Trump’s Frankenstein? US Maga meltdown tests its creator
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Not long ago, Ms Marjorie Taylor Greene was perhaps Mr Donald Trump’s biggest booster.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (Maga) movement is showing the first signs of turning on its creator. Could it be a Frankenstein moment for the US President?
During the course of one frenetic weekend, Mr Trump disowned former Maga cheerleader Marjorie Taylor Greene
Mr Trump’s meltdown underscores the cracks that have opened between the right-wing movement and the billionaire founder who has for years ruled it with an iron fist.
The turmoil has also punctured the aura of invincibility that Mr Trump and the White House have sought to cultivate since his return to power – raising questions about whether Mr Trump has created a Frankenstein-like monster he can no longer control.
“Maga was my idea,” he protested in a Fox News interview last week – itself notable as normally pro-Trump host Laura Ingraham confronted him on whether visas for foreign students were “pro-Maga”.
“I know what Maga wants better than anybody else.”
‘Not America First’
Not long ago, Ms Marjorie Taylor Greene was perhaps Mr Trump’s biggest booster.
As recently as March, the Republican firebrand from Georgia was pictured sporting a red “Trump Was Right About Everything” baseball cap as the President addressed Congress.
But fast-forward eight months, and Mr Trump raged that he was no longer backing his once diehard supporter, dubbing her “Marjorie Traitor Greene”.
The split came after Ms Greene distanced herself on a host of issues that she shares with other discontented Maga faithful: affordability, healthcare, Israel, visas for foreign workers and students, and Mr Trump’s focus on foreign policy.
Ms Greene hit back, saying on Nov 16 that Mr Trump’s words had “put my life in danger”
She also highlighted another key issue. “Unfortunately, it has all come down to the Epstein files, and that is shocking,” she told CNN.
‘Nothing to hide’
The scandal over the disgraced financier’s sexual abuse has become a seismic fault line for the Maga movement.
In an astonishing reversal on Nov 16, Mr Trump suddenly called on Republicans to support a vote in the US House to release files from the investigation into Epstein, saying “we have nothing to hide”.
He had previously called on rebels like Ms Greene and fellow Maga lawmaker Lauren Boebert not to fall into the “trap” of voting for it.
Far from any change of heart, however, Mr Trump’s turnaround appeared to be a way of avoiding what would have been the biggest political defeat of his second term so far.
Yet the pressure from the issue – which distracted from Mr Trump’s victory lap in ending a record US government shutdown – is unlikely to go away.
Anger had already been brewing in the Maga ranks for months.
Conspiracy-minded Maga faithful were long told by Mr Trump’s supporters that the scandal was a Democratic cover-up – only for Mr Trump’s Justice Department to say in July that effectively there was nothing new in the files.
2028 looms
Rumbles of Maga discontent have been growing on other subjects too. The loudest complaints came after Republicans were hammered on the cost of living in off-year elections earlier in November.
Sensing trouble, Mr Trump has responded by planning a series of speeches about the economy, including one to a summit hosted by fast-food giant McDonald’s on Nov 17
Maga ranks have also been split over US media star Tucker Carlson interviewing far-right and white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Key right-wingers were outraged – even as Mr Trump insisted on Nov 16 that “you can’t tell him who to interview”.
While Mr Trump still commands fierce loyalty among many supporters, the splits are only likely to deepen as he enters the lame duck phase of his final term.
Eyes are already turning to 2028 – and the battle to be Mr Trump’s true Maga political heir.
Mr Trump’s Vice-President J.D. Vance is widely considered the front runner, but is viewed in parts of the US right as insufficiently committed to the movement.
Could it leave an opportunity for Ms Greene? She has denied any thought of a presidential run – but stranger things have happened in US politics. AFP
