MAGA: Why are Trump's most loyal supporters turning against him?

Divisions within the Democratic Party, that's an illustration of them. But there are also divisions within the Republican Party. For more, we're joined by Estella Edgersama from our YouTube desk. Thanks for being with us, Estella. Thanks for having me. The divisions within MAGA, you have put out a YouTube documentary in which you spell out, I guess MAGA is perhaps too constraining a word, the different factions that support Donald Trump. That's exactly, that's right. We wanted really to get to the heart of this Trump's coalition and especially the MAGA movement, which actually took shape during the first mandate of Donald Trump and the first campaign in 2016, even though its slogan, Make America Great Again, dates back to Ronald Reagan and the 1980s. So in theory, MAGA is built around a promise, which is to put American interests first for national sovereignty. On immigration, on foreign policy and economy. But what was very interesting for us to see is that in reality, MAGA is built from very different groups, very different factions that... Sometimes can coexist, but most of the time they can really hurt each other as well. We have those America first nationalists who really believe in U.S. interests that should come first and oppose foreign wars. The economic nationalists who want to protect American industries and jobs through tariffs. The immigration hardliners. You also have this conservative branch and this really... church branch that goes against the LGBTQ plus community. So you have really this galaxy of ideology, if we can say that. And what was very interesting is that when Trump was at the opposition, those factions were united under the name of Donald Trump and his figure. But when Donald Trump came back to the White House in January 2025, he really, like the demands, he had to turn all those different demands into real policies, actual policies. And that's when the first crack began to show within the MAGA movement. Yeah, it was interesting hearing earlier Jessica Lameza saying how for voters in Detroit, it's issues like inflation and the war in Iran that they're thinking about first and foremost. Is it the same among the people who voted for Donald Trump? Exactly. So we have this war in Iran that was really not expected by Donald Trump and this support for Israel as well. So because Trump campaigned on the America first principle on affordability and promised that Americans would feel the difference in everyday life. Well, this didn't happen. We are now in the eighth month after the war in Iran, and we are witnessing all these economic consequences as well, especially for the blockade of the Strait of Bermuda. So for the majority of Americans, the biggest disappointment is not ideological, it's really financial. To give you an idea, before the war, a gallon of petrol was around $2.94, And now it's an average. $4.30 with an increase of 45%. And it doesn't stop at the petrol station, as Jessica Lomazuri was saying, it really hits people in the wallet in terms of cost of living, in terms of housing, rent, groceries, everything, actually the agricultural camp as well. So those people can maybe still identify with MAGA and the Republican Party, but they are facing a conflict between their political loyalty to Trump and their economic reality. And if. If I can bring it, it's also among the most loyal supporters of Trump, not only the classic voters, not only the citizens, but also the most loyal supporters. We can take the example of Tucker Carlson, who is this conservative podcast host, was once one of the key allies of Donald Trump, who was part of this MAGA movement. He really turned his back after the war in Iran, and we can maybe bring this post. He published some hours ago on X about the fact that Donald Trump is really... He doesn't respect the America First principle in claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pressuring Trump to launch a nuclear strike against Iran and destroy underground nuclear facility, even though, of course, he has no proof to say so. But he's really challenging Trump leadership because he believes the president is moving away from one of its founding principle. All right, so support for Israel and the war in Iran, a dividing line within the... A line of fracture within the pro-Trump camp. There's other issues, though. There are other issues, indeed. There's not only the war in Iran, but of course there is this big controversial about the Epstein files, because before returning to the White House for a second term, Donald Trump had campaigned on his promise to make those files public. And in the end, he didn't. Do so, and we should have a clip about how Donald Trump changed his mind. But yeah, I'd be inclined to do the Epstein, I'd have no problem with it. What this whole thing is with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican party has. For some of his supporters, the issue goes beyond Epstein. It strikes at the heart of what MAGA stands for, calling out a system they believe protects the powerful. What MAGA has reprimanded it for is not having made public the entirety of the Epstein files as promised and to have caviarded many of those who were put on the public scene. One of the voices speaking out is Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who for years was a key figure in the MAGA movement. When she also calls for the files to be released, Trump brands her a traitor and breaks with her. Standing up for American women who were raped at 14 years old, trafficked and used by rich powerful men should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States whom I fought for. So, yes, we don't have only Marjorie Taylor-Green at this congressman who distanced herself from Donald Trump, but we also have a bunch of politicians, podcasters, influencers, a lot of people that really turned their back. Yeah, what about the youth vote? Because we saw a lot of young people in 2024 break for Donald Trump. Yes, indeed. Well, uncertainty over the strength of the MAGA movement and the right in general, and especially its future, is particularly visible among younger conservatives. Our team, part of our team, went to Phoenix in Arizona to ask some questions to those young people at the Turning Point USA event, and we should have also another clip with their answers. ...holding everybody together, and one man, when he was killed, everything fell apart. And I think that since his death, people have been even more divided. We are also losing, and that can be a movement in the long term. It's a part of the MAGA youth who, in particular with this war in Iran, no longer trusts Donald Trump. And I think that this support that he lost to a part of the youth can last. So those guys, to give a little bit of a context, they were talking about Charlie Kirk, this younger figure who was one of the leaders and co-founders of Turning Point USA, who was shot dead during a university campus event last summer. After his death, this young generation really felt left apart a little bit and there's not another figure that is Gaining control of the MAGA movement, especially for younger voters. All right, so the charisma of Charlie Kirk was a key factor. We'll see about the charisma of Donald Trump, seeing as he's not on the ballot. Before we go, reminder where we can see the video. So we can see the video on the English channel France 24 on YouTube. We have also a French version on the French channel and of course on our website as well. Stella, many thanks for that.