'Neofascist revolutionary project': How MAGA is ramping up its propaganda 'machine'

03 April

President Donald Trump, close ally Elon Musk and the Republican National Committee (RNC) were bitterly disappointed when, on April 1, liberal Judge Susan Crawford defeated conservative Judge Brad Schimel by roughly 10 percent in a Wisconsin Supreme Court election. Although the race was technically nonpartisan, it became a referendum of Trump and Musk — and their candidate, Schimel, suffered a double-digit loss. Democrats, meanwhile, are celebrating Crawford's win as a decisive victory for their party in a key swing state that Trump won in 2024.

But when Trump experiences a setback, he doesn't back down, but rather, doubles down. And so do many of his hardcore MAGA allies.

In an article published on April 3, Salon's Chauncey DeVega emphasizes that as Trump's post-election victory march is slowing down, the MAGA "propaganda" machine is ramping up its efforts.

"With his return to the White House," DeVega explains, "Donald Trump now has the singularly powerful bully pulpit and megaphone of the presidency, and with that, great control and influence over a vast multimedia propaganda communications machine — which includes not only television, radio and print, but also, social media, podcasts, YouTube and other online spaces and digital culture…. Trump and his agents and strategists are continuing to expand their ability to rapidly, if not almost instantaneously, shape and control the information space."

The "MAGAverse" and the "larger right-wing echo chamber," according to DeVega, exist in an "alternate reality" — and are quite adept at getting their message out.

"The Democrats and other mainstream establishment political voices, including small 'c' conservatives and traditional Republicans, who believe in America's democratic institutions, the Constitution, the rule of law and 'normality,' have not built an equivalent experience machine," DeVega laments. "This is one of the main reasons why Donald Trump and his authoritarian populist MAGA movement and the larger global antidemocracy movement have been so effective in their revolutionary project to end America's multiracial pluralistic democracy and civil society."

DeVega notes that according to Media Matters, "right-leaning online shows had at least 480.6 million total followers and subscribers — nearly five times as many as left-leaning." And the lesson for Democrats, according to DeVega, is that they need to work really hard on their messaging.

"The Democratic Party is facing an uphill battle in this moment of populist rage because in the minds of many 'working-class' everyday Americans," DeVega warns, "it has been made into the face of 'the elites,' the status quo, and 'political correctness' with its empty symbolic politics that have failed to protect them from the vicissitudes of cannibal capitalism and declining social mobility. Donald Trump and MAGA have filled that political void."

DeVega continues, "The Democratic Party needs to rebrand itself. Central to that effort must be the creation of its own experience machine."

Chauncey DeVega's full article for Salon is available at this link.

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