Republicans are tearing each other apart — and Democrats need to exploit it

15 January

Steve Bannon speaking with attendees at an Arizona First Election Eve rally at the Yavapai County Courthouse in Prescott, Arizona.

We all saw what happened when MAGA finally got control of Congress in 2022. They ripped down their leaders, engaged in political theater, and got nothing done.

Now they have the White House, the Senate, and the House—by a smaller majority than before.

And so far, barely taking office, they’ve been at one another’s throats, already using violent rhetoric on their own. This is not just about what it seems on the surface—competing forces vying for Donald Trump’s attention. That’s bad enough, as Trump is suffering significant cognitive decline.

Before the election, the media finally began discussing Trump’s mental incapacities, as late and inadequate as it was. After President Biden stepped down from the race, he was no longer the oldest person running. We suddenly saw stories in the media about Trump’s decline.

From Trump’s rambling speeches and the possible causes to major deep dives by publications like The New York Times—which were late in focusing on this—and academic institutions weighing in, attention sharply shifted to Trump’s mental capacity. The examples—from the crazy town hall where he stopped talking and just played music to the confusion he had between Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi—were numerous.

Just because the reporting about it has stopped—as our incompetent and fearful media has been acquiescing to Trump since the election—doesn’t mean the cognitive decline has ended. Just last week Trump gave another rambling speech, talking about washing machines and windmills and taking Greenland by force, and he has repeated a lot of this on social media. That’s where the competing forces in MAGA are able to just steamroll Trump, who is slow on the uptake and not able to respond quickly. This happened in the crazy uproar over the spending bill to keep the government from shutting down back in December.

Elon Musk stoked rage among the extremists in the House, who took it to House Speaker Mike Johnson, forcing him to kill a bill that Trump himself was onboard with, hours before the government would cease functioning. Trump was completely checked out, not sharp enough to seize control, and totally sidelined. He was forced to eventually back Musk, throwing Johnson under the bus. In the end the new bill wasn’t much different, and most of MAGA was still furious. The whole thing was an example of the power vacuum that’s evident while Trump is just not at the wheel.

So those kinds of battles by competing forces within MAGA that take advantage of Trump’s mental decline—his inability to take charge and act quickly—will be numerous.

But there’s another dynamic in place that is just endemic to MAGA, whether Trump is president—and competed over—or not. And that gets back to what happened in the last Congress. They simply don’t know how to govern, nor do they have an interest in it. So when they’re in control, they just turn on one another.

All that MAGA knows is how to attack, how to fight, how to find a political enemy somewhere—even among their own—and engage in political theater.

And that’s a lot of what is going on now between Steve Bannon and Elon Musk. Sure, Bannon doesn’t like the idea of Musk using his money to have access to Trump and then driving policy. But Bannon also sees someone with power that needs to be taken down, and there’s just no Democrat right now in power—no president (after next week), no Senate leader, no House leader—to engage in battle with who has the power that Elon Musk does. Even Trump himself seems feeble compared to Musk.

Bannon is still furious over Musk’s position on H-1B visas that erupted at the end of last month.

“The reason I’m in America, along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong, is because of H1B,” Musk wrote on X. “Take a big step back and F--- YOURSELF in the face. … I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”

The MAGA faithful are furious because Musk wants to hire immigrants whom he and the tech moguls can pay less than American citizens. Bannon flew into a violent rage, threatening that MAGA will “rip your face off” because, according to Bannon, Musk wants to take high-paying jobs away from Americans.

“They’re recent converts,” Bannon said on his podcast about Musk and the other tech titans who backed Trump. “We love converts. But the converts sit in the back and study for years and years and years to make sure you understand the faith and you understand the nuances of the faith and understand how you can internalize the faith.”

Bannon warned Musk not to “start lecturing people about the way things are going to be.”

Now Bannon, in a new interview in an Italian newspaper, called Musk “an evil person” and a “racist” and said, “I will get Elon Musk kicked out by the time he’s inaugurated. He won’t have a blue pass with full access to the White House.” It’s all pretty hilarious.

Trump has stayed out of it so far, but that’s not going to cut it. Both Musk and Bannon have a huge base of supporters, and this will only escalate. And for Bannon and his followers, it is simply about the void in not having a high-profile Democrat to attack, because attacking is all they know how to do.

A similar thing erupted over the weekend when JD Vance told Fox News that Trump would be pardoning only those January 6th insurrectionists who didn’t commit violent acts. Those who engaged in violence would not be pardoned, he said.

This drove MAGA insurrectionists into a meltdown, some of them engaging in violent rhetoric on X, saying they will “raise hell,” vowing vengeance. Vance was forced to respond that he gave money to the “J6 political prisoner fund,” and he’s only talking about those who received “garbage trials.” This only enraged the MAGA masses further, as many responded that none of the insurrectionists received “fair trials” and were simply turning out to protect Trump and expected pardons.

Again, this was about lashing out at someone in authority, as MAGA only knows how to react and respond. It doesn’t bode well for Trump moving forward, whether he’s checked out because of cognitive decline or just running and hiding. It will continually blow up in his face.

Democrats in the House were masterful in the last Congress at exploiting the MAGA divisions and the insane political theater. It cost the GOP in the House, who now have a smaller majority. Heading into the 2026 mid-terms, Democrats need to be ready to do the same, as a similar dynamic plays out all across Trumpworld.

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