Bari Weiss Overplayed Her Hand

Americans didn't want Trump culture. They wanted a better economy. Now the right is force-feeding them unwanted conservatism — and pissing them off.

One of the strangest narratives of 2025 was the belief that Donald Trump’s second presidency signalled a conservative triumph over American culture. Bankers celebrated the end of woke, telling the Financial Times they were “Liberated; We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled .  It’s a new dawn.” The New York Times’s culture podcast predicted that Trump’s cultural legacy would be “an affirmative one,” unlike his first term, which ended in “backlash and protest.” Always scared of their own shadow, Democrats snatched the nearest microphone to denounce progressive causes, showing their constituents that when push comes to shove, they curl into a ball and cry.

But the narrative of a Trump-driven right-wing cultural revolution was just that. A narrative. The top issue for 2024 voters was the economy. Transgender issues, often upheld as proof of conservatism’s cultural dominance, ranked last amongst voters’ concerns. Americans didn’t vote for the Heritage Foundation’s way of life. They were upset with Biden’s economy, so they gave Trump another chance. As idiotic tariffs and standard Republican economic doctrine have worsened the situation, Trump’s economic approval ratings, which were once his strength, have fallen to all-time lows, dragging his overall approval ratings down with them. The president is very unpopular with Latinos, whose Republican swing was frequently cited as proof that conservative culture was here to stay. Anti-transgender ads have floundered in special elections, and though Americans are still concerned about border security, they intensely dislike the Republicans’ nativist culture. 79% of Americans say immigration is good, while only 17% say it’s bad.

Despite clear signs from Americans that they dislike the Trumpist social project, the right has insisted on shoving it down their throats. In my view, this is a miscalculation that gives conservatives the worst political branding possible: being annoying. I found the anti-woke backlash to be purposefully overblown — DEI is a corporate hiring policy, and Critical Race Theory is a college-level course; two things that rarely impact the average American life — but if the anti-woke mob is correct that land acknowledgements and excessively progressive language irritated Americans, then they greatly misunderstood why. Unlike rightists, the typical American doesn’t hate racial and sexual minorities. They just didn’t enjoy being lectured to about how America was racist and problematic. It made them feel icky. As Trump’s draconian immigration program and white nationalist rhetoric are clearly racist and problematic, Americans dislike that too. It makes them feel icky. The woke kids might have gone overboard in pushing for a racial and social reckoning. But the Republicans have doing something worse: they’ve proven the woke kids correct.

There’s no shortage of examples of how the right’s cultural push has backfired. Sports fans groaned during the fawning pre-game memorial honoring Charlie Kirk, and “We Are Charlie Kirk, We Carry the Flame!” is the laughing stock of TikTok. However, no one exemplifies the right’s misunderstanding of their cultural position more than CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss.