Americans rejecting what a MAGAfied America actually looks like: analysis

Former CNBC and CNN White House correspondent John Harwood tells Zeteo that the great American MAGA realignment at Trump’s re-election appears to have been overblown.

“Trump’s shambolic second presidency has shown more vividly than ever what a MAGAfied America represents. And Americans don’t like what they see,” said Harwood.

Polling provides some evidence, said Harwood, particularly with Trump’s 36 percent job approval in a new CNN survey and 63 percent disapproval. Harwood said the public also rejects Trump’s illegal tariffs, which increase consumer costs. And they despise the violent images arising from forceful deportations and the shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents.

“But Trump’s isolation extends way beyond politics itself,” said Harwood. “In multiple realms of American life, [Trump] and his MAGA allies have placed themselves in bitter opposition to the country’s mainstream.”

The recent Super Bowl halftime show featuring Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny enraged MAGA. Harwood said “perpetually angry” pro-Trump influencer Megyn Kelly called the show “a middle finger to the rest of America.”

And at the Winter Olympics, when American athletes slammed ICE’s indiscriminate cruelty, Trump called one of them a “loser.” Again, MAGA voices – impotently – demanded their expulsion from the US team.

But Harwood pointed out that even conservative activists Christopher Rufo complained on social media that MAGA is alienating itself with its “annual conservative outrage cycle over the Super Bowl halftime show.” Plus, Rufo warned “it has no impact on the NFL and makes conservatives look weak and left behind”

“Kid Rock does not change this calculus – he reinforces it,” said Rufo, describing this as “The ghettoization of conservative culture.”

“But a movement built on grievance cannot help ghettoizing itself,” said Harwood.

“When an American politician places himself at odds with financially-pinched consumers, Olympic athletes, the NFL, Tom Hanks, a friendly Supreme Court, and opponents of pedophilia, his adversaries are not the problem,” said Harwood. “He is the problem.”

And Trump’s problem has clearly gone national.

“As it turns out, Trump’s second election win did not reflect a pro-MAGA re-alignment. It showed the power of post-pandemic inflation to alienate less-partisan voters from the Democrats then in charge,” Harwood said. “His gains among Black, Hispanic, and young voters havemelted away.

“Lacking righteousness, reason, and public support, Trump’s movement has only blunt force left,” added Harwood. “He can threaten opponents with political, financial, even physical retribution. As resistance keeps mounting, that won’t be enough.”