President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement have enabled a disturbing "new normal" to take hold in politics, one Fox News analyst wrote for The Hill, with behaviors that could once end careers now tolerated so long as the president says it is okay.
Juan Williams is a longtime political analyst for Fox News and one of the rare liberal Democratic voices on the conservative network. As such, he has never been wary of leveling harsh criticisms against Trump, as he does in his recurring columns for The Hill. In his latest piece from Monday, he took aim at the "questionable MAGA behavior" that has emerged in the ongoing midterms, lamenting how normalized such things have become under Trump.
The examples he raised included Rep. Max Miller, the Ohio Republican still running for reelection despite harrowing accusations of domestic abuse leveled against him by his ex-wife, who also happens to be the daughter of Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, against herself and their two-year-old daughter.
Williams also noted the baffling claims made by Victor Marx, the GOP nominee for governor in Colorado, including that he "rescued 45,000 captives, both children and women, from abuse," that he “called in a U.S. military airstrike that killed 70 ISIS fighters,” that he was forced to kill a man at age seven and that he has “exorcised demons — and can do so over the telephone, he says, if need be."
"Note there is no record of the rescues," Williams wrote. "Note there is no record of any civilian using American military airpower against Middle Eastern terrorists. Who knows about the demons. Despite his history and wild claims, Marx remains the Republican nominee for governor of Colorado. He is endorsed by the Republican Governors Association. This is far from normal politics."
He further argued that this "see-no-evil" approach to scandalous behavior stems from Trump's mostly unwavering support from a substantial chunk of the Republican voter base. Unless Trump decides certain behavior is unacceptable, other Republicans will not speak out for fear of incurring his wrath.
"They give the president between 80 percent approval, according to YouGov polling," Williams detailed. "That support is far above the 35 percent approval given Trump by all voters in a Reuters poll. Nationally, disapproval of his presidency now stands at 57.2 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. All that separates Trump from near zero approval is his base. They stand by him and other Republicans with highly questionable records and statements. This is the new normal induced by Trump in 2026."
