Ann Coulter speaking at the 2016 Politicon at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California, Gage Skidmore
On Tuesday, far-right commentator Ann Coulter spent the morning tweeting a flurry of criticisms of the White House and the wider Republican party, pointing out the hypocrisy to their recent behavior and expressing support for Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY). Coulter, a former all of President Donald Trump, is one of many high-profile MAGA figures who have broken with the president over Massie and other issues.
Coulter’s tweet storm began in the small hours of Tuesday morning. In response to a far-right podcaster asking why Democratic Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) has endorsed Massie, suggesting that the latter is not a true “America First” conservative, Coulter brought Trump and convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein into the discussion.
“Because he and Massie together wrote the most universally beloved bill in the history of the Republic, vehemently resisted — then finally supported by all members of the House and Senate (but one) and signed into law by your master, Donald J. Trump, to release the Epstein files” she replied. “Why a Republican wouldn't want to release the files raises suspicions… You should probably rest your tiny brain and save it for remembering to breathe.”
Shortly after that, Coulter retweeted a video of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who was campaigning against Massie in Kentucky on Monday, taking the opportunity to deliver some all-caps mockery: “The war with Iran is existential! Iran could bomb a U.S. city! Americans must impoverish themselves to stop Iran from getting a nuke! A civilization will die tonight! ... Man in charge of war: ‘Excuse me — I need to fly to a small Kentucky county to campaign against a Republican House member.’”
Then later in the morning, she responded to a commenter who noted that Massie had only voted with the GOP around 77 percent of the time.
“This term,” she said, “House Republicans voted four times for the Iran War, passed multiple foreign aid bills totaling $50 billion, and voted to fund the Democrats' ‘Disinformation’ office. Voting 77 percent with Republicans this term is the pro-American position. He's MAGA, you're Make Other Countries, Raytheon, Boeing, Dead School Girls and Censorship Great Again.”
Coulter’s tweet eruption represents the latest in a MAGA breakup that has been underway for several months. While there has been grumbling from some of Trump allies since early in his second term, the cracks in the movement really began to show after, as Coulter noted, Congress had to force the White House to release the Epstein files, which had been a key campaign promise. Then Trump’s decision to launch war against Iran received major push back from the “America First” camp, and the resulting economic consequences further fractured MAGA. By that point, many prominent far-right figures like Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others had experienced highly visible fallings out with the president.
Now MAGA is in full-on civil war over Massie. A former advisor to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top conservative commentator is accusing Trump of “looting billions of taxpayer funds.” The military has no confidence in Pentagon chief Hegseth. And a former Trump advisor who attempted to help him steal the 2020 election has declared that no matter how the Massie primary turns out, Trump and the GOP lose while “the Left wins.”
