Discontent is brewing in right-wing circles on college campuses against the Trump administration — but it's not because they oppose his agenda.
Rather, a large number of college Republicans think the president is simply not going far enough in his quest to purge the nation of immigrants.
According to The Atlantic's Charlie Sabgir, when he interviewed young MAGA men at academic institutions around the country, the message he heard is that "the future of American conservatism should be rooted in a patriarchal version of Christianity and an unapologetic ethnonationalism" — one that can only be delivered by figures far to the right of Vice President JD Vance, who is often seen as a Trump successor.
Involvement in foreign wars also remains a controversial topic, with a lot of young Republicans enraged over the war in Iran — not because they want diplomacy, but because they want full-blown isolationism and a withdrawal of America from the world stage.
"During his 2024 campaign, Trump vowed to carry out the 'largest deportation operation in the history of our country,' eventually setting a goal of 1 million annual deportations," wrote Sabgir — and though the government hasn't released statistics, they are nowhere close to that number despite well-publicized takeovers of cities and incidents of brutality carried out by immigration agents.
Vinson Ratcliffgardy, who heads up the Turning Point USA chapter at Angelo State University in Texas, said the "hope for the future is to deport more" and the "general consensus" in his orbit is the Trump administration failed.
Turning Point USA, the far-right youth group founded by the late activist Charlie Kirk, continues to have strong ties to the Trump administration, with prominent figures giving addresses at their events.