Lame Duck
It looks like a wall, not the porous border wall, but a big, beautiful, orange tinted wall. While Democrats traditionally are divided, easily accused of being a “circular firing squad”, the MAGA-Republican party holds firm. Those Republicans who stood against MAGA, old names from the past like McCain, Flake, Corker, and Portman, were long ago shunted to the side.
But there have always been “factions” in MAGA-world, divisions that were papered over by Trump’s leadership. Now the 47th President is an admitted “lame duck”. He toyed with the idea, but he’s not really going to run for an Unconstitutional third term as President. So the battle for the “soul” of MAGA has begun.
Believers
It’s always been an uneasy coalition. There are “traditional” Republicans, who swallowed all of the insults in order to pursue their goal: unbridled capitalism; “Let Billionaires be Billionaires!” As long as the markets are good, all is right with the world. But, they had to accept Trump’s differences in foreign policy, and all of the cultural baggage that MAGA brought. Most would normally be staunch supporters of Ukraine and our European alliances. And many are near-Libertarian; fiscal conservatives but cultural liberals. Trump certainly is neither of those things.
Then there are the ideologues, like the Heritage Foundation. These Project 2025’ers dreamed their whole lives for the opportunity to change America’s direction. From stopping multi-culturalism to cutting the social safety net, they want to remake America into what they imagine as a “gloried past” resembling the 1950’s. That was before the Warren Supreme Court, the passage of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, the woman’s rights movement, Medicare and gay equality.
And their cultural goals dove-tail with Christian Nationalists, who see Trump as “God’s imperfect vessel” for their religious state. They don’t want a theocracy (I guess). They just want Christian Primacy. The United States is to be “One Nation Under God”, a God that they have defined as their own. They found a powerful martyr in the death of Charlie Kirk.
Sure there can be “others”, but those others aren’t allowed to influence American life. The one exception; fundamental Jews. While they don’t believe in Jesus, they do believe in Israel. That’s the site of the impending Second Coming, according to the faithful, the time of judgment and rapture. So protecting Israel (and Netanyahu) is literally an article of faith for Trump’s Christian friends.
Regulars and Crazies
Then there are those that just want to “throw all the bums out”. They liked The Apprentice, they like the lack of verbal inhibitions, and they like the promises to make their lives easier, prices lower, and their world safer. A lot of Americans were uneasy with the quick progress of American multi-culturalism, and Trump promised to make it stop. Democrats were portrayed as the party of the minority, from skin color to sexual preference. Trump said it was “OK” to say no to other’s lifestyles. So they voted for him.
And last but not least, there were the crazies. With the ascendance of the internet, some fell down deep wells of conspiracy. The Trump team was masterful in weaving those already known theories into the MAGA liturgy. It was no mistake that QAnon themes found their way into Trump rallies, or extremist groups were told to “stand back and stand by”. And the real child-sex rings of the “Billionaire class” became “Democrats in the basement of a pizza place” in Washington, DC.
The Files
The EPSTEIN FILES are a point of fissure. The crazies recognized that some of their misdirected theories were real, and Trump protects the wicked. The Christian Nationalists struggle to accept that their “imperfect vessel” is THAT imperfect. The ideologues see Epstein as a threat to their plans, and want it to “go away”. And traditional Republicans: maybe protecting child-sex billionaires is just a bridge too far.
Honestly, Trump’s about-face on Epstein was an astute political move. If you can’t win, switch to the winning side, then control the outcome. Sure there’s a law that says the “files” must be released. Trump signed it. But there’s already another law protecting the secrecy of “investigative materials”. Trump ordered investigations into Democrats who may or may not have participated. Of course, these investigations may take a long, long time – maybe until the end of the administration.
So when Greene and Bobert and Mace called out the Trump Administration and demanded the files be released, they exposed the first apparent fractures in the Big, Beautiful, Orange Wall. And behind the scenes, folks like JD Vance, Marco Rubio and others are maneuvering to become the “chosen one”, not just of Trump himself, but of one or more of the factions.
America First?
It’s not just the EPSTEIN FILES though. A portion of “MAGA” is “America First”. Wide ranging foreign entanglements; blowing up boats in the Caribbean, threatening military action in Venezuela and Columbia and Mexico, offering US “peace-keepers” for Gaza, and allying with dictators is not what many expected. Add to that the economic upheaval of the constantly changing tariff policies, and it doesn’t “feel” like America First. It feels more like a weird mix of Dick Cheney neo-conservatism and “Let Billionaires be Billionaires”, as long as Trump gets another hotel in Riyadh and builds a “nice” ballroom on the White House.
And there is one more political reality. Trump is the proven “winner” on the ballot (only Joe Biden could fix that!!). But his name will no longer be on the ticket. Trump himself said: “I started MAGA, I say what it means”. But what happens in the “post-Trump” world?
Here’s your “daily” Bible verse:
“So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city” – Joshua 6:20 (KJV).
Will Democrats pull themselves together, and blow the “trumpet” to make the already fissured Orange Wall tumble? Is 2026 just another next step in the MAGA saga, or will America return to bending “the arch of the moral universe” towards justice?
That’s America’s choice.
