This past midterm cycle we saw a rejection of the Trump administration. Democrats were able to win back both the House and Senate with room to spare. MAGA faced its “Little Big Horn” moment and it appears that it will collapse and wither into the history books. This should be a good thing, but there is an issue. There is a growing call to reform the Republican Party and MAGA into an even farther right party, a party that says America only.
In a recent post, the University of Florida College Republicans Instagram page featured a slideshow stating the GOP failed. The post advocated for the GOP to reform to the “Party of America First.” The comments were full of references to a blue America First hat and saying the AF movement is the way forward. The hat has ties to far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, while AF might stand for the recently founded America First party or just the term America First. Other comments included slurs towards Democrats and calling those who disagreed with them a Jewish derogatory word for non-Jews. This term is used to belittle political opposition by stating that one is controlled by Israel or Jews.
This is an issue as the UF College Republicans were already disbanded once after it was alleged that members were seen in a video giving a Nazi salute. They were recently reinstated in September and now have posted content that has connections to far right imagery and language. Far-right imagery and antisemitism are being promoted on the surface. This should raise red flags, because if they are up front with statements like this, imagine what is said behind closed doors.
The post is not a one-off for the right. The same points about the “America First” stance were echoed by JD Vance on X. Vance said, “voters were angry with the administration over the Iran war, cost of living, inflation and the current US relationship with Israel.” He even said that Trump agreed with those reasons. The talking points line up with this far right faction and the Trump administration.
What divides them is the fact that many in the faction, including Fuentes, see Trump as a puppet of Israel and Jews. MAGA wasn’t far enough right for them. Before the midterms, Fuentes posted on X, saying “Stay home or vote Democrat.” This isn’t a change of heart; he said it to punish Republicans. Fuentes has a long history of being on the far right. From the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017 to now, Fuentes has pushed the far right into the mainstream. For example, Fuentes along with other far right figures have deployed followers to pitch watered down versions of their views at Republican events. His views are in line with far right and white supremacist ideology. He himself has praised Hitler, brought up “white genocide” and questioned the Holocaust publicly. When called out on said statements, he defended himself by saying they were jokes.
It should be noted that Fuentes isn’t just some extremist that merely dips into the MAGA base. Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has made appearances at his “American First” conference. In 2021, Fuentes used his influence to aid the “Stop the Steal” effort, which sought to overturn Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election. This involved not only invoking baseless claims about the election but weaving white supremacist ideas into it.
To Fuentes and other extremists, MAGA is an untapped source of far-right ideals ready to be used. Now with a massive MAGA loss and many Trump supporters feeling alienated, they seek to grow. This movement wants to tap into disenfranchised MAGA supporters with promises of putting America First.
These “groypers,” as they call themselves, have been a parasite festering on MAGA. Now they want to fill the gap. They want to hijack the Republican Party to spout their messages so the GOP takes the blame and they can slip in undetected.
MAGA laid the groundwork for seeing how much voters can stomach with regards to farther and farther right-wing views. It was found that as long as you dress hateful rhetoric up as Americanism and patriotism, the words no longer conjure up the likes of swastikas and the Holocaust. The Grand Old Party must squash this movement before America First becomes American Fascist.