‘Trump Has Cost Us’: A Look Into the Republican Party After Electoral Losses
MAGA’s factions disagree about what comes next. Some want a return to populist and nationalist basics. Some want a movement less tied to one man.
Trump supporters attend a campaign event for Team Trump tour in Atlanta, United States on October 31, 2024 PHoto by Anadolu Images.
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s Republicans faced a nationwide drubbing in Tuesday’s midterms, supporters streamed out of a Dallas ballroom after hoping to toast Senate candidate Ken Paxton, a Trump favorite. In the hotel bar, Michael Little, a 59-year-old businessman and three-time Trump voter, stared at the president on television. “People are pissed off at Trump. Trump has cost us,” he said, capturing a sentiment rippling through Make America Great Again after the GOP’s worst electoral defeat in decades.
The losses were more than a repudiation of Trump. They were a referendum on the movement he built. After voters disillusioned by soaring fuel prices, the Iran war and Washington corruption delivered Democrats decisive congressional majorities, MAGA faces a potentially existential question: Is it over?
A movement turns on itself
Reuters interviews with more than a dozen MAGA activists, influencers, strategists, Christian nationalist leaders and researchers show a movement turning its anger inward. Stolen-election claims have mostly gone quiet. Instead, supporters blame Republican leaders, Trump advisers and sometimes the president himself for broken promises on living costs, the Iran war and the withholding of investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein.
MAGA’s factions disagree about what comes next. Some want a return to populist and nationalist basics. Some want a movement less tied to one man. A vocal minority say MAGA is already dead. “We have to rebuild,” Steve Bannon told Reuters, urging a harder populist and nationalist turn. He praised Trump’s promotion of Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration’s immigration crackdown, to chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. “There is no more hardcore MAGA proponent than Stephen,” Bannon said.
An analysis of social media traffic for Reuters by PeakMetrics found more than 20% of MAGA loyalists raised doubts about the movement’s leadership and direction. About half remained supportive of MAGA but no longer backed Trump as its leader; the other half stayed loyal to, though critical of, the president. The analysis sampled 12,850 posts from 4.6 million Trump-related comments on X and Reddit. Of posts assigning blame, nearly a third cited the Iran war and Israel’s influence; a quarter cited Republicans insufficiently committed to MAGA.
Trump doubles down
Trump’s first major response was to double down. He promoted Miller, a move celebrated by ardent MAGA influencers. “Exactly the energy we need,” Benny Johnson posted on X. “It’s Miller Time.” The White House pointed to Trump’s remarks that “If I were on the ballot, we would have won,” and his statement that the Iran war was “largely true” to have cost Republicans because “it drove the gasoline up,” but that he would do it again.
Democrats could hold as many as 56 Senate seats. They won governorships in all seven states Trump carried in 2024 and swept Texas statewide races. Some Republicans have begun openly criticizing Trump. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said corruption was present in “all branches of government,” including “within the Trump administration.” Representative Marlin Stutzman of Indiana called Miller’s promotion a “bad mistake.” “You don’t promote those who were in charge,” he told CNN. The White House cited support from 19 Republican lawmakers.
Election-fraud rhetoric fades
Since Tuesday, talk of election fraud has virtually vanished among right-wing influencers. “I have been banging the drum of rigged and stolen elections since 2020, but that is not why we lost the midterms,” Rogan O’Handley, known as DC_Draino, wrote on X. “We lost because we failed to fix the things voters sent us to do.”
Isabella DeLuca, a 26-year-old conservative influencer pardoned after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, blamed out-of-touch Republican leaders. “Republicans were just lazy,” she said. “Even in a super red state like Texas, you’re not untouchable.” Jennifer Golbeck, a professor who studies MAGA posts, said engagement among Trump’s hardest-core backers has declined, including a 27% drop on Patriots.Win. “They are saying that ‘MAGA is stale,’” she said.
Mike Flynn, the retired general and election denier, accepted defeat, calling it “a massacre” and blaming “the sheer number of broken promises.” Christian nationalist pastor Douglas Wilson said MAGA “is not going anywhere” but must become less personality-driven. Pastor Joel Webbon was blunter: “Trump lost this all by himself.”
(Source: Reuters)
