Does MAGA even need Trump?

By Che

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV. 

Following this latest midterm election, it appears the Republican Party is in disarray. There was supposed to be a “red wave” because Americans were fed up with the disastrous policies of the Democratic Party. That didn’t happen. 

We are in week two of election month (or year, who really knows how long these things take anymore) and it looks like the Dems are going to keep control of the Senate. The overwhelming support Republicans needed to not just win, but to make a statement, sort of fell flat in what should have been a slam dunk.  

One place that showed up for the red team, however, was Florida, where the incumbent Governor Ron Desantis won in a landslide. What’s more impressive is that he, along with Senator Marco Rubio, were able to flip democrat stronghold Miami-Dade County. Many are seeing this win for Desantis as a possible foretelling of a presidential run in 2024. Many on the right seem to be lending their support in that direction. But the Republican Party is still the party of Trump.  

Donald Trump, ever boisterous, ever controversial, and ever present, will simply not go away. No matter how much the establishment in Washington and the entertainment industry in Hollywood want him to disappear, Trump’s stronghold on the conservative base and the MAGA movement is still in his grip. But for how long?  

Lately, conservatives have begun to distance themselves from Trump. Political commentator Candace Owens has publicly criticized him after she exposed a rift between the two over comments she allegedly made towards him. Other commentators like Mike Cernovich, Tim Pool, and Brandon Tatum have done the same, causing many to think the base that helped propel the one-time reality TV star and real estate mogul into a political tycoon is done with him. Can you really blame them? 

The next-in-line to the Trump throne is the young, newly re-elected Floridian Governor Desantis. Following his lopsided win over Democrat challenger Charlie Christ, former president Trump wasted no time taking shots at his most formidable foe, writing: “Now that the Election in Florida is over and everything went quite well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 million to 4.6 million? Just asking?” 

Desantis is the closest thing to an “America First” candidate not named Donald Trump. His record in Florida through Covid put him in the national spotlight. He opened up his state when everyone else locked down. He fought against “woke” education and teaching sex education to elementary school children. He is younger, just as resilient, and doesn’t come with the extra baggage of quarreling with his opponents so often. So why would Trump attack him, especially after a convincing win?  

That wasn’t all Trump did. He made some suggestion that he had some “dirt” on Desantis and would reveal it if he chose to run against him. Is he playing “4D Chess” again? You know, the kind Qanon conspiracy theorists still think he’s playing with the 2020 election? Or, has the Trump era ran its course and we’re looking at the remnants of what once was?  

There are those in conservative circles that see the “Republican Civil War,” as many in the media are calling it, as a creation of the left and “deep state.” They believe Donald Trump is the target. He’s the anti-establishment politician we really need and that Desantis is nothing more than a puppet for the elites. They see this feud as a ploy to discredit the one candidate that can change course for the nation and “make America great again.” The problem with this theory is that Desantis isn’t the one starting it.  

Ron Desantis has ignored Trump’s quips against him. But for the sake of argument, let’s say Desantis did start this out of the public eye. In that case, why would Trump handle it publicly knowing the “deep state” would use it to create an even greater rift within a badly-beaten conservative base?  

If the Trump vs Desantis war is a concoction of the left and the deep state, it is safe to say that Donald Trump is on their side. This is something I’ve been saying for a while now. I believe Donald Trump flipped a long time ago, specifically after January 6th.  

Prior to the 2020 election, there was a lot of energy within the MAGA movement to re-elect the only one in Washington willing to stand up for the American people. Everything leading up to November appeared to be a ploy to get him out of office. Covid, the BLM protests/riots, etc., all seemed directed towards removing the thorn in the establishment’s side. Donald Trump, with his America First agenda, was an enigma to the globalist ideology, so he had to be removed.  

Within the circles that I had personally been in, there was quiet conversation as to whether or not Trump would ever “flip” or “sell us out.” My position was that we would never know. It wasn’t like we could all expect that Trump would hold a press conference to inform us all that he was abandoning his agenda. 

I raised this point because I felt it necessary to be on guard for something you would have to decipher in a not-so-straightforward way. Since you could never expect an announcement, you would have to look for signs.  

After the election, where there were so many anomalies and unanswered questions, Trump went on a campaign to “stop the steal,” believing he was robbed of a victory. Joe Biden, a man who hardly even campaigned, had received the most votes in American history. Anyone who dared question the results were censored on social media platforms, labeled “conspiracy theorists” and were dismissed without any valid reason. This all came to a head on January 6th.  

Trump called all of his supporters to Washington DC where the election results were to be certified by Congress. What ensued after is questionable depending on who you talk to. What we do know happened is that a large group of protestors entered the Capitol building uninvited. There was some broken glass, some artifacts taken and one protestor, Ashli Babbit, was killed by Capitol police as she entered a hallway.  

There are numerous narratives surrounding that day that, like I said, are debatable depending on who you talk to. The one the mainstream media loves to run with is that the mob were “insurrectionists” poised to overthrow the United States government. Whether you believe this or not, the fact is that day continues to impact many, including the former president. This is why I believe the “flip” ensued.  

Between the November election and January 6th, President Trump spoke of having evidence proving the election was stolen from him. His attorneys Lin Wood and Sydney Powell spoke of having overwhelming proof that would eventually lead to Trump’s reinstatement as president. This never happened. We never saw any of this evidence. After January 6th Trump stopped talking about it. 

What we have heard from Trump since then is his crowning achievement: Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort under Trump to introduce three covid vaccines in less than a year. Ironically, the vaccine has been a line of a demarcation for his supporters. The vaccine introduced vaccine mandates where people lost their jobs, refused service, and were treated as second class citizens. Yet Trump continues to celebrate it, completely disregarding how much his supporters suffered.  

I don’t think that die-hard MAGA is far removed from the liberal left. They hold onto the idea that some other entity outside of themselves is coming to save them. In this case, that someone is Donald Trump.  

They will say that he is playing 4D chess, or that the media is conspiring against him to prop up the establishment candidate in Desantis. But the reality is that Trump is initiating this fight. If he’s really on the side of the people, why is he not disclosing his intentions to his followers? Why is he choosing to start a rift in a movement that needs as many allies as possible right now?  

The MAGA movement is the last great populist movement that put the interest of the American people first. Although started by Donald Trump, it does not necessarily mean it must continue with him. If there is a psyop at work here, it is coming from Donald Trump himself.  

Instead of being a great unifier and leader, he divides us. You can say he is exposing the establishment frauds, but we all know he is not. He is endorsing Kevin McCarthy, the biggest RINO who turned his back on him after the election, for Speaker of the House. He endorsed Dr. Oz, an oddball candidate who couldn’t beat a candidate with actual brain damage, instead of helping Kathy Barnette who was less establishment than either of them. He won’t shut up about the vaccine, and never, ever talks about “stolen elections” even though there were mountains of evidence, in his words, to say otherwise. Yet the hardcore MAGA followers will overlook all of these with lame excuses instead of seeing it for what it really is: Trump flipped.  

In 2020, I supported Donald Trump because he was the anti-establishment candidate. He didn’t buy into the globalist agenda, he put America first and seemed to have an actual interest in dismantling the Washington bureaucratic swamp. Now, he looks more like the murder suspect who walked out of the interrogation room a free man. 

The Donald Trump MAGA movement is over. And the longer everyone in the right holds onto him as a relevant political force, the longer you will be handicapped in the ongoing battle to save America.