MAGA facing 'clear liabilities' as GOP struggles with post-Trump future

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he departs Walter Reed National Military Medical Center following his annual physical exam, in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., October 10, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo

Back in 2008, Republicans drew a lot of mockery for constantly mentioning the late President Ronald Reagan during one of their presidential primary debates. It didn't matter whether they were debating foreign policy or tax policy — the presidential hopefuls never missed a chance to mention Reagan and tie themselves to his massive influence on the Republican Party. But that was before Donald Trump, in 2016, gave the GOP a huge makeover that had more in common with Patrick Buchanan's American First ideology than with Reagan's traditional morning-in-America conservatism — much to the dismay of attorney George Conway, MS NOW's Joe Scarborough, The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson and other Never Trumpers.

Now ten months into his second presidency, Trump remains the most influential Republican in the United States — and Reaganism is a distant memory.

In an in-depth opinion column/think piece published on December 2, Edsall grapples with the MAGA movement's post-Trump future.

"First, can a MAGA movement that coalesced around Trump — based on a shared hatred of the left — continue without Trump?," Edsall asks. "Second, can Trumpism be institutionalized in a way that makes it a sustained, if not permanent, political force dominating the Republican Party and the right more broadly?"

Edsall notes that Vice President JD Vance, often mentioned as the MAGA movement's most likely post-Trump figure, is "determined to prove that the answers to both questions is yes." But some of the political scholars and authors Edsall quotes in his column doubt that Vance has what it takes to go the distance as a presidential candidate.

Laura K. Field, author of the book "Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right," said of Vance, "I don't see him possessing the same level of charisma as Trump. On the other hand, Vance has worked hard to cultivate ties with most of the factions.”

Field views some of the behind-the-scenes MAGA influencers — including billionaire tech bro Peter Thiel, the Claremont Institute and Project 2025 — as too "radical" for mainstream voters. Thiel infamously said that "freedom and democracy" are no longer "compatible."

Rachel Blum, a University of Oklahoma political scientist, said of MAGA, "Many of the Trump World power brokers are new to politics/rose to power through Trump. Many don't have a firm ideology beyond loyalty to Trump."

Edsall comments, "There is, of course, another alternative altogether that would put to rest all the ins and outs of Vance's machinations and the emergence of a new Republican establishment: that over the next three years, Trump and the MAGA movement implode, pushed to the margin by economic incompetence, corruption and the abuse of power. That, however, may be too much to hope for."

Thomas Edsall's full New York Times opinion column is available at this link (subscription required).

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