Growing up MAGA: a first-gen immigrant’s story of turning away from Trump

Steve Vilchez, a 21-year-old Illinois State University student, once fell deep into the MAGA movement after Trump’s 2016 win — only to break away after years of conspiracies, COVID lies, and the Jan. 6 attack left him disillusioned. Now part of the “Leaving MAGA” community, Vilchez says Trump’s politics of fear turned him from a Bernie Sanders supporter into a hardcore believer, but ultimately pushed him back out. “Trump knows how to weaponize fear very, very well,” he told Raw Story. “It’s very scary that he knows how to do it.”

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