How MAGA Republicans have declared war on 'heretics' who 'refute the Gospel of Trump'

On Thursday, December 4, conservative Republican Olivia Troye — a former national security aide to ex-Vice President Mike Pence who supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election — reported, on X, that she had received a letter from Kash Patel's attorney threatening her with legal action and demanding that she retract her "comments on MSNBC about his unfitness to serve as FBI director." But Troye declared, "I stand by my statements."

Patel is among the Trump allies journalist Ross Rosenfeld discusses in an article published by The New Republic the following day. From Patel to "War Room" host Steve Bannon to anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Rosenfeld warns, President-elect Donald Trump's second term will have little or no tolerance for dissent.

"Trumpworld stands ready to stamp out dissent," Rosenfeld argues. "Not just the dissent itself, but the dissenters: those heretics who refute the Gospel of Trump and insist that his second coming, and his second administration, stands to deliver nothing but ill to the United States. Those with differing opinions are set to run afoul of those coming to power."

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Rosenfeld quotes Patel's own words, noting that during an appearance on Bannon's "War Room," he threatened, "We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media. Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections."

But Patel, Rosenfeld stresses, is hardly the only Trump ally who has no tolerance for criticism of "King Donald."

Trump has nominated RFK Jr. to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

"Robert Kennedy Jr. fits snugly within this movement," according to Rosenfeld. "Like Patel, RFK Jr. has promised to clean house when approved for his new position as secretary of health and human services. He's said he'd likely fire around 600 employees at the National Institutes of Health who don't see his vision."

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Rosenfeld adds, "He's also promised to fire, on Day One, 'every nutritional scientist at (the Food and Drug Administration) because all of them are corrupt — all of them are complicit in the poisoning of our children."

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Ross Rosenfeld's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.