Donald Trump hasn't even re-entered the White House yet, and some simmering MAGA feuds have already boiled over into public view.
The president-elect's first term was marked by disputes between the Republican establishment and his loyalists, and while Trump has largely taken full control of the GOP since leaving office four years ago, his orbit still contains discordant factions who have no natural alliances with each other, wrote Washington Post columnist Aaron Blake.
"The MAGA movement has always been a loosely stitched-together confederation led by a man with relatively few ideological convictions," Blake wrote. "It and he have always been much more animated by Trump the man than any particular set of ideals. And because Trump has proved so malleable, there is a premium on being the one in his ear."
"That dynamic is already leading to a rash of infighting over who grabs that ear and guides both Trump and his base," the columnist added.
Steve Bannon, one of the chief architects of Trump's 2016 election win, has gone on the offensive against tech mogul Elon Musk, who poured hundreds of millions of his own money into Trump's 2024 election win and then became a chief adviser, and the right-wing podcaster pledged to drive the Tesla CEO out of the president-elect's orbit by Inauguration Day.
"He called Musk 'truly evil' and said he had the maturity of a child, even likening that characteristic to sex offenders," Blake wrote. "Bannon promised that he would get Musk — with whom Trump has frequently been seen and whom Trump appointed to lead a government-efficiency task force — cast out in short order."
But other factions within the MAGA movement have apparently turned on one another, including cultural conservatives who lashed out at MAGA figures like former Trump attorney Alina Habba and right-wing influencer Benny Johnson for promoting misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who faces human trafficking charges in Romania, and the MAGA right is seething at vice president-elect J.D. Vance for suggesting that some Jan. 6 defendants shouldn't be pardoned.
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"It’s been evident throughout his time in politics that Trump doesn’t exactly dislike it when people vie for attention in his administration and his base," Blake wrote. "Whatever you think about him and his politics, he picks people of many different stripes to serve him."
Trump himself says he likes conflict, but Blake said that turmoil could prove troublesome with razor-thin Republican congressional majorities that can't afford internal disagreements.
"Many of the fights described above also betray very fundamental and intransigent disagreements in his base — between nationalism and business interests, between Christian conservatism and provocation, and between the influencer class pushing for clicks and policy-minded folks pushing for legislative wins — that suggest they can’t just be papered over," Blake wrote. "Expect these to be the first of many fights."
