MAGA women facing 'existential clash'

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WILKES-BARRE, PA - AUGUST 2, 2018: A group of Trump supporters display their "Women For Trump" and "Keep America Great" signs during the "Make America Great Again" rally held at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

As young women drove this month's Democratic sweep in three states, MAGA women are facing an "existential clash" about what it means to be female and conservative in 2025, writes The Atlantic's Elaine Godfrey.

Godfrey writes about 29-year-old Raquel Debono, a MAGA influencer and lawyer turned party planner, whose "Make America Hot Again" events in New York City were designed to attract "fun, sexy conservatives."

Debono says that the usual MAGA parties she went to were "stuffy," so she decided to throw her own for conservatives who "who might enjoy, say, low taxes and public fornication," Godfrey writes.

Debono, Godfrey explains, "finds the president hilarious and supports his crackdown on illegal immigration, but she also believes that casual sex, abortion, and gay marriage are fine."

"I’ve found Debono fascinating because her attitude is so at odds with those of the more socially conservative women in her political party — women who like to advise their peers to prioritize starting a family over having a career, for example, and who talk about the importance of 'submission' in marriage (and who might not, in other words, be so chill about a couple of sloshed singles getting it on in a bar bathroom)," Godfrey explains.

Women like Debono, who are "socially libertarian," she adds, "have set off an angry debate about which kinds of women are in fact welcome in the MAGA tent."

Debono says there's a difference between what she calls "city Republicans" and "tradwives" — women who embrace and promote a lifestyle centered on traditional gender roles and submission to men, often as a reaction to what they see as the pressures of modern feminism and the "girlboss" era.

If the right wing doesn’t lighten up soon, Debono tells Godfrey, “they’re going to push every woman out of the Republican Party.”

"Like many Trump voters, Debono supports the president for reasons that are less to do with policy and more to do with the freedom to offend," Godfrey explains.

"A lot of it comes down to political correctness," she tells Godfrey, who notes that she uses slurs that would get her canceled outside the MAGAsphere, and admits that she doesn't like Muslims.

Ironically, Debono happens to be Canadian and can't even vote in America despite the fact that "she has managed to make American politics at least a part-time job," Godfrey explains.

"I’m a Sex and the City conservative,” Debono tells Godfrey, referring to the HBO hit about love, shoes, friendships and Cosmopolitans in late 90s and early 2000s Manhattan.

"She sees her role as showing women that there is more than one way to be a Republican," Godfrey explains.

“Breaking news: you can have a job, a martini and still be conservative,” Debono posted earlier this year. “Sry @ trad wives.”

Debono calls Turning Point USA, the conservative youth group founded by murdered MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk, "creepy" and "cult-y," and is seemingly at odds with the women of that group that also make up the MAGA base.

Alex Clark, a 32-year-old Turning Point contributor and podcast host tells Godfrey that Debono's brand of female conservative isn't her cup of tea.

"It’s not conservatism if a bunch of people are involved that aren’t conservative,” she says.

And while Debono thinks Republicans will lose women if they remain as conservative, Clark disagrees, saying that as more young men turn to the GOP, so will young women, because it’s their “natural instinct to follow strong men and strong leadership."

Godfrey says there are a "universe of conservatives to the right of women like Clark," who fall into what she calls "the Ultra-Trad Zone," with hardliners who see Clark and Debono as "covert feminists."

"And after young women voted overwhelmingly for Democrats this month, some of these ultra-trads argued that maybe the Nineteenth Amendment had worn out its welcome," Godfrey notes.

There’s no way to make women more conservative, Savanna Stone, a 20-year-old married influencer, wrote on X. “You just take away their right to vote or make any political decisions.”

MAGA influencer Emily Wilson thinks that's too extreme and, Godfrey explains, "sees the right wing’s hectoring about women’s roles as a huge political liability."

“We’re going to lose elections if we don’t agree to go to the middle ground,” she says.

These differing views are causing infighting between the MAGA women, Godfrey notes.

Wilson found herself in a profanity-and-slur-fueled beef with Sarah Stock, a Catholic commentator and self-described Christian nationalist, who tells Godfrey, "I have no problem with infighting. It exposes a lot of these people as frauds.”

And though this rift isn't poised to split MAGA apart, Godfrey notes, "This month’s disappointing election results have Debono doubling down on her quest to win women and keep the tent big."

Godfrey says that "in September, Debono started consulting for Ethan Agarwal, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and candidate for governor of California, who also happens to be a Democrat."

"He’s a moderate. A Republican is not going to win in California," she tells Godfrey.

"Rather than aligning herself with a losing team, she has simply picked a more winnable fight," Godfrey writes.

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