MAGA 'rift' shows GOP is the 'dog that caught the car': Conservative

A never-Trump conservative thinks MAGA's recent division over immigrant visas is one of what he expects will be many rifts "coming down the pike" and took a shot at the movement, telling CNN on Friday night it would take a "heart of stone" not to laugh at the chaos.

The rift emerged between two factions. On one side, tech allies such as billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — who have been tapped to slash trillions from the federal budget — are advocating for more visas to attract highly skilled foreign workers. On the other side is the MAGA base, which has opposed expanding H-1B visas, seeing it as a threat to American jobs.

Political commentator Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, told CNN panelists he expects this is just a preview of what's to come.

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"I think it's just one rift of a bunch that's probably coming down the pike as we move forward," he said. "But look. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at the situation that they've gotten themselves into."

Goldberg called Trump a "salesman" who made promises to the Musk faction and the Laura Loomer faction — referring to a white nationalist podcaster and Trump ally who once appeared on Trump's plane ahead of a debate — along with a litany of other factions that "can't be reconciled with each other."

Goldberg said he's closer to Musk on policy issues and called out the "irony" of the situation.

"They rode this populist tide in claiming that establishment Republicans and the conservative establishment and the old Reaganite crowd, the old National Review crowd — they don't know anything and all the answers are super easy and we know exactly what to do," he said.

The journalist noted topics such as H1-B reform aren't so simple in practice — they're "really complicated." He lamented that the "serious people" — he didn't specify who those were — were pushed aside for "populist yahoos" such as Trump ally Steve Bannon.

"And now they're the dog that caught the car," he said. "They don't know how to do any of this policy because they haven't done any of the leg work on it."

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