18 | SAM MAGAZINE 3/25 the extent, however, that the MAGA agenda requires an expansion of Executive Branch regulatory authority -- for example, to reduce the independence of “woke” universities, to set tariffs, and to compel state cooperation with Federal immigration policies -- both conservatives and liberals on the Supreme Court may find reasons to object. It is not simply the naturally equilibrating character of the American political system, however, that is likely to make the next phase of the Trump term much more difficult for the President. In the first place, the demolition of Executive branch institutions and the purges of qualified administrators and bureaucrats that have been accomplished in the past nine months ironically leave the President and his MAGA appointees with substantially reduced capacity to actually carry out the sort of social and economic transformation that they seek. Backlash and the road ahead In the second place, actual MAGA policies are likely to prove increasingly unpopular. MAGA supporters have spent most of 2025 imagining what the promised MAGA paradise will be like, without yet really experiencing it. Over the next year, they will. And they aren’t going to like it. In the abstract, for example, the idea of imposing tariffs is quite appealing to many American workers, who feel their jobs were exported abroad. In reality, though, because American industry relies on imported materials and components, the short- and medium-term effect of tariffs is to throw American blue-collar workers out of work, while simultaneously driving up the consumer prices they need to pay. Again ironically, analyses repeatedly show that MAGA supporters are the ones who will suffer most from the imposition of tariffs. Similarly, Trump immigration policies are, in the abstract, quite popular with much of the MAGA base. The actual consequences of the policy, however, are to deport popular members of the local community, drive up food prices, and dramatically reduce home construction, pushing up already problematically high housing costs for MAGA supporters. Eliminating “waste, fraud, and abuse” in funding for education, Medicare, and Medicaid is popular, until it becomes clear that this means defunding local schools and closing local hospitals. And again, given the actual economics of American society, this pain will be felt disproportionately by MAGA voters. Diehard Trump and MAGA enthusiasts may remain loyal, but those voters who voted MAGA because they thought it would improve their life will be increasingly disenchanted. And beyond this, of course, in the Trump presidency there are always the unpredictable wild cards. What the “Epstein files” actually contain is still a mystery to the American public, but the behavior of the President and his appointees in the Justice Department certainly makes it appear that there is something in them which, directly or indirectly, would undercut the popularity of the President with his base. A final irony here is that the longer the President stonewalls on the release of the files, the more convinced the conspiracy-theory devotees in the MAGA base will become that there is, in fact, something truly damning in them -- and the less willing they will be to accept evidence to the contrary. So, the beginning is over. Where does that leave America? A more equal, though perhaps even nastier, battle between the forces of MAGA and anti-MAGA is about to get underway. KOLUMNI MAGA supporters have spent most of 2025 imagining what the promised MAGA paradise will be like, without yet really experiencing it.
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