Politics

The MAGA movement wasn't made by Trump. Trump was made by the MAGA movement.

Nah, he latched onto some anti-establishment, extremely racist, evangelical threads that had been drifting around, and became the face of those movements. But, MAGA is clearly now all Trump. Just look at what happens when someone tries to push those same causes but fails to kiss Trump's ass, like Ron DeSantis. Trump turns on them, so his base turns on them, and they fade into irrelevance.

The GOP is only being held together by the cult of Trump.

That's why it's so remarkable when there are apparent fractures in that base. Who'd have thunk that a base steeped in QAnon conspiracy theories involving child sex trafficking for nearly a decade wouldn't just roll over and take it when Trump decided that he wasn't going to fully release all the Epstein info. Sure some of those who have sworn loyalty to their red hats who have been screaming about child sex slaves for years have suddenly changed their tune to say "it's no big deal, this is a non-story". But, a few of them have actually made it so much a part of their self-identity that they can't just switch gears when the Dear Leader tells them to do so.