There is no revival in sight for the MAGA faithful who are struggling with "lame-duck" president Donald Trump and infighting in the Republican Party, Slate writer Luke Winkie pronounced Monday.
Winkie suggested the "new era of MAGA dominance" was already off to a bad start as figureheads failed to adapt to the death of Charlie Kirk. The right-wing political commentator was assassinated on September 10, and it has not brought MAGA the boom in support it was expecting.
Winkie wrote, "The consequences are such that the assassination of Charlie Kirk has shed the readily available narrative coherence that Trump-aligned agitators once hoped to leverage. There is no revival coming, nor an institutionalization of MAGA thought."
Further on from the power vacuum left by Kirk's death, the MAGA faithful who have filled the space he once populated are now fighting with one another. Influencers Candace Owens and Tim Pool were seen arguing on X, with Owens' comments on Kirk's death deemed "ghoulish, fantastical, or otherwise insane" by Winkie.
Pool has taken issue with Owens because, as Winkie writes, she is "shamelessly profiting off of Kirk's death by cultivating an eldritch sense of suspicion." He continued, "But, again, that is only possible because deregulated conservative digital media has long feasted on talking points that skew false, ghoulish, fantastical, or otherwise insane."
There was trouble already within wider parts of the Republican Party and Trump's administration, which Winkie went on to highlight. He wrote, "Instead, Kirk leaves behind a battlefield for a scattered and increasingly aberrant Republican Party, unbound by the gravity of a lame-duck Trump."
Owens shows no signs of stopping her constant comments on Kirk conspiracy theories. In one statement, she said the "gaslighting" over Kirk's death must stop, and that there is "nothing that's been convincing" when it comes to confirming the political activist was assassinated by Tyler Robinson.
Winkie added, "Owens will continue to spread strange rumors about Kirk’s killing, reaping massive engagement along the way."
"For what it’s worth, the vast spectrum of right-wing media has made a concerted effort to discredit Owens and stymie the spread of these conspiracies."