All posts tagged "maga"

Scandal-plagued MAGA Republican loses Florida primary race

Scandal-plagued Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) lost his reelection bid in Florida's primary election on Tuesday, dealing a significant blow to President Donald Trump and his MAGA coalition.

The race was called by NBC News and the Associated Press

Mills, 46, ran for a third term in Florida's 7th Congressional District against three other Republican contenders, including popular conservative news anchor Ryan Elijah.

Before voters cast their ballots in the Sunshine State, a new poll from Capital Strategic Partners this week showed that 44 percent of likely voters support Elijah, compared to only 27 percent for Mills.

Mills was endorsed by Trump and has been the subject of a House ethics investigation surrounding allegations of sexual misconduct and domestic violence. He suffered a massive blow last week, after outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) refused to endorse the incumbent Republican, telling reporters, "I have not endorsed Cory Mills, and I do not support Cory Mills."

'Shadow first lady?' Ex-GOP insider reveals why savage Trump takedown left MAGA reeling

President Donald Trump and MAGA's furious reaction to Sen. Jon Ossoff's (D-GA) takedown of the commander-in-chief and his close aide Natalie Harp has set off his right-wing coalition, a former Republican insider said.

In his Substack and podcast on Tuesday, Steve Schmidt said Ossoff's comments have sent MAGA into a frenzy.

"What precisely is the relationship?" Schmidt asked. "Is she a young Eva Braun, devoted to her Führer? Is she more like a young Magda Goebbels? What is she exactly? Is she the equivalent of one of Putin's secret mistresses? Is she our shadow first lady, or as has been described as a human binky, a printer?"

Schmidt commended Ossoff for raising the question.

"This is a 10 out of 10. And it's true. And they went nuts. Full on nuts," Schmidt said. "Here is Donald Trump's version of Goldfinger's chauffeur and manservant, Oddjob. Steven Cheung, one of the most disgusting of all of the MAGA figures. Hit dog barks, as the old Texas saying goes, and they are screaming all over MAGAland."

Schmidt pointed to why the move has aggravated MAGA.

"But what is true today is always the case that MAGA is fueled by victimization," he explained. "Each day that Trump can portray himself as a victim is a winning day for MAGA. Because though they are not a cargo cult, they are a victim cult. And now Trump and his young ingénue, his muse, together they are victims."

Schmidt described how Trump has been convinced of this victimhood, and instead he is "our American Nero, a combination of Caligula and Jeffrey Epstein, an obese, orange-tinted, demented, deranged old man."

"The President of the United States — the architect of a lost war to Iran. A felon. A sexual predator and deviant. The man who knocked down the White House," Schmidt added. "Remember, he's no victim. The next time Jon Ossoff tells the truth about him. And by the way, what a breath of fresh air that is. A Democrat who's completely, absolutely, completely unafraid. He looks to me like a leader, maybe even a president."

GOP turmoil looms as Trump chooses his greatest love over Republicans: ex-GOP strategist

Former Republican operative Rick Wilson argued that President Donald Trump doesn't plan to use his 'MAGA money pile' to save Republicans in the midterms.

In his Substack on Tuesday, Wilson revealed that Trump's deepest affection is for one thing and one thing only: cash.

"Donald Trump likes money," Wilson wrote. "He likes it more than he likes anything else in this world, including his children. That love of cash has manifested itself this year in an epic tidal wave of political corruption."

And with MAGA Inc. holding onto $400 million just as midterms draw nearer and the Republican Party has about $160 million, it's unlikely Trump will use any of the MAGA donations to help secure a Republican majority in the House or Senate, Wilson explained.

"Yes, he’s raked in billions from crypto scams, from selling pardons to criminals, from side deals to enrich himself, his family, and a host of other scummy and entirely predictable actors," Wilson wrote. "Why not collect more from the suckers funding MAGA Inc?"

"We’re missing something about the MAGA Inc. money," Wilson wrote. "Trump believes it’s his. In his mind, it wasn’t raised for the party. It wasn’t raised for candidates. It wasn’t raised to ensure an electoral victory this fall. He thinks it was raised for him, literally and personally for him. Sure, that’s an ugly and stupid category error, but why would you expect anything different at this point?"

Wilson also dropped a blunt note.

"Trump also has one thing going for him that no other Republican candidate has ever had. He isn’t really a Republican," Wilson wrote. "Donald Trump is a member of the Trump party, a party dedicated to one man, and a singularly self-obsessed man at that. So put yourself inside that rattled, sloppy brain for a moment. You see a political tidal wave coming for the GOP. You’re sitting on nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars that might not even save them. What do you do?"

"If you’re Donald Trump, I’ll tell you exactly what you do. You spend it on yourself. You transfer it into your own pockets," Wilson added. "Trump doesn’t care whether Republicans win or lose, except insofar as losing might be a slight inconvenience in terms of investigations."

Crowd erupts as Trump foe mocks his MAGA 'scandal piñata' opponent

Georgia Senate candidate and Trump foe Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) took a swipe at Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) that got laughs from a crowd on Tuesday.

Ossoff and Collins are vying to represent Georgia in the Senate. During a campaign event in Columbus, Georgia, joined by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) — another President Donald Trump adversary — Ossoff launched a jab at the MAGA candidate endorsed by the president.

"This scandal piñata, Mike Collins," Ossoff said. "Every time you shake Congressman Collins, new misdeeds fall out. Have you seen it?"

The audience cracked up at the comment.

"Mike Collins is pro-war, he's pro-tariffs, he's pro-cutting your health care," Ossoff added. "He's a bigot and a Trump puppet."

Ossoff has been a sharp critic of Trump and just days ago suggested that the president had different priorities in a biting speech.

"While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings," Ossoff said. "He golfs and trades stocks. So he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar."

Collins has faced his own share of controversies, including a House Ethics Committee investigation over allegations that he misused congressional funds and paid an intern who allegedly performed no work while dating his then-chief of staff. The Senate candidate's campaign has also been rocked by high staff turnover, an incident involving a former aide's participation in a group chat with white nationalists and renewed scrutiny over his history of racially charged social media posts.

Ossoff gets laughs for calling Mike Collins "the scandal pinata" and adds that he's "a bigot and Trump puppet" pic.twitter.com/kHbxuXYuIA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 18, 2026

Dire warning as 'lightning' strike forecast in MAGA's epicenter: analyst

A political analyst on Tuesday revealed that despite the challenge, the conditions could be right to flip red-state Florida blue.

As Florida voters cast their ballots on primary election day, Newsweek national political correspondent Alex J. Rouhandeh took a deeper dive into the competitive race among Democrats and how President Donald Trump's low approval rating could "create the kind of climate" ripe for a swing.

"Florida has become the epicenter of MAGA, but that hasn’t stopped Never Trump candidates Alex Vindman and David Jolly from making waves in the state," Rouhandeh wrote on X.

Jolly, a former GOP representative, was vying to stay on top of the ticket in the Democratic primary for governor. Alex Vindman, retired Army lieutenant colonel and the whistleblower who helped push Trump's first impeachment forward, is also competing for a U.S. Senate seat in the state. Both candidates were expected to be the front-runners, according to prediction market Kalshi. Kalshi gave the Democratic candidates more than 90 percent odds of leading the Democratic primary race.

Rouhandeh pointed to a comment from Mike Madrid, “The Latino Century” author and Latino GOP political consultant.

"If lightning is going to be caught in a bottle, it requires an environment precisely like this one," Madrid told Rouhandeh.

"Flipping Florida remains a longshot for Democrats, but the party there has done about all it can to make that longshot possible," Rouhandeh reported.

Florida has become the epicenter of MAGA, but that hasn’t stopped Never Trump candidates Alex Vindman and David Jolly from making waves in the state

“If lightning is going to be caught in a bottle, it requires an environment precisely like this one,” @madrid_mike told me.… pic.twitter.com/v6QdqIWILQ
— Alex J. Rouhandeh (@AlexRouhandeh) August 18, 2026

'Terrified' MAGA couple turns on Trump after brutal encounter: 'We are living in fear'

A man who voted for President Donald Trump three times is decrying the administration after his wife's arrest left her "terrified."

A Sunday article by The New York Times detailed how Brent Jindra and his Russian wife Galina Bobreneva were left rattled after a 16-day ordeal in which she was detained in a basement holding cell by immigration enforcement.

The couple got off a flight in Burbank, California, and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in a brown hoodie stopped Bobreneva for questioning before handcuffing her and taking her away in an unmarked vehicle. She was held in Los Angeles then spent two weeks in a Mojave Desert detention center before being freed on a $35,000 bond, according to The Times.

"The allure of the MAGA campaign was around illegal entries of criminals," Jindra, her husband, said. "There was never a mandate for this president to turn the barrel of the gun and start going after people who legally entered."

Bobreneva was released with an electronic ankle monitor and is still fighting to stay in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security told The Times that she was "an illegal alien" who was detained because "she overstayed her welcome in violation of our nation's laws."

According to The Times, Bobreneva has a pending green card application, but her lawyer argues that she was never out of lawful status.

She told The Times that she was held in a frigid room with a handful of other women, including one who was a diabetic in her 70s, pleading for insulin to no avail.

Since her arrest, Bobreneva has been "struggling to sleep and was terrified of being detained again," The Times reported, adding that Jindra was also "nervous."

"I never thought that it was so easy to take freedom from anyone," Bobreneva said.

"We are living in fear in my own country," Jindra added.

Trump's 401(k) overhaul deluged with fake MAGA fawning — some from dead people

President Donald Trump's controversial 401(k) proposal was flooded with sham MAGA commentators — and some of them aren't actually alive, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

An examination of nearly 12,000 comments supporting the administration's proposed rule uncovered submissions made under the names of people who died, Bloomberg reported.

More than 30,000 submissions opposed the plan and included their name, city, state, or email address. And in the supportive comments, no signatures, personal information or "variation in the text" were included, according to Bloomberg.

"Bloomberg attempted to contact dozens of the people whose names were attached to the 12,000 comments and found five cases in which people said they — or their family members — did not submit them," the outlet reported.

Known as "astroturfing," the practice of drumming up fake public support has become commonplace in Washington, where agencies collect public comments as part of the rule-making process.

"It’s neither unusual nor improper for such comments to arrive as form letters, provided that the individuals whose names appear on them have actually signed their names," according to Bloomberg. "But that’s not always the case. Both the Federal Communications Commission and the US Securities and Exchange Commission have seen rulemakings tainted by astroturfing in recent years."

"While such campaigns have created political backlash and can lead to government investigations, they’re difficult to police, and perpetrators are rarely punished," Bloomberg reported.

The pro-plan comments apparently used five different templates, but it's difficult to determine who drafted them.

"Bloomberg reporters contacted more than two dozen investment firms, trade groups and advocacy organizations that have announced their support for the rule," according to the outlet. "None said they had information about who was behind the campaigns."

'Rabid MAGA' candidate's 'delicious loss' reveals how far Trump has fallen: analyst

Former Republican operative Rick Wilson signaled that MAGA's reliance on President Donald Trump has backfired in primary elections this week.

In his Substack, the co-founder of the anti-Trump organization The Lincoln Project detailed how Trump ally Mike Lindell's "amusing and delicious loss" in the Minnesota Republican primary revealed just how the president's standing has fallen among voters.

Wilson shared a strategy that he expects will play out come November.

"The lesson of last night, and it’s one that I’ve repeated for several decades now, is that candidate quality matters most," Wilson wrote.

"Candidate fit-to-district is a very close second," he explained. "Don’t run a DSA candidate in a red state, no matter how good that makes you feel. If I were advising the GOP still, the lesson would be 'Don’t run a rabid MAGA screamer in a blue state or district,' not that the MAGA GOP has anything left but rabid MAGA screamers."

And with primary season wrapping up, he suggested Democrats could make serious gains in midterms.

"The final sprint is before us," Wilson added. "The landscape remains strongly favorable for big Democratic wins, as long as they stick to the message of economic affordability and ending the corruption that’s causing it. They win as long as they stick to their guns on tying MAGA candidates to Trump and his deeply, wildly unpopular positions."

Stunning reason JD Vance won't condemn white nationalist revealed in private chat

Former Yale Law classmates of JD and Usha Vance revealed the reason why President Donald Trump's vice president will not condemn far-right influencer and white nationalist Nick Fuentes, according to a new Vanity Fair report on Wednesday.

The couple's former peers have formed a private chat on Signal, where they discuss their shock at the couple's MAGA political rise, Vanity Fair reported. And as Fuentes, a right-wing figure, has attacked Usha Vance over her race, JD Vance has proven just as reluctant to call out his movement's fringes, even in defense of his own family.

In December 2025, during Turning Point USA's annual convention, JD Vance voiced his opposition to "purity tests" as a heated debate was underway over whether Fuentes should be platformed by the right given his antisemitic views.

"I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform," Vance said. He suggested that the right-wing movement "should welcome anyone who loves America," saying, "white or black, rich or poor, young or old, rural or urban, controversial or a little bit boring, or somewhere in between."

The Vances' classmates described why the statement was so telling.

"Usha must have been okay with it," the former classmate told Vanity Fair. "JD is an old-fashioned man who wants to protect his family, and unless she went along with it, he never would have not defended her. He is quick to anger and he’s very loyal. The choice not to criticize Nick Fuentes and people like him in the Republican Party—that is a choice."

"As JD has ascended, Usha has made real sacrifices: giving up a legal career, absorbing racist attacks, and dealing with threats to her family’s safety, including a planned attack against Trump and his top officials during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25," Vanity Fair reported. "Whether her personal beliefs fully align with her husband’s, or with those of the party he now represents, may matter less than it once would have."

'That supposed to scare people?': Photo of Karoline Leavitt's attack notes sparks mockery

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt may have inadvertently exposed a MAGA strategy for a recent conservative television appearance, critics argued on Tuesday.

Leavitt snapped a photo of her notes and shared it on social media on Monday just as she was preparing to speak with Fox News personality Sean Hannity. Patriot Takes, an X account focused on researching and monitoring right-wing extremism and other threats to democracy, noticed the detail.

"Karoline Leavitt’s note inside her Fox News media van reminds her to say 'extreme liberal Democrats' while on air with Sean Hannity," the social media account noted.

Leavitt, who speaks on behalf of President Donald Trump, has often used that term to describe people who oppose the president and his policies. During her Fox News segment Monday night, she claimed that under President Trump, Americans were safer and the country was more affordable.

"We cannot allow these radical extreme far left liberals to take power," Leavitt said during the interview. "We have steady progress under President Trump right now. If these radical extreme liberals are given a chance at power in Washington, D.C., they will try to obstruct this president and turn our country into a communist hellhole with every extreme liberal policy that they try to implement."

Commentators on social media responded to Leavitt's notes.

"Extreme liberalism, that supposed to scare people?" User Vinny, who frequently shares progressive content, wrote on X.

"Because she says it so seldom? No, she has to write it down because she doesn't know what she's talking about. Why should she be any different from the rest of this ugly, corrupt, fiscally incompetent & non-democratic administration?" Fiona Kenny, Canadian liberal commentator, wrote on X.

"Extremely Radical Republicans," Helen Self, a progressive commentator, wrote on X.

"It’s wild how passionately she peddles the same daily lies and misinformation as her Daddy, acting like the rest of us live on the moon and somehow missed what’s actually happening in this country. What a disgrace of Administration," Reyes Ruiz, an X user who frequently comments on MAGA talking points, wrote on X.

Karoline Leavitt’s note inside her Fox News media van reminds her to say “extreme liberal Democrats” while on air with Sean Hannity. pic.twitter.com/vPQ4XcJfOG
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) August 11, 2026