White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller waits for the start of a live television interview outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 28, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
A “clan of predators” at the heart of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement is turning American foreign policy into a tool for private gain, according to a sweeping new report.
MAGA is often described as isolationist, but Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum argued Monday that description misses its larger ambition.
“They believe they represent something much greater: the vanguard of a movement that will alter not just America, but the world,” she wrote.
Applebaum compared Trump-aligned figures such as Steve Bannon and State Department official Darren Beattie with earlier revolutionaries who sought to spread their movements — including Napoleon, the Bolsheviks and Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
“The clan of predators currently in charge of the U.S. federal government is no different,” Applebaum writes. “Wrongly described as ‘isolationists,’ many of its true believers don’t think of themselves as ordinary Republicans who won an election and will temporarily hold power until the next election.”
The MAGA version, she told readers Monday, combines ideology with business interests.
“American power is no longer deployed solely by trained diplomats and reliable officials, working through state channels,” Applebaum wrote. “Informal envoys, private companies, online grifters, and hardened ideologues both inside and outside the government matter more."
They don’t care about promoting democracy, she added, but about using American influence to pursue deals, weaken regulations and reward friendly governments, “because, suddenly, they can.”