Messy Breakup
What Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s fallout says about the future of MAGA
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Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump’s feud lives rent-free in my head right now. It’s fascinating to watch a known Trump superfan and loyal foot soldier openly defy him and, in real time, seemingly question some of her long-held beliefs. Her shock resignation from Congress on Friday, via a 10-minute video, is straight out of the why I divorced him genre. At one point, after listing all the ways she’s been loyal to Trump and the MAGA movement, Taylor Greene even says that she refuses to be Trump’s “battered wife” and that “my self-worth is not defined by a man.”
Up to now, Taylor Greene was the quintessential MAGA politician. She came to prominence for viral videos stalking members of the Squad and their DC office staff, and teenage Parkland students as they lobbied for gun reform on the Hill. Elected to Congress in 2020, her tenure has been marked by one bizarre stunt after another, and she gained a reputation for believing and amplifying conspiracy theories that plenty of ardent Trump supporters would roll their eyes at.
But the Epstein Files have shown us that almost everyone, even Taylor Greene, has a line, that line being Trump’s attempt to break his own campaign promise and not release them. This week, the House and Senate backed Trump into a corner and voted nearly unanimously to force the DOJ to release the Epstein Files. After engaging in a losing battle that included un-endorsing Taylor Greene for reelection, and attempting to strong-arm MAGA Reps Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert into pulling their support from the bill, Trump signed the legislation into law. It remains to be seen what, if anything, Trump might do to block some of the files from being released now. Though it’s clear to me that any attempts to do so will only make things worse for him.
One of the reasons Taylor Greene’s schism with Trump is so interesting to me is that I have an unfortunate personal understanding of her and the generation of QAnon influencers that she comes from. In September of 2020, I was harassed for weeks by QAnon supporters, and Taylor Greene’s amplification of one of my tweets was one of the main drivers of that harassment. As I wrote at the time, it was clear from the flood of DMs I got how many women sincerely believed that QAnon was real, or at least that the sentiment behind it was genuine.
I suspect that, like the women who reached out in an attempt to convince me at the time, Taylor Greene was a true believer. And that, for many people who were radicalized by QAnon, #pizzagate, etc. those beliefs and the desire to save children from elite pedophile rings is a more powerful force than Donald Trump, which is why his attempts to stonewall the Epstein Files is seen by them as such a betrayal. At one point in the video, Taylor Greene acknowledges that “There is no plan to save the world or a 4D chess game being played,” suggesting that she no longer accepts the conspiracy theories of her political awakening as gospel.
I have no desire to rehabilitate Taylor Greene or show her any forgiveness. She has a lot of red in her ledger, and while she’s welcome to try and make amends, we shouldn’t make that easier. But given the violence she has incited against so many people, myself included, I am pleased that after experiencing harassment from Trump supporters herself, Taylor Greene offered an apology for past incitement. As Bluesky user CT-Yankee pointed out, “Marjorie Taylor Greene has been disliked by the left for years and years and had never had to fear for her life. She’s been disliked by the right for 1 day and now has to hire security.” If nothing else, I can be hopeful that she’s learned something.
The Epstein Files have laid bare that Donald Trump is in a much weaker position than he’d like us to believe, a lame duck with ever-sinking approval ratings. For now, his base is still loyal to him, but the cracks are there for everyone to see. I’m not sure if Taylor Greene and others like her are ready to face the fact that Trump isn’t the man they thought he was, but I do believe a growing number of his supporters from the QAnon/#pizzagate faction of MAGA have to be pondering it, even if they don’t want to.
It’s clear that Trump can’t make Epstein go away, and even his most devoted supporters feel betrayed. The unwavering, unquestioning trust has been lost. Usually, I’d say that the MAGA base will come home because they always do, but this is just one of many cracks showing up in their coalition. What happens next is anyone’s guess.
ICYMI
‘We Ain’t Buying It’: Anti-Trump Groups Call on Economic Boycott Ahead of Thanksgiving Weekend (The Grio) FYI “Several advocacy groups are banding together for a new campaign urging American consumers to participate in a boycott against the nation’s largest corporations, which they say have folded to President Donald Trump‘s “bigoted and anti-democratic attacks on our communities and our values.” The “We Ain’t Buying it” economic pressure campaign, led by Black Voters Matter, Until Freedom, and Indivisible, calls on consumers to boycott Target, Amazon, and Home Depot from Black Friday, Nov. 28, through Cyber Monday, Dec. 1.”
Large Online Propaganda Campaigns Are Flooding the Internet With ‘AI Slop,’ Researchers Say (NBC News) New research from Graphika gives us a sense of where AI slop propaganda is and where it’s probably headed.
How Tech Oligarchs Profit from the Logic of ‘Finitude Capitalism’ and What to Do About It (Tech Policy Press) This is a helpful framework for conceptualizing and understanding the current concentration of wealth and power that Big Tech seems determined to bring about.
At Roundtable, Nessel Blasts Federal SNAP Turmoil as Michigan Communities Face Rising Need (Michigan Advance) This is a notable quote from a statewide elected official, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel: “So when we have the government, for one reason or another, cut off these programs, they’re essentially just taking our money. And it really begs the question, why are we paying federal taxes, if then the money’s not going to come back to us?” It’s also a question more and more of us are asking.
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We’re off next week for the Thanksgiving holiday. I hope you have a restful break and are able to get some downtime with family and friends. Back to it on Sunday, December 7.
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I am surprised and very pleased that some politicians are experiencing a clear blue sky through their brain fog.