MAGA Begins to Crack
Trump is losing key political and cultural allies. MTG and Lauren Boebert tell him "No," while even Dana White and Joe Rogan are distancing themselves.
The MAGA movement has been likened to a cult for good reason. For a decade, it has organized around the Jonestown principle: Donald Trump can do no wrong. Even when his policies ruin his supporters’ lives, they stand in suicidal support. A recent Bloomberg podcast showed the absurdity of this political cult. Interviewing the owners of a North Carolina sawmill forced to close because of Trump’s trade war, the MAGA diehards had no regrets about their votes.1
Bloomberg: “Do you have any regrets about voting for [Trump]?
Stephen Jones: “Given the two people running, regardless of what they said on the campaign trail, I would have voted for President Trump. I don’t necessarily have regrets. I mean, it came out that that’s what he was going to, you know, fight for. And, knowing that would affect us, because the only place to really ship a volume of lumber was either Vietnam or China, and you know, it was going to affect us. Outside of not voting, I don’t think I had a choice to vote any other direction.
This mental condition sentiment isn’t limited to the public. Republican politicians risk early retirement if they criticize Trump, keeping them in line. Even once-critical conservative commentators have come around to bend the knee and carry Trump’s water. After a public feud with candidate Trump in 2016, Megyn Kelly left Fox News and had a short-lived second career as a “respectable” journalist at NBC. Glenn Beck spent a few months as a resistance hero after he apologized for leading the country to Trump’s far-right politics, and even Ben Shapiro was a vocal Trump critic during the 2016 election.2 Flash forward to today, Beck and Shapiro are as loyal as ever, while Kelly is preemptively defending Trump from Epstein Files revelations by saying it’s okay for old men to have sex with 15-year-old girls. (Apologies for being woke, but I think old men raping children is bad.)
Though the MAGA cult is still drinking the Trump-branded Kool-Aid, over the last few weeks, cracks have emerged in this previously unbreakable foundation. It’s not a hard break, but Trump’s once-loyal political and cultural allies have slowly begun to distance themselves. Where once the Trump Train seemed unstoppable, the wheels are starting to wobble.
In the political space, former MAGA loyalists have publicly rebuked the president on key issues. Less than a year after comparing him to Jesus Christ, Marjorie Taylor Greene began criticizing the Trumps’ war-mongering foreign policy as hypocritical to his campaign promises to “end all wars.” While continuing the Israeli genocide, executing South American boaters, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War strained the MTG-DJT relationship, it looks like the Epstein Files were the final straw.
When the government reopened after the shutdown, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was forced to swear in newly elected Arizona congresswoman Adelita Grijalva. Johnson had previously refused to seat the congresswoman, knowing she would sign the Democrats’ discharge petition calling for a vote to release the Department of Justice’s Epstein Files. With four Republicans joining the Democrats — Nancy Mace, Thomas Massie, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene — Grijalva’s name gave the petition a majority and forced Johnson to hold the vote, which passed with only one opponent. The Senate unanimously agreed to the motion, meaning the Department of Justice’s Epstein Files (which dwarf those released by the House Oversight Committee last week) are on their way to being publicly available.3
Though the White House is now pretending to approve of the release, Trump tried everything in his power to stop the discharge petition from obtaining a majority.
After Greene refused to remove her name, Trump revoked his endorsement of her for the 2026 cycle. The sitting president openly feuding with his longest congressional ally is one thing. But his un-endorsement of her is on another level. To the best of my knowledge, a president publicly breaking with his strongest supporter has never happened before. The best hypothetical I can think of would be President Obama denouncing Jim Clyburn, which would have sent shockwaves through Washington and Obama’s coalition. (If you can think of a fitting parallel to the falling-out between Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene, please let me know in the comments.) And though Marjorie Taylor Greene is the most high-profile dissenter, the Georgian congresswoman wasn’t the only long-time loyalist who went against Donny’s wishes.
It was recently reported that in the hours before Grijalva was sworn in, the White House put the screws to both Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace in a last-minute Hail Mary to stop the petition from reaching a majority. Attempting to intimidate the Colorado congresswoman, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (who is also Trump’s personal defense lawyer), and FBI Director Kash Patel called Boebert to the Situation Room and pressed her to remove her name.4 Mace wasn’t summoned like Boebert was, but Trump called her repeatedly for 24 hours to get her to back off. Neither Mace nor Boebert folded. Their signatures remained on the discharge petition, which led Congress to vote to release the Epstein Files.
Six months ago, I think Trump’s pressure campaign would have worked. When the administration began, Trump told every Republican to abandon the party’s long-standing support for free trade and back a tariff plan that is sure to ruin the economy. “Yes Mr. President,” Republicans replied. Fast forward to today, and he can’t keep his staunchest allies from siding with Democrats on a potentially disastrous release. This isn’t like Greene and Boebert broke over an meaningless vote, as pseudo-populists such as Josh Hawley will do occasionally. I don’t know how bad the Epstein Files will be for Donald Trump. But he’s certainly acting like they could be his downfall. He wants them to stay sealed, and his Day Ones weren’t willing to do it for him. That’s a remarkable development, one we’ve yet to see in the Trump era.
As MAGA stalwarts have started to question their unhealthy relationship to the 79 year old, so have Trump’s loudest cultural voices. In a recent podcast appearance, UFC President Dana White put some distance between himself and the president, falsely claiming he’s “not really political.”
“That’s probably the biggest misconception [about me]. Everybody thinks I’m, like, some far right… I’m not really even that political, to be honest with you.”
This is complete bullshit. Dana White is extremely political and very far-right. He’s donated millions to Trump and spoken at the last three Republican National Conventions.5 For God’s sake, Dana White introduced Trump at the 2024 RNC. And though he tries the classic dumb guy line of claiming to be a former liberal pushed right by woke, Dana White’s fondness for Republicans pre-dates Trump. Independent journalist Pablo Torre dug up all of White’s political donations going back to 2011. You’ll be shocked, shocked I tell you, that he’s given almost exclusively to Republicans. There are a few $10,000 donations to the Democrats in there (even a gambler as bad as Dana knows when to hedge his bets), but there’s no denying Dana White has been a committed rightist and a die-hard Trumper for over a decade. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that the same week Dana White rhetorically separated from Republican politics, Donald Trump skipped a New York City UFC event for the first time since 2022.6
Even Joe Rogan, who played an unprecedented role in the 2024 election by hosting Trump on his podcast (and faking an invite to Kamala Harris) before endorsing him, has started to back away. In a recent episode, Rogan criticized Trump for not providing evidence for his longstanding claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
“Trump is saying they stole the fucking [2020] election. And I feel like if you say that, you’ve got to have some really good evidence — 4 years later, no one has an answer... and now a Republican bought the Dominion voting machine company.”
Though the podcaster has spoken out against the non-release of the Epstein Files and aggressive ICE raids, as far as I can tell, this is the first time he’s criticized Trump directly by name.7 Just like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Nancy Mace, I don’t believe Joe Rogan or Dana White have found a conscience or have turned over a new leaf after witnessing the horrors of unfettered Republican fascism. None of them care about Epstein’s victims, Palestinians, immigrant workers, or anyone else except themselves. They are purely cynical actors, starting to notice that carrying Trump’s water doesn’t benefit that it once did.
Greene has presented herself as a born again saint, condemning her past “divisive comments.”8 She’s worse at lying than she is at pull-ups. Rather, Greene is reusing Trump’s 2016 playbook for her own political path. Trump made light work of the 2016 primary field by relentlessly attacking his opponents on their support for post-9/11 foreign wars, which most Americans despised. As the largest Republican recipient of small-dollar donations, MTG is closer to the Republican base than any of her colleagues. Her newfound criticism of Israel (which comes after years of unwavering Zionist allegiance) is strategic positioning for her next career move: Georgia Senate, or Heaven forbid, President. Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace are in a similar position. They’ve put themselves between a rock and a hard place by riling their base up with two key issues: unconditional support for Trump and releasing the Epstein Files. When forced to choose between the two, they prioritized the demands of Republican voters over their allegiance to Trump. As for White, Rogan, and the rest of the so-called Manosphere — the group of right-wing podcasters, businessmen, and influencers who position themselves as working-class freethinkers — they simply don’t want to look like idiots. At the end of the day, they live in the attention economy. Right now, the attention is on how much Donald Trump sucks. If you read the Twitter comments for White’s interview, or check out the r/JoeRogan subreddit, you’ll see the typical social media user is no longer buying it. As someone who’s followed Rogan and White for a previous career in combat sports journalism, this is a notable shift from how these sections of the internet responded to Trump during his first term. When Trump appeared at sporting events, the general response was approving. Even those who didn’t really like him thought it was cool that a politician made time for what typical people cared about. Now, they average user is generally annoyed by Trump’s presence and tired of rich men lying to them about how great more foreign wars and a cratering economy are. He’s sitting at a dismal 38% approval rating, driven by his failure to lower the cost of living and clear cover up of the Epstein Files. To the average American, Donald Trump looks like a loser — something no one wants to be associated with, whether they’re a comedian, congressperson, or cage fight promoter.
Now, with the exception of Marjorie Taylor Greene, none of these people have publicly denounced Trump. Boebert thanked The White House for her Situation Room “discussion,” and Dana White will happily invite Trump back to the UFC when he’s sure the venue won’t chant he’s a pedophile. At this point, the MAGA coalition is still viable. However, over the last few weeks, the foundation is starting to shake in a way we haven’t seen in the Trump era. Most notable is that those shying away from Trump are those who were previously the closest to him.
We’ve yet to see the rats flee the sinking MAGA ship. But we are seeing the rats feel the hull list as it takes on water, and slowly back towards the lifeboats.
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In Solidarity — Joe
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/nov/18/house-vote-jeffrey-epstein-files-donald-trump-republicans-democrats-us-politics-live-news
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/12/politics/trump-administration-meeting-house-effort-epstein-document-release
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/23/dana-white-republican-convention-donald-trump
https://www.bjpenn.com/mma-news/donald-trump/donald-trump-not-attending-ufc-322-best-event-of-the-year-confirmed-per-mma-analyst/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/joe-rogan-finally-realizes-trump-131232359.html
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/16/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-interview-apologizes
I what to believe MAGA is cracking. But is it just jettisoning “the 79 year old”? Trump is a frontman, methinks, for a bigger movement, and I could see another demagogue, like Michael Flynn, play Trump’s role in it.
What do you think about the reporting Ken Klippenstein has been doing about Massie et al. slipping the word “unclassified” into the bill and subsequent moves to capitalize on that language?
(See https://open.substack.com/pub/kenklippenstein/p/epstein-bill-passes-as-top-official?r=3daky&utm_medium=ios, which also references his previous article.)
I’m extremely suspicious about the Senate fast-tracking the bill, and Trump signing it so quickly. There’s something fishy about this. They are either going to classify most of the documents or they’ve redacted Republican names already or both.