Steve Bannon, the former adviser to US president Donald Trump and one of the architects of the MAGA movement, recently caused a stir when he declared that he has been "spending a tonne of time" behind the scenes searching for an "Irish Trump".
The anti-halftime spectacle will provide an interesting temperature check of the impact of these efforts. "The All‑American Halftime Show," organized by Turning Point USA, is billed as an explicitly conservative counterprogram to the official Apple-sponsored show featuring Latin phenom Bad Bunny. Kid Rock will be joined by mid-level country artists Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett. The show will be broadcast on Turning Point's YouTube and social media accounts, as well as on several conservative networks such as OAN.
For one thing, there were too many elements of classical fascism that didn't seem to fit. For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action. For yet another, the term is hazily defined, even by its adherents. From the beginning, fascism has been an incoherent doctrine, and even today scholars can't agree on its definition. Italy's original version differed from Germany's, which differed from Spain's.
That was an execution in the street! I'm sorry, but it was. When I saw it, you know what I thought of? Cause we're old enough to remember this. I mean show the picture. Okay, that's it. Now, I'm going to describe this first, because this is from the 60s. Remember Vietnam, the Tet Offensive, and that ugly picture that we saw after? Show the picture. This is everybody our age knows this.
Sadly, the Great Influencer, Scott Adams, has passed away. He was a fantastic guy, who liked and respected me when it wasn't fashionable to do so. He bravely fought a long battle against a terrible disease. My condolences go out to his family, and all of his many friends and listeners. He will be truly missed. God bless you Scott!
But reframed as hemispheric dominance, the right's expansionist impulse fits a civilizational worldview: America as the enforcer of the West, bending weaker nations to its will. What they're saying: In the days after President Trump's stunning capture of Nicolás Maduro, even some of MAGA's loudest non-interventionists began casting strategic lands in America's hemisphere - including Colombia, Cuba and Greenland. "How can you get more 'America First' than Manifest Destiny 2.0?" "War Room" host Steve Bannon told NBC News.
Driving the news: "MAGA loves it. MAGA loves what I'm doing. MAGA loves everything I do," Trump told NBC News in an interview in which he denied that the U.S. is "at war" with Venezuela. "MAGA is me. MAGA loves everything I do, and I love everything I do, too." What they're saying: Conversations with MAGA operatives and media figures reveal varying degrees of comfort with regime change, a concept that became politically toxic after the Iraq War.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller danced to "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife appeared as guests of honor; Trump auctioned off a gigantic portrait of Jesus Christ for $2.7 million; and MAGA's demon couple (Stephen and Katie Miller) announced they've spawned for the fourth time.
Shapiro tried to do what leaders of movements do. He performed the traditional work of movement leadership: imposing boundaries, reinforcing norms, and warning about internal decay. He rejected conspiracy theories surrounding Charlie Kirk's murder. He condemned the normalization of extremist figures. He named colleagues who, in his view, were degrading the movement's credibility. In a different political ecosystem, that effort might have functioned as leadership. In this one, it revealed a mismatch between intent and environment.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is asked why he recently changed his style of glasses. Vice President J.D. Vance is asked to settle a debate as to whether a hot dog can be considered a sandwich. "Secretary of War" Pete Hegseth, appearing alongside his wife, is asked whether he prefers drumsticks, flats, or boneless wings. Sen. Katie Britt is asked how she passes time on airplanes. (Spoiler: she works.)
Liz Truss, Britain's shortest-serving prime minister, began the first edition of her YouTube show with a vow to unmask the evil-doers attempting to bring down Britain, the US and Europe. She would, she explained, reveal how an international network of leftists work to subvert democracy and the will of the people. Despite her bleak monologue, Truss pointed to hope from across the Atlantic.
Unlike most humans, he appears never to waste a moment indulging self doubts, examining his navel, back-tracking, or apologizing. His supreme confidence in his own judgment inspires confidence in others who share his views and aspirations. And even when he's wrong, his refusal to ever admit it provides a certain level of assurance to those who are counting on him to be right.
As part of that influence, Kevin Roberts -- president of the powerful Heritage Foundation and a key influence on Trump's policy decisions -- earlier this year visited Paris to speak to what he called "leaders of the French right", whom he declined to name. Roberts said during the trip in May that, while the foundation did not officially represent the US government, it could still knit together a network of ideologically aligned groups.
He was listening to the Limbaugh shit on the radio and working with people who displayed the characteristics of MAGA. After Trump was elected in 2016, he really started to get weird. He would come home spouting bullshit, and he was always contrary, confrontational, and negative. It was weird. I loved him a little less each day. We had been married for 38 years when we finally divorced, and he wasn't the same person anymore. I couldn't stand to be intimate with him anymore.
Zohran Mamdani's election was not as surprising as his primary win in June, and since then, Republicans have had time to adjust to the idea of a young, charismatic idol espousing a new and exciting message for the Democratic Party. On Tuesday and Wednesday, though, instead of responding with new policy ideas to excite their own base, they mostly responded by returning to old territory: bald, ugly Islamophobia.
Last week, MAGA had a total anti-Indian meltdown on social media, revealing a deep, ugly racism toward South Asians. It comes amid the first real rebellion about rampant and increasingly open antisemitism within the MAGAverse, creating a massive rift between traditional conservatives and a younger, rabidly anti-Jewish contingent called groypers whose leader, Nick Fuentes, recently posted that he is "team Hitler."
🔥 Full coverage and conversation on Politics A Facebook post from a MAGA voter on SNAP is going viral after she called out her mother-in-law for refusing to lend her grocery money because she decided to vote for Donald Trump. 'I'm so anxious about this whole shutdown. My husband's [a] veteran using his GI bill for school. We get food stamps since I'm disabled and he's in school,' the post read.
Let's take for example this $40 billion bailout for Argentina. That's probably one of the grossest things I've ever seen and I have no idea who is telling our great president, our America First president that this is a good idea because honestly it's a punch in the gut to all of our American cattle ranchers and they are furious and rightfully so, and at the same time I can't think of another country that's further away from the United States of America than Argentina.
Veeps let the president be presidential, the calm and resolute leader of the nation, while taking on the "attack dog" role themselves, tending to the dirtier, more emotional work of pure partisan politics. Vice-presidents spend a lot of time at foreign funerals, of course, but also a lot of time at party fundraisers and second-tier campaign events around the country.
Point is, is that they are scrapping and grasping at straws because they have nothing else: Laugh at them! Stephen Miller is a clown! I've never seen that guy in real life, but he looks like he's, like, 4 10. And he looks like he is angry about the fact that he's 4'10. And he looks like he is so mad that he is 4 10, that he has taken that anger out on at any other population possible. Like, laugh at them!
"Where are all the red hats - am I going to run into Steve Bannon?" asked one of my guests as we peered around the room at Butterworth's, the buzzy, much-publicized MAGA hangout up on Capitol Hill. His voice was urgent, even kind of excited, and he spoke in a loud, hissing whisper, like an eager tourist out on safari for the first time waiting for the lions to arrive.
