Don’t Give MAGA Defectors Credit They Haven’t Earned

For the record, Tucker Carlson will sleep well tonight. I know that in a recent podcast video posted just a few days ago, he sounded positively guilt-ridden — saying he was “sorry for misleading people” into supporting Trump, “involved” in Trump’s wars across the Middle East, and that he would be “tormented…for a long time” for campaigning for Trump in 2024. And in 2020. And also in 2016, presumably. As we know from a slew of his leaked texts in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Carlson has been privately disparaging Trump as far back as 2021. His recent apology also covered up his help in electing a man he described, in those text messages, as “a demonic force” and “a destroyer” who he “hates.”[d]…passionately,” and he was eager to “ignore” once Biden took office, as we learned from text messages revealed by Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News? Should we just assume he feels contrition for hitting send on a text in which he called Trump “the undisputed champion of the world…of destroying things” and then went on television that evening and called his audience racist marks and put-downs to get them to vote for him? And do the same thing the next night? And the next one. For not one, not two, but three elections?

He then seems to have slept like a baby. A rich baby who knew exactly what he was doing, and still does.

Carlson was always going to sleep well. But it’s banal that way. Many MAGA spokespeople now disavow their long-standing support for the president. That includes Alex Jones, Candace Owens and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, each of whom recently called for Trump’s impeachment. As well as podcast brothers Andrew Shulz, Tim Dillon, Joe Rogan, Theo Von and Dave Smith, who used their enormous influence to defend Trump when it mattered most. but now keep repeating versions of “That’s not what I voted for.” In a single rant earlier this month, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly accused the president of being “gullible,” “confused” and “too weak to say no” to Israel’s war plans in Iran, while Ann Coulter attacked him for “committing war crimes” in the Middle East. They are joined by Trump supporters who have told pollsters and reporters they are angry at the president describing himself like a white Jesus, or fighting with the pope, or, most importantly, it drives up the price of gas even more.

I know the bar for Trump supporters is set very low, which is why every gesture toward decency on their part is treated as a profile of courage, including by supposed left-wing pundits and congressional Democrats including Ro Khanna and Ilhan Omar. But now is not the time to mistake ex-MAGAs for decent people, even if they cosplay as such, pretending it was Trump who changed. “I’m embarrassed that I told people to vote for him,” Owens said last year, saying “he’s not the candidate I voted for.” Trump is “not the same man we supported,” Marjorie Taylor Greene insisted a few weeks ago on the Alex Jones podcast. And Jones himself now says that Trump is “not the man he was last year,” noting that he tends to chatter and seems like his brain isn’t heating up too much. Well taken, Alex, you have just perfectly described Trump’s daily behavior over the last two decades! Trump remains as openly and unapologetically a predatory, liar, thief, racist and as petty, petty and insecure as the day you first supported him – not despite, but because of these many shortcomings.

Just like no one should give Trump credit for remaining as horrible as he’s ever been, you also don’t have to give credit to MAGA defectors for claiming to see the light. They may no longer support Trump, but they strongly support the moral bankruptcy of Trumpism. Yes, Tucker Carlson apologized for supporting Trump — during a podcast conversation with his brother Buckley, which seemed to double as a competition to see who could be the most visibly loathsome. Both men took turns claiming that Obama “really hates white people” (Tucker), calling Kamala Harris “Cackling Camel Toe” (Buckley), claiming that Biden had authorized the “takedown.” [of] all statues to white people (Tucker),” calling the George Floyd protests a “manufactured crisis…designed to get rid of white cops” (Buckley), complaining about the unfair treatment of Big Tobacco (both), insinuating that Trump had sex with black women and therefore couldn’t be racist – as if slaveholders hadn’t done the same for centuries (both). What Bravo Did for Housewives — told the story of a Jewish acquaintance whose father sued a country club that had discriminated against her family, an act Carlson calls “repugnant.”

“You should have the right to date whoever you want, regardless of the basis on which you want to make that decision,” he said. “I was like, the hatred behind it, it’s like the desire to destroy something that you didn’t build.”

This is the same man who, in 2021, called Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot a “monster” and compared her to Nazis for asking her press office to prioritize journalists of color in meetings. Advocate for diversity in newsrooms and it’s tyranny, but ask WASPs at country clubs to admit a Jewish family, and you’ll hear Carlson cry white genocide. He is a deceitful liar, hypocrite, fueling racial hatred and It is why he supported Trump.

Carlson – and all one grievance other MAGA defectors voted for Trump because they, too, are horrible. And like the man they put in power, they remain committed to Trump’s worst ideas and policies, but with less Zionism and cheaper eggs. Backing away from Trumpism is a sign that they are recalibrating, waiting for the next big scam opportunity, without re-examining the immorality that led them to this point. (And in Tucker’s case, I fear he might run for president – with Greene already supporting him.) I understand these are dark times and heroes are few and far between, but crooks will prey.

Additionally, reports of Trump’s political death have been greatly exaggerated. Die-hard Trump voters — those who identify not only as supporters, but also as MAGA — are, about 100 percent, still with him. For all the breathless claims that his white working-class support has collapsed, a CNN poll from late March put him at just 50 percent disapproval, with 49 percent approval. Megyn Kelly, just days after calling Trump a thoughtless idiot, announced that “Trump could drop a nuclear weapon and I would still vote Republican.” Joe Rogan calls himself “politically homeless,” then hangs out with Trump at UFC events and even appears for photo ops with the president in the Oval Office. In 2020, Carlson prevailed in a defamation lawsuit because his lawyers argued that his television persona was an “exaggeration”, offering “non-literal comments” and that viewers should maintain “an appropriate degree of skepticism”. During a 2017 trial, Alex Jones’ defense was that he was a “performance artist” who was “playing a character.” These people make a living by speaking from the side of their mouth that serves them at any given moment.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in a thinly veiled rebuke of Trump’s warmongering, responded to the U.S.-Iran ceasefire by highlighting his country’s refusal “to applaud those who set the world on fire just because they come with a bucket,” adding: “But this momentary relief cannot make us forget the chaos, the destruction and the lives lost.” » These words apply just as well to Trump defectors.