Erika Kirk, wife of slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk and the new CEO of Turning Point USA, reacts as she takes the stage. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Even President Donald Trump can't stop the feuds brewing across his MAGA movement.
Writing on Friday, Mother Jones writer David Corn explained that the far-right's "deepening fault line" persists as isolationists battle with the ride-or-die Trump supporters.
"An outsider cannot keep track of the infighting without a program or a wire diagram that would make Carrie Mathison proud," joked Corn, a reference to the fictional CIA officer played by Claire Danes in "Homeland."
While some have focused on the feud between Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk and his widow, Corn points to the brewing fight between Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who are battling over the war in Iran. Carlson, an anti-interventionist, attacked Cruz for being a warmonger. Cruz attacked Carlson for allowing known antisemite and white nationalist Nick Fuentes to host his show. Cruz called Carlson “complicit in…evil."
"This tiff led to a civil war inside the influential Heritage Foundation between those who backed Carlson (including its president) and those who found his association with Fuentes despicable," Corn continued.
It was just the beginning of a row between the hawks and isolationists that "has led to more MAGA-on-MAGA catfighting."
The next is "Fox News loudmouths Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade and Mark Levin, along with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro," on one side and Carlson and Megyn Kelly on the other. The former is supportive of Trump, while the latter is furious with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who they alleged roped Trump into a war.
Kelly called out Levin as an "Israel firster." Levin called Kelly an “emotionally unhinged, lewd and petulant wreck.” It got worse from there, with Kelly claiming Levin wasn't well-endowed. Levin attacked her "filthy mouth" and referenced the 1970's adult film "Deep Throat."
The Owens vs. Kirk battle has deepened over the past several weeks, even after Erika Kirk begged Owens to stop. Shapiro and Trump acolyte Laura Loomer got dragged into it. At one point, Joe Kent, who left the Trump administration over the Iran war, tried to "investigate" one of Owens' conspiracy theories about foreign involvement in Kirk's murder. He reportedly infuriated "FBI Director Kash Patel by digging through the FBI files on the case without being authorized to do so," said Corn.
Somehow it got crazier when Patel's girlfriend "took the suspicion and paranoia to a new level," said Corn. He cited her 13-part screed on X, which alleges she is the victim of a spy operation that is going after the Republican Party itself. She called it a “foreign-linked influence network” trying to create “chaos" to subvert Trump's agenda and ensure GOP losses in the Midterm Elections.
"Her posts were convoluted, but she cited a bunch of familiar names as seeming participants in this diabolical scheme, including Michael Flynn ... Catholics for Catholics, Owens, Kent and RT, the English-language Russian propaganda outlet," cited Corn.
“The goal of this operation,” Wilkins claimed, “is not to win a political argument, but to make the fractures feel permanent. To make Republicans believe their movement is over. To make soldiers feel the war isn’t worth fighting.”
This all comes amid an elderly friend of Kirk's who died last week after a "pickleball accident."
Corn thinks the red threads connecting the conspiracy board likely come from a void in leadership in the wake of Kirk's death. Given that Trump will be term-limited in 34 months, it means an heir to MAGA is needed, and MAGA must decide if it supports interventions like Trump's war in Iran or is against it. Whoever gets the crown will also get a hefty bucket of funding that goes along with it.
"During transitional phases, underlying tensions in a movement will surface. And when a movement is predicated on deranged notions, what emerges will be batcrap bananas," said Corn." That’s what’s happening now in Trumpland. These volcanic eruptions triggered by MAGA’s shifting tectonic plates are spewing lunacy."