President Donald Trump holds a Cabinet meeting, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in the Cabinet Room. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)
This time last year, they were among President Donald Trump’s best friends. Now they’re the MAGA faction not only on the outs, but marginalized into their own splinter wing of the GOP.
The Hill reported that key figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson and Joe Kent — the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center — have broken with Trump in a blaze of bridge‑burning.
Kent’s public resignation letter accused Israel of lying to Trump to drag him into war, despite years of “America First” promises and vows of “no new wars.”
Greene has been on Trump’s enemies list since last year, when she backed releasing the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files, even as Trump resisted full disclosure. Since leaving Congress, Greene has gone on a bash‑Trump tour, appearing on “The View” and CNN, after once spending her own money to campaign for him nationwide.
Carlson is furious about Iran and thinks there's a conspiracy afoot in the Epstein files.
Fox's Mark Levin proclaimed that he is one of Trump's true allies, not the likes of Carlson, Greene and Kent. He's not alone, the GOP is behind Trump to the tune of 90 percent, polls show.
Just as Trump bragged in 2016, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's, like, incredible."
According to commentator and SiriusXM host Emily Jashinsky, calling yourself MAGA translates to Trump.
“MAGA” is used as an “imprecise catchall for Trump’s coalition, often meaning Rogan types, Rust Belt Obama voters, etc," she said.
Megyn Kelly, for example, describes herself as “MAGA‑adjacent,” even though she was on the trail promoting Trump in 2024. Meanwhile, the “shadow MAGA” faction feels betrayed by a GOP establishment that has been beating the war drum for years.
“There seems to be broad agreement even among supporters of Trump’s Iran war that he’s broken campaign pledges by initiating it,” The Hill notes.
The report cited a Politico poll that found even self-described MAGA Trump voters support his war only to the tune of 56 percent, even though they support him at 90 percent. But, many (36 percent) think Trump has broken his promises.
Now there's a nuanced argument about whether "America First" means no wars and a policy of restraint in foreign policy is a key part of "shadow MAGA" the report said.
The question remains whether that faction could outlast Trump himself. While all three remain publicly loyal to Trump, the report suggests they are quietly building separate fundraising networks, media ecosystems, and issue niches that could let them inherit or fracture the Trump coalition. The result is a movement that is less a singular Trump cult than a growing ecosystem of Trump-aligned but potentially rival power centers, with serious implications for the future of the Republican Party and American politics.