Scholar predicts 'MAGA faithful' will 'circle the wagons around Trump' — even as his policies hurt them
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the members of the media before boarding Marine One to depart for Scotland, on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 25, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
Democratic strategists are hoping that President Donald Trump's economic policies — from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid cuts in his "big, beautiful bill" to inflationary tariffs — will hurt him with independents and swing voters in the 2026 midterms. But independents and hardcore MAGA voters have very different motivations.
Some of the independents who voted for Trump in 2024 had voted for former President Joe Biden in 2020, while MAGA diehards were as loyal to Trump in 2020 as they were four years later.
In an article originally published by The Conversation and republished by Salon on July 25, Alexander Hinton — an anthropology professor and director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University in New Jersey — lays out some reasons why "the MAGA faithful" may remain loyal to Trump no matter how badly his policies hurt them.
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"While 94 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said, in a May 2025 survey, that they are worried Medicaid cuts will lead to more adults and children losing their health insurance," Hinton explains, "44 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents expressed concern about this, according to the KFF Health Tracking Poll. Why, then, do Trump's Make America Great Again supporters — especially those who will be hit hard by cuts to food assistance programs and health care, including hospitals — continue to support him even as he enacts policies that some think go against their interests? Indeed, over 78 percent of Republicans or Republican-leaning voters say they support the measure Trump signed."
Hinton continues, "As an anthropologist who studies MAGA and American political culture, I understand that many of the MAGA faithful believe that Trump is a once-in-a-lifetime leader who is catapulting the U.S. into a new golden age."
The "MAGA faithful," according to Hinton, still believe him when he says, "I alone can fix it" — and as they see it, he is making good on his campaign promises.
"From their perspective," Hinton observes, "Trump has assembled an all-star Cabinet team that is implementing key pillars of the MAGA agenda, such as restricting immigration, blocking unfair trade and avoiding drawn-out wars…. Trump has clamped down on woke universities that brainwash students, as MAGA supporters see it. He withheld funding from the University of Pennsylvania until it agreed to ban transgender women from playing on women's sports teams."
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Hinton emphasizes that although "Republicans could also face backlash in 2028 after the full impact of the act takes effect and people lose health insurance and other public benefits," the "MAGA faithful will likely continue to support Trump."
"They may argue over parts of his bill, the airstrikes on Iran or the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files," Hinton predicts. "But, in the end, they will circle the wagons around Trump for a simple reason: Trump created the MAGA movement. He dominates the Republican Party. And there is no Trumpism without Trump."
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Alexander Hinton's full article is available on Salon at this link.
