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation flounders in the Tucker Carlson-Nick Fuentes fever swamps." The bottom line: If you're not on X, or don't marinate in MAGA media, you might not even know this intraparty fight was unfolding. But it holds huge stakes for the post-Trump trajectory of America's most muscular political movement.

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MAGA Immediately Trolls Dick Cheney’s Trump-Defying Daughter After His Death

Dick Cheney died surrounded by family on Monday night.

Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney became the target of vile MAGA abuse just minutes after the death of her father was announced.

Dick Cheney, former Republican President George W. Bush’s vice president for two terms between 2001 and 2009, died Monday night, his family said in a statement. “His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed,” the Cheney family’s statement read.

Cheney turned decisively against President Trump after Trump tried to overturn the result of the 2020 election. He appeared in an ad for his daughter’s re-election, calling Trump a “coward.”

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” he said.

The ad did not stop Liz Cheney from losing the Republican primary in Wyoming after Trump had attacked her.

Liz Cheney, 59, also became persona non grata in Trumpworld after repeatedly breaking ranks with the president. She was one of only two Republicans to serve on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack—and as its vice chair, she helped lead the inquiry into Trump’s role in the Capitol riot.

Just after winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump fumed that members of the committee “should go to jail,” mentioning Cheney by name.

Just moments after her family’s statement was released, Cheney was the subject of vile abuse.

“Dick Cheney passed away. While a smart tactician, he spawned Liz Cheney and for that we know who will wait for him,” one X poster wrote, sharing a GIF of Satan insinuating a sexual position.

A poster who says they are a Navy veteran and devout Christian, tagged Liz Cheney and wrote: “In a good news on Election Day story. Darth Cheney is done. Hell has a new resident, right Liz Cheney.”

“Couldn’t take Liz with him I guess,” wrote another troll. ‘F--- Leftists’ added their tribute, writing: “Would like to offer condolences to Liz Cheney.......Actually no, f--- that horrid c---.”

“Your evil dad is now in Hell,” added another. “Spawn of Liz Cheney has died!” said another.

As vice president, Dick Cheney was the Iraq War’s chief evangelist—warning of phantom weapons of mass destruction, vowing that U.S. troops would be “greeted as liberators,” and brushing off dissent inside the intelligence community.

The invasion he championed toppled Saddam Hussein but unleashed a cascade of chaos that still shapes the Middle East today. Cheney was also heavily criticized for his role in expanding domestic espionage and endorsing torture as an interrogation tactic.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-immediately-trolls-dick-cheneys-trump-defying-daughter-liz-cheney-after-his-death/?

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? Getting "Loomered"

Laura Loomer. Photo: Philip Montgomery for The New Yorker. Used by kind permission Laura Loomer, the feared online MAGA loyalty enforcer, exemplifies "posters in control" — a rising term for "the startlingly porous barrier between the internet and the government," Antonia Hitchens writes in "Under the Influence," a Loomer profile in the new issue of The New Yorker. Loomer's private conversations with President Trump — on Air Force One and the Oval Office, and on the phone from her Florida podcast studio — have triggered spontaneous purges of administration officials. "Bro, I got Loomered," one administration official told Hitchens over drinks. ⚡️ The executioner of MAGA careers revels in her mystique: Loomer's autobiography and website are both called "Loomered." Loomer, 32, just got a Pentagon press pass, and calls herself an investigative journalist. "I get demonized for it, which is kind of crazy," she told Hitchens. "They don't say Maggie Haberman is a national-security threat." "Though many of Loomer's posts read like empty threats being pushed out into the void," Hitchens writes, "they often reach more than a million people": "Her motives apparently range from a desire to save the country to unabashed, petty vindictiveness; the two often overlap." ? Between the lines: A strategist close to the Trump administration told The New Yorker that influence "is perceived power ... That's what it is with Laura. If people think you have power, then you do." Loomer suggests she and Trump channel each other: "I don't want to say, 'Oh, President Trump is me,' or, 'I see myself in Trump,'" she told the magazine. "But I do. I mean, I do ... Every time I listen to him speak, I feel like I'm listening to myself speak to myself. Does that make sense?" There are lots of inside-MAGA suspicions about motives and even money behind Loomer's X postings. Hitchens notes that paying influencers to tweet is "an ascendant model." Loomer replies: "I just say what I say ... I'm not a puppet." Keep reading.

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MAGA Mouthpiece Savages ‘Weak and Rudderless’ Trump in Scathing Rant

Sean Davis says the president is not concentrating on the right issues.

Leading MAGA mouthpiece Sean Davis has blasted Donald Trump in a scathing social media post.

Davis, a staunch Trump supporter and CEO of the influential online magazine The Federalist, accused the “weak and rudderless” president of focusing too much on foreign policy instead of the domestic economic issues that affect tens of millions of Americans.

Davis, who was previously CFO of the right-wing news site Daily Caller, also issued a dire warning to the GOP ahead of the crucial 2026 midterm elections.

“I don’t know who is advising congressional Republicans on strategy right now, but whoever it is has an IQ barely approaching room temperature,” Davis wrote in a lengthy post on X.

“Republicans right now have no accomplishments, no plans, and no vision. Why on earth would anyone be excited to go vote for them 12 months from now? Trump needs to ditch the foreign policy c--p and focus all his attention on the domestic economy, which is still not working for the majority of people. Right now he looks weak and rudderless. Be mad all you want, but it’s the truth.”

Davis’s criticism comes after voters turned on Trump last week.

In an outburst at the Oval Office, Trump declared, “I don’t want to hear about the affordability,” while pushing the misleading claim that the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner at Walmart will be cheaper this year.

Davis, who frequently appears on Fox News to defend Trump, also noted that young Americans are struggling to find work and are “straddled” with debt under the president’s watch.

“Where is their path to the American dream right now? Who is giving them a vision of a future worth fighting for?” he wrote.

“You cannot have a viable country or future when half your country and all its young people are locked out of the economy and locked out of ever owning a home or much of anything beyond next month’s streaming subscription,” he added. “Does anyone in Washington care about this? Anyone at all? Republicans had better wake up, because right now their nightmare is only beginning if they don’t start making massive changes.”

In a follow-up post, Davis dismissed a Mediaite headline calling his message a “scorched-earth” attack on Trump with a crude and childish retort.

“It’s not a condemnation, you absolute retards. It’s a call for a course correction. Learn to read,” he wrote.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/federalist-boss-savages-weak-and-rudderless-trump-in-scathing-rant/?

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MAGA goes quiet on Epstein

Photo illustration: Maura Losch/Axios. Photos: Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images, U.S. Department of Justice

Some of the MAGA activists who banged the drum for years about the "Epstein files" have gone quiet, after Democrats released a trove of new Epstein emails that included mentions of President Trump, Axios' Tal Axelrod reports. The right's Epstein fixation started as a conspiratorial quest to find ammunition against Democrats and the "deep state." But some conservatives are now shifting toward a defensive posture, aiming to shield Trump from Democrats and the media. ⚡️ The tide started to turn when The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Trump wrote Epstein a birthday note featuring the outline of a naked woman. Most MAGA influencers were quiet today after House Democrats released emails in which Epstein wrote that Trump "knew about the girls" and that Trump had "spent hours at my house" with one victim. ? What they're saying: "As soon as the legacy media suddenly started caring about it, and only about one person in particular, it became sus to MAGA," The National Pulse's Raheem Kassam said. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said today that Democrats "selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump." ps:Fake narrative?? There's nothing fake about the friendship between trump and his best buddy Epstein!!!!! And now maga is going silent?? What is it they know that some others don't know?? Nothing good that's for sure!!

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MAGA's metastasizing mess

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios

No part of the new media ecosystem was more ascendant, more powerful and more influential in shaping public debate than MAGA was six short months ago, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. It helped elect President Trump to a second term, defend Trump, pressure and punish any Republican who didn't back Trump. MAGA was Trump, and Trump was full MAGA. Why it matters: MAGA is now mired in conflict over Israel, white nationalism, purity tests and disputes among its biggest personalities. It's still overwhelmingly pro-Trump — but less relevant in shaping the president's agenda, and less capable of uniting to shape perception and dominate conversation on the right. These days, MAGA can spend more time eating its own than feasting on liberals or establishment Republicans. ? The big picture: Many Americans are unaware of the fracturing because they don't watch Tucker Carlson videos, or listen to Ben Shapiro podcasts, or debate America First on Rumble or X. They see flickers of MAGA fires when the mainstream media picks up on feuds, notably Carlson vs. Shapiro over Israel and hate. But as Axios has shown in earlier deep dives, MAGA wholly dominates Republican media, much like Fox News and the National Review did at their apex. "MAGA was my idea — MAGA was nobody else's idea," Trump told Fox News' Laura Ingraham this past week. "I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else. And MAGA wants to see our country thrive." With power and clout come turmoil, conflict and rivalry. In this case, it's unfolding over what it means to be truly America First when Trump, MAGA's titular and spiritual leader, focuses attention on Israel or Venezuela as working-class voters are hurting in America. Fights over this are spilling out, well, everywhere: Nick Fuentes and young white nationalists are rising in power, often saying racist and misogynistic things unapologetically. ? Trump's open warfare with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has pushed for releasing the Epstein files, reflects her America First purity over Trump fealty. In a long, bitter post Friday night, Trump called her "'Wacky' Marjorie" and said he's un-endorsing her. She replied: "I don't worship or serve Donald Trump. … I remain America First and America Only!!!" On Saturday, Trump called her "Marjorie 'Traitor' Green." She said that "a hot bed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world." MTG's rift with Trump signals a split between MAGA and America First. The two were mostly synonymous for years. But America Firsters like her now think MAGA indulges Trump too much on foreign engagement, especially Israel. "America First America Only!!" Greene posted on X Saturday. "AFAO!!!" She told NBC News this past week: "I'm America First, America Only. Hardcore." ? Carlson and others are increasingly critical of Trump for supporting Israel so lavishly. They argue this is a massive distraction and total violation of America First principles. Steve Bannon and other MAGA personalities see working-class voters — the foot soldiers of their movement — getting slammed by the rich and powerful who spend a lot of time with Trump. Bannon told us Trump "knows his movement's base better than anyone — but a lot of his base feel [he's spending] too much time on Palestine and not enough on East Palestine," Ohio. Bannon pointed to a Charlie Kirk post from a month before his assassination, calling for "urgency" on six issues — all domestic and appealing to Gen Z. ⬇️ Column continues below.

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? Part 2: MAGA purists

A tourist views White House construction yesterday from the reopened Washington Monument. Photo: Jessica Koscielniak/Reuters There's a sense that MAGA's most powerful topic — free speech — seems a little fraudulent or fake now that its leader has power in Washington, Jim and Mike continue. "The most dispiriting fact of the last nine months is that huge proportions of the institutional Republican Party all kind of hate free speech every bit as much as the left does," Tucker Carlson told the N.Y. Times. "They are every bit as censorious as some blue-haired, menopausal Black Lives Matter activist. And I just didn't know that. And I'm disgusted. I feel betrayed. I take it personally." And there are accusations that people around Trump use the MAGA banner for personal profit. "During [a] recent visit in DC, the talk of everyone was how overt the corruption was," Mike Cernovich, one of the most powerful online MAGA voices, posted on X. "It's at levels you read about in history books. In nearly every department. Lots of, 'Do people just think Democrats will never win and they'll all get away with this?' " ? Behind the scenes: Trump won as a champion of the working class but governs, and pals around with, the upper of the upper class. Trump's support of unfettered AI and H-1B visas — two of the top issues for his billionaire tech and investment friends — irritates MAGA purists. Bannon dismisses these friends as the "tech bros" and "corporatists." But those are the people often dining with Trump and bending his ear, shaping his mind. White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai said: "President Trump's one and only focus is doing what's best for the American people, and the only special interest guiding his decision-making is the best interest of the American people." ? What we're watching: The MAGA mess isn't a huge problem yet for Trump because he commands extraordinary loyalty from its biggest personalities with the largest followings. He sits out the messiest fights and ignores the anti-Israel backlash. In some ways, it's a bigger problem for Vice President Vance, as he positions himself as the heir apparent. Vance, unlike Trump, is more chronically online and fluent in true MAGA. Fuentes, who criticized Trump in 2024, and Vance have gone at each other. And no successor can count on the fervency Trump engenders. Alex Pfeiffer, former White House deputy communications director for Trump, told us when asked about Vance: "Noise online is just that: noise. There will always be disagreements within the conservative movement. That's nothing new. Vice President Vance's job isn't to weigh in on the various feuds within the podcast circuit, but instead to help execute the President's agenda, which he has been deftly doing." ⏱️ What's next: Expect the MAGA conflict to widen this week. Trump welcomes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House on Tuesday. The House plans to vote on releasing Epstein files, an issue that led to his breakup with Greene and rare disappointment from notable portions of his base. The bottom line: MAGA remains powerful. But it's not the united force it was six months ago.

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Epstein Is the Only Thing That Could Turn Trump’s Base Against Him

It’s hard to imagine a worse moment for Donald Trump to be caught in the Epstein dragnet than at the tail end of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, with food benefits rattled, “affordability” on everyone’s minds, and his own voters starting to wonder if the guy in the red tie is actually on their side.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/16/trump-jeffrey-epstein-emails-shutdown/?

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The key issues that are suddenly dividing MAGA

One of President Donald Trump’s great talents as a politician has been in holding together a very disparate coalition. His supporters might not have agreed on everything, but they did agree on Trump. And that’s what mattered.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/politics/maga-movement-trump-epstein-division?

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? Scoop: MAGA cash clash

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios

A new Trump-aligned online fundraising platform, launched yesterday, could upend the Republican Party's massive cash ecosystem. Why it matters: The new platform — called Impact — will clash with the party's dominant small-dollar fundraising partner, WinRed, for supremacy over the GOP gold mine, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports. ? The stakes are huge: During the 2024 campaign, WinRed — which, like Impact, is a for-profit business — processed $1.8 billion in donations from 4.5 million small-dollar donors. Zoom out: Impact, which launched yesterday, is led in part by social-media guru Alex Bruesewitz, a Trump 2024 adviser and conservative influencer, along with Michael Seifert. It's owned by PublicSquare, a MAGA-friendly online marketplace that describes itself as an "anti-woke" alternative to Amazon. Donald Trump Jr. is on the board. ? How it works: The clash over MAGA cash will unfold as both platforms process online donations made to campaigns, PACs, political committees and others. For each donation, the processing platform keeps a percentage. Chief among Impact's promises: It will take less of a cut of donor contributions than WinRed does, and provide greater transparency about how donations are being handled. The president's fundraising is still being done on WinRed and two of his top political lieutenants, Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio, remain on WinRed's board. Read on.

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Stephen Miller’s Wife Gushes Over Leaving Him for Elon Musk

The MAGA podcast host has taken her fawning interviews to a whole new level.

Katie Miller lavished Elon Musk with praise during a fawning interview with the billionaire businessman in which she described how “inspirational” it was to work for him.

The podcast host, who previously worked at the White House with her husband, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, quit the administration in May to go into the private sector and work directly for Musk.

On the latest episode of The Katie Miller Podcast, the unusually animated host gushed over her previous boss months after unconfirmed rumors of a relationship between the pair outside the workplace. “Everyone always thinks you’re a very difficult person to work for,” Miller said, before adding, “I think you’re very kind,” prompting Musk to thank her for the compliment.

“People think, which you are, like, a very demanding boss,” Miller continued. “I’ve never heard you yell at any employee,” she said.

“Yeah, I don’t yell,” Musk replied.

Miller worked as a spokesperson for Musk as he oversaw the so-called Department of Government Efficiency between January and May this year, before leaving with him to work for the billionaire personally, prior to launching her podcast.

The podcast love-in continued with Miller telling Musk that “every employee who works at every single one of your companies is incredibly mission-driven,” noting that fact was “unlike any other workplace I’ve seen.”

She went on to single out Musk’s Starbase compound in South Texas, which was created around SpaceX’s rocket development and launch site.

“Like Starbase is the most inspirational place you’ll ever go to, right?” Miller said, before claiming that all his employees are “fiercely loyal.”

She added, “You are a very good employer to work for and I think people assume you are not.”

“Well, why would they think anyone would work at the companies?” Musk pondered out loud.

“Talented people can go work anywhere they want... if they’re mistreated in some way, they would leave and go work somewhere else.”

Miller’s podcast has struggled to find an audience after three months. Her first interview, with Vice President JD Vance, remains the most popular on YouTube with 85,000 views. Her lowest-viewed episode has been viewed a dismal 2,700 times.

The Musk interview has already scored more views in six hours than last week’s episode with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his third wife, Jen, has clocked up in an entire week.

When news of Miller’s resignation from her husband’s place of work first emerged, the Democrats taunted Trump’s deputy chief of staff with an image of an empty chair in a hotel room, appearing to suggest there was trouble in the marriage.

During the podcast, the pair avoided discussion of a mishap in June on Musk’s social media platform, X, where a fake screenshot of Musk bragging that he “took” Miller’s wife went viral online, forcing the billionaire to correct his own AI assistant, Grok.

The AI assistant claimed, “The post from Elon Musk likely existed and was deleted,” noting that the “metrics and context align with Musk’s behavior.”

“The evidence leans toward the post being real but removed, consistent with Musk’s pattern of deleting controversial posts.”

Musk then intervened, replying “No, it’s fake ffs… I never posted this.” Miller never directly commented on the whispers.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stephen-millers-wife-gushes-over-leaving-him-for-elon-musk/?

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?️ MAGA podcast meltdown

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

MAGA's media machine is ripping itself apart, locked in a web of interpersonal feuds that have derailed its once-relentless focus on advancing President Trump's agenda, Axios' Tal Axelrod writes. Why it matters: The MAGA movement spent years perfecting the art of attacking outsiders. Now, less than a year into Trump's second term, its most prominent voices are attacking each other with a fury normally reserved for the left. ? Zoom in: Tensions have simmered for months among MAGA's mercurial and conspiracy-minded personalities, particularly over the role of Israel in U.S. politics. In recent days, they've boiled over into deeply personal attacks: Candace Owens vs. Turning Point USA: Owens alleged TPUSA — where she once worked — played some role in the assassination of its founder, Charlie Kirk. TPUSA issued an aggressive denial and challenged Owens to join a Monday livestream, where it plans to rebut her allegations. Owens declined the offer after telling the group to pick the time and place for a meeting, saying it interfered with her children's homeschooling duties. Erika Kirk — launching a book tour for Charlie Kirk's final book, "STOP, in the Name of God," on Fox News' "Outnumbered" yesterday — criticized unnamed conspiracy theorists who "go after the people that I love, and you're making hundreds and thousands of dollars every single episode … And so my message to them is to stop." Tim Pool vs. Owens: The "Timcast" host has lashed out at Owens as a "vile evil scumbag" for "milking" the assassination of their mutual friend. Milo Yiannopoulos vs. Benny Johnson: Yiannopoulos, a longtime provocateur overshadowed in recent years by newer right-wing voices, made personal attacks on Johnson, who threatened to sue, posting on X: "I am duty-bound to take action to protect my family." Tucker Carlson vs. Laura Loomer: Carlson, a critic of U.S. support for Israel and other foreign entanglements, has faced months of accusations from pro-Israel Republicans that he is funded by Qatar — a claim he denies. Keep reading. ps:Well that didn't take long!!!!!

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Conservatives clash at Turning Point USA conference over MAGA movement’s direction A simmering battle over the future of President Donald Trump’s political movement exploded on one of the right’s biggest stages Thursday, as prominent conservative influencers used Turning Point USA’s annual youth conference to attack each other and their competing visions. Read more.

What to know: The feuding threatened to eclipse efforts to memorialize Charlie Kirk, the organization’s charismatic founder, who was assassinated in September, even as participants insisted they were honoring the legacy of a unifying figure within the Republican Party.   The raw bitterness on the opening night of the four-day conference reflected deep divisions over the meaning of “America First” and next steps for the “Make America Great Again” movement defined more by the force of Trump’s personality than loyalty to a particular ideological project.   It could also foreshadow more schisms within an increasingly fractious Republican Party, something that Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow and Turning Point’s new leader, warned about in her opening remarks. Since the assassination, she said, “we’ve seen fractures, we’ve seen bridges being burned that shouldn’t be burnt.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Young conservative women find a home in Turning Point with Charlie Kirk’s widow at the helm

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MAGA Honors Charlie Kirk by Fighting Like Dogs at His Big Bash

Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson aired out their grievances as the war engulfing the right rages on.

Turning Point USA’s first AmericaFest conference without the group’s slain leader has descended into petty infighting among some of MAGA’s most prominent figures.

In an extraordinary opening night, right-wing influencers vying for control over the future of the conservative movement publicly aired grievances against one another onstage, as the civil war erupting among President Donald Trump’s supporters played out in real time.

Among the attack lines hurled at the event, which was supposed to memorialize TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk following his murder in September, were jabs at former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for his softball interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, as well as criticism of right-wing figures who failed to call out podcaster Candace Owens for spreading conspiracy theories about Kirk’s killing.

Political commentator Ben Shapiro delivered some of the most vitriolic attacks, blasting the “frauds and grifters” dominating headlines in the MAGA world. He noted in his speech that Kirk “despised” the “evil troll” Fuentes, and said offering him any sort of platform was “an act of moral imbecility.”

“That is precisely what Tucker Carlson did. He built Nick Fuentes up, and you ought to take responsibility for that,” Shapiro said.

“Just as you ought to take responsibility for glazing pornographer and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate, or for mainstreaming fake historian and pseudo–Nazi apologist Darryl Cooper as America’s best and most honest popular historian," Shapiro added.

Shapiro also used one of MAGA’s favored slurs to attack Owens for pushing baseless claims about Kirk’s murder, including suggestions that Israeli intelligence was involved or that Turning Point USA itself was somehow to blame.

“In motive accusations, conspiracy theories, and just gasping questions—that’s lazy and stupid and misleading. None of them are a substitute for truth. None of them are a substitute for evidence,” Shapiro said. “So when Candace Owens says, ‘I don’t know, but I know,’ that is ret***ed, and we are all more ret***ed for having heard it.”

Elsewhere, Shapiro blasted commentator Megyn Kelly for “shying away” from condemning Owens, and described top Trump ally Steve Bannon as someone who was “once a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein.”

Carlson fired back almost immediately, opening his own speech that night by joking, “I just got here, and I feel like I missed the first part of the program. Hope I didn’t miss anything meaningful.”

He also mocked Shapiro for calling for “deplatforming and denouncing people at a Charlie Kirk event. This is hilarious.”

Erika Kirk, the widow of the Turning Point USA founder, predicted there would be tensions between the warring MAGA figures during her own speech.

“You won’t agree with everyone on this stage this weekend,” she said. “And that’s OK. Welcome to America.”

Elsewhere at AmericaFest, arguments nearly turned physical. Videos posted online showed Blaze host John Doyle confronting one of Fuentes’ supporters, known as Groypers, who frequently attempt to gatecrash mainstream GOP conferences that they are banned from attending.

As noted by The Bulwark’s Will Sommer, infighting over attempts to mainstream Fuentes’ extremist views is at the center of MAGA turmoil in the wake of Kirk’s death.

“Watching TPUSA convention, it’s striking how much Charlie Kirk’s firewall against Nick Fuentes and white nationalism has evaporated after his murder,” Sommer posted on X.

“Charlie Kirk was Nick Fuentes’s arch-enemy, and Fuentes tormented Kirk right up until his murder. Three months later, speakers and audience members at Kirk’s convention are eager to welcome Fuentes into the GOP.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-honors-charlie-kirk-by-fighting-like-dogs-at-his-big-bash/?

ps:So you thought a few choice words about Charlie Kirk was bad? Well this infighting amongst themselves is a lot worse and very disrespectful!!!!!!!!!! Disgusting doesn't even cover it!!!!!

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? MAGA media mess deepens

Turning Point USA's annual AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center. Photo: Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images PHOENIX — MAGA speakers torched each other as pompous, cancerous cowards at this weekend's 30,000-person Turning Point USA AmericaFest, accelerating the right's media meltdown over Israel, hate speech and more, Mike writes from the Phoenix Convention Center. Why it matters: The MAGA movement — lockstep when President Trump was running, and largely unified by TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk before his assassination this fall — is engulfed in an overt power struggle ahead of 2028. Being there: AmFest, as it's known, shows that Kirk's movement muscle lives on. People started lining up at 3 a.m. for the climactic program featuring Vice President JD Vance, Speaker Mike Johnson and Donald Trump Jr. Last year's AmFest drew 21,000 to hear President-elect Trump. I'm told ticketing this year was cut off at 31,000 at the insistence of fire officials. Banners outside the convention say: "MAKE AMERICA CHARLIE KIRK." Inside, the faithful took photos next to Kirk's image and huge letters proclaiming: "WE ARE ALL CHARLIE KIRK." ?️ How it went down: Ben Shapiro, Daily Wire co-founder and one of MAGA's most powerful podcasters, said Thursday at the opening session that Megyn Kelly is "guilty of cowardice" for failing to condemn Candace Owens for spreading conspiracy theories about Kirk's death. Shapiro said the conservative movement faces "serious danger" from "charlatans," "frauds" and "grifters." He called Tucker Carlson's hosting of antisemite Nick Fuentes on his podcast "an act of moral imbecility." (The episode now has 7 million YouTube views.) Carlson, speaking shortly after Shapiro, said he watched the criticism backstage and laughed the way you would "when your dog starts doing your taxes." Carlson added: "Antisemitism is not just naughty. It's immoral." Steve Bannon, an official in the first Trump administration who now heads the influential "WarRoom" podcast, said onstage: "Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads. [Lowers mike for dramatic effect.] It's a cancer, and it metastasizes." Megyn Kelly responded onstage by belittling Shapiro: "It reminded me a little of when the girl who was the head of our middle-school chorus told me she was going to take all my friends away ... I helped make him a star." AmFesters pose with a tour tent like the one where Charlie Kirk was killed. TPUSA told Axios: "We put up the tent as a tribute to Charlie, who lost his life fighting for free speech and debate." Photo: Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images Behind the scenes: I asked Andrew Kolvet — Kirk's friend, the executive producer of his show and a key architect of TPUSA under new CEO Erika Kirk — the thinking behind allowing speakers to attack each other. "We don't tell speakers what to say," Kolvet told me. "Charlie never did, and we don't, either. If certain speakers felt the need to address these conflicts, then we trust that these were issues that needed to be aired in public." "Debate and open dialogue, not censorship, are part of Charlie's legacy," Kolvet added. "We trust our speakers to do what they feel is best. Debate, disagreements and hashing out family business can ultimately be healthy." ? What's next: Bannon says to buckle up. "People wanted to stop walking on eggshells," he told me. "Dude, you're talking to Bannon — I had a smashmouth version, but there were high school kids there, so I shelved it." "I've only begun to fight," he added. "Stop playing patty-cake. Let's get down to it."

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MAGA civil war

This weekend’s gathering of young Republicans and conservative influencers in Arizona offered a glimpse into the divisions already fraying President Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition even before he is out of office. Speaking Sunday at Turning Point USA’s annual conference, Vice President JD Vance not only addressed the friction, but he also encouraged attendees to embrace it. “Would you rather lead a movement of free thinkers who sometimes disagree than a bunch of drones who take their orders from George Soros?” Vance said. At the four-day summit — the first since Turning Point’s co-founder Charlie Kirk was killed — speakers bad-mouthed one another on stage, clashed over whether to engage with conspiracy theorists and argued over who belongs in the GOP and America.

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MAGA media flatline

Data: Apptopia. Chart: Axios Visuals Most major conservative news apps saw little to no growth in traffic or downloads over the past two years, Axios' Sara Fischer writes from Apptopia and Similarweb data. Why it matters: The splintering of the MAGA media movement — combined with broader media market challenges — has hobbled growth for many outlets within the once-unified coalition. Over the past two years, monthly app downloads to several of the most popular conservative media apps, including Truth Social and Newsmax, have declined, according to Apptopia. Every conservative site monitored by TheRighting — a conservative media analysis blog — saw web traffic fall in November compared to the previous year, except Truth Social, which grew 5%. ? Reality check: Some traffic declines are consistent with the broader news ecosystem, which has struggled to reach pandemic levels of engagement.