President Donald Trump is “losing control” of his own MAGA movement because of lingering high prices and his unpopular wars, according to the editor of a conservative publication.
“I think the risk for Trump here is twofold,” Sam Stein, managing editor at The Bulwark, said during an appearance on MS NOW with host Katy Tur. Stein referenced how popular right-leaning podcaster Andrew Schulz turned on Trump because of his invasions of Venezuela and Iran, with similarly right-leaning podcaster Joe Rogan doing likewise after Trump declared war against Iran.
“These are the podcasts that were gateways to a whole slice of the electorate that was just politically curious — not politically active — but they did get involved in 2024, and they got involved largely on behalf of Donald Trump,” Stein explained. “Andrew Schulz, Rogan, and others activated them. But the other risk is that they're now potentially turning Donald Trump into a cultural punchline — that he's an idiot, that his supporters are dorks, that he's been fooled into doing all this stuff, and that he is a failure.”
Stein added, “Donald Trump, for better or for worse, has had an incredible ability to shape perceptions of himself and the cultural relevance that he has. And to a degree, he loses that control when these people turn on him — when his own supporters turn on him. That hasn't really happened in the entirety of his political career.”
Although Stein speculated that Trump’s ongoing cover up of his links to the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein also contributes to his waning popularity with the MAGA base, the bigger issues are those that directly impact these voters’ lives.
“He literally said he would bring down gasoline prices by half, that he would bring down grocery prices by half,” Stein explained. “We are in a place where prices are higher, and at some point the spin just stops. You can't spin these people away. That's the real danger he's facing right now.”
Notably, the episode also cited Rogan referring to people in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement as “a bunch of dorks. Because a lot of them are dorks — really weird, uninteresting, unintelligent people clinging to something. And yet there are also a lot of people who are genuine patriots, and they're all locked into this one group. And you've got to accept the dorks too.”
Shortly after Trump first invaded Iran, Rogan admitted on his podcast that many of Trump’s supporters feel “betrayed” by the move.
“Well, it just seems so insane, based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right?” Rogan said at the time. “He ran on, ‘No more wars,’ ‘End these stupid, senseless wars,’ and then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.”
In February, former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois called Trump supporters who still backed him after his invasion of Venezuela and his then-planned invasion of Iran as members of a “cult” for abandoning their principles.
“I thought you wanted him to end wars all over the world,” Walsh argued. “You said you wanted him to end American entanglement in conflicts and wars around the world. America shouldn’t be involved in these wars, you said. That’s why you’re voting for Trump, you said.” Then, despite Trump’s actions against Denmark, Venezuela and Iran, they still support him.
He added, “And you don’t like when people call you a cult, Trump voters? What else are people to think when you voted for Trump to get us the hell out of wars around the world, and instead he gets us involved in wars around the world and starts new wars, and you still sing his praises and support him? What are we to think, MAGA, but that you are a cult?”
