It’s no secret that MAGAs are growing increasingly irritated at Trump. While words like betrayal have been used to describe their general mood I don’t think we’re there. Yet. They still show up and vote but not as much as Trump wants or needs and not always for his picks. Still, MAGA is Trump’s Monster and he’s managed to mostly control it. That might be about to change.
Trump is caught between the political rock of incumbent John Cornyn and the hard case/place of John Paxton in the Texas Senate GOP primary runoff. Trump WANTS to endorse Paxton. However, he’s still got enough functioning brain matter that he knows what Susie Wiles and others are telling him is the truth – that Paxton would likely lose that Red Texas Senate seat to Democratic nominee James Talrico. What makes his problem so huge is that doing the politically smart thing will anger MAGAs all over the country. Worse, that anger might well result in depressed MAGA turnout and create a blue wave on the order of what we saw in 2018. MAGAs it seems have reached their breaking point and Trump hasn’t been this scared since he found himself personally on the hook during one of his bankruptcies.
We know why MAGAs have gotten impatient with their Trumpty. Even they know he’s blocking release of the Epstein files. His use of the military to shoot up suspected drug boats and the snatching of Maduro only to leave it pretty much under the same rule wasn’t part of the deal either. Now he’s gotten us into an already costly conflict (in both blood and money) in the middle east that could spiral out of control at any time. Oil prices are through the roof and gasoline prices at the pump have shot up – and it’s going to get worse. On top of all that they hear their Trumpty SAY the cost of living is okay, that things are fine but it’s not just what they pay for gas that’s telling them he’s full of crap.
Democratic wins in off year and special elections have shown that MAGAs aren’t voting in the same numbers as they used to. Oh, they’re still a force, a huge bloc of voters that scares the hell out of GOP candidates the way the much smaller NRA once did. But Democrats are on a helluva winning streak. Even flipping red seats blue. What if MAGAs got really fed up? What if fifteen percent or more vote third-Party or don’t vote at all? That’s what is haunting Trump lately. He doesn’t care one bit about any specific GOPer running for re-election. There isn’t a GOPer on Capitol Hill he wouldn’t throw under the bus to save his own fat butt including Texas Senator John Cornyn.
Trump already knows deep down the GOP will lose control of the House and that evokes a special fear in him – one he hates himself for feeling. That’s why he’s tried to provoke an excuse to invoke Martial Law and from there try to stave off holding the midterm elections. A lot could happen but it’s looking less and less like that plan is going to work. So Trump is looking at not just no more legislation he wants getting passed, but House Committees chaired by Democrats investigating not just Epstein but all the new corruption.
However Trump could console himself with having a GOP Senate to approve judges and Justices and other jobs that require Senate confirmation. That’s no longer a sure thing. Regaining control of the Senate this fall was always going to be a steep hill for Democrats to climb but it’s now doable. North Carolina will likely flip blue and though Susan Collins has been counted out before but is still there Maine will likely flip. We still need more however and Sherrod Brown might get us Ohio. One place the GOP should NOT have to worry about is Texas. No Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas for decades now but once again Democrats have a viable candidate.
Republican’s problem is they have a runoff for the GOP nomination that is putting Trump in an endorsement bind. Bind? More like a vice squeezing his testicles. As Raw Story tells us the choice Trump makes on who he will endorse will affect the MAGA vote (or not) far beyond Texas’s borders. Incumbent John Cornyn is a solid Republican with solid conservative credentials and lots of backing of Trump he can point to. What he doesn’t have and never has is the MAGA style firebrand attitude. Texas AG Ken Paxton on the other hand is as MAGA as they get. He eagerly tosses out red meat and takes out a flame thrower to cook it up to Trump level burnt steak.
MAGAs, both in Texas and nationally want Paxton to get Trump’s endorsement. Hell, Trump wants to endorse Paxton. He’d love that asshat doing his schtick in the ‘too-prim-and-proper’ tastes Senate. The GOP establishment both in Texas and nationally wants Cornyn. They are going to have to invest a TON of resources to get even Cornyn re-elected and that means the money and effort can’t be used elsewhere, where it’s very much needed. Paxton they fear would lose to Talarico. Against Jasmine Crocket (they engaged in some sleaze on her behalf) they figured even with Paxton they could still hold the seat. Now, not only are all bets off but recent polling shows Talafico ahead of both Cornyn and Paxton. IF those two don’t bloody each other up too badly before their runoff Cornyn might get enough grudging support to even things up. If.
In the meantime however MAGA influencers are making it clear that Trump had damn well better endorse Paxton or it’s going to cost him. Bigly. Most readers here and elsewhere don’t know most of the MAGA influences on RWNJ talk radio and podcasts. However there’s one name everyone knows and the aptly named Laura Loomer is looming LARGE on this matter:
MAGA activists are openly threatening to suppress Republican voter turnout in the 2026 midterm elections if President Trump endorses Sen. John Cornyn in Texas’s GOP primary runoff, according to reporting from Axios.
Laura Loomer, a prominent Trump supporter and political activist, made the threat explicit: if Trump endorses Cornyn, “the base would likely stay home during the midterms.”
Loomer seems to have her access to Trump wax and wane but even if she can’t get face time with him as much as she’d like he obsessively follows social media. Loomer pushing him, even threatening that MAGAs will stay home is the stuff of which Trump’s nightmares are made. That vise I mentioned squeezing his “junk” is being tightened by Loony Loomer who has too often wielded outsize influence in the second Trump administration. Reading the linked article made me think MAGA has been growing a mind of it’s own. A sick, twisted mind to be sure but MAGA wouldn’t be the first monster to turn on it’s creator. In this case the consequences could change the political environment/nightmare we’ve been living in the past ten years. The linked article notes this marks an extraordinary moment with “a significant faction within the Republican Party openly threatening to sabotage their own party’s electoral prospects as leverage to force Trump’s hand in an internal primary dispute.”
Trump’s creation, his MAGA Monster is baring its teeth but at HIM instead of liberals. It’s openly showing an intention to take huge bites, enough to cripple or even kill it’s creator/master. That’s huge because while there’s no shortage of wannabes assuming they can take control Trump’s ability to suspend the laws of political physics has been unique. Many have tried to do the same and while a few have shown brief signs of almost imitating that ability I’m in the group that believes no one else can get away with what Trump’s gotten away with. I’ve always believed that when Trump is gone IF we and a handful of GOPers regain some guts MAGA will become like the Klan. Driven into the shadows, caves, under slimy rocks. However it’s always there, waiting for the right conditions to come out and flourish again for a while. However the fact is MAGA is at a tipping point:
The explicit threat of voter suppression underscores the degree to which Trump has lost control of his political movement. Rather than supporting the candidate most likely to win in November, MAGA activists are threatening to tank Republican turnout if Trump doesn’t comply with their preferred candidate—regardless of general election viability.
The dynamic reveals a troubling precedent: Trump loyalists are willing to sacrifice Republican electoral success to enforce ideological purity and personal allegiance to the former president. For a party already concerned about maintaining Senate control, such threats represent a significant internal vulnerability heading into a critical midterm cycle.
Even if Democrats regain control of both chambers of Congress this fall we’ll still be in for a rough couple of years. Given his clearly declining health I’m not sure Trump will live to see the end of his second term. Vance wouldn’t be much better although he could mollify MAGA by getting us out of the military interventions Trump has been engaging in. I’m not so sure if he’d meet their demands r.e. the Epstein files. However like other pretenders to Trump’s MAGA Throne he’s Trump Lite. So, as I said while MAGA will still be out there it won’t be the political force it has been.
I do have a dream however. That MAGA devours it’s creator and turns into a giant snake – a snake that eats its own tail, a process which once started can’t be stopped. For now I’ll settle for them attacking their Trumpty and each other, and the wounds will be so severe and widespread that like the Klan they will fall back and try to organize for when another chance comes along with a clear leader they think actually is a political reincarnation of Trump.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
“Trump is caught between the political rock of incumbent John Cornyn and the hard case/place of John Paxton in the Texas Senate GOP primary runoff.”
Denis, while Cornyn’s first name is, indeed, John, Paxton’s first name is “Ken.” (What’s really bad is I had to do a search for his first name. I knew it wasn’t John but the only other “Paxton” I could think of was actor Bill Paxton (and I knew that wasn’t right).
No worries – I’m sure Ken Paxton has been a John at some point.
it seems more and more like mtg was right about everything. not neccesarily a good sign but if they lose enough maybe they’ll just crawl back under their rocks and leave everyone else alone. other than being general assholes of course.