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Why MAGA is coming apart at the seams Turns out they're not in it for Trump, they're in it for themselves. Paul Waldman Nov 28 Trump smooches MTG after his March speech to Congress. (Andrew Harnik/Getty) 🚨  PN Black Friday special offer  🚨  Click the button below to sign up for an annual paid subscription for the special Black Friday price of $40  ⬇️ 🦃 🛍️ PN Black Friday Special 🛍️ 🦃 Happy Thanksgiving weekend, dear readers! The MAGA movement has always been defined by faith and loyalty: Faith in Donald Trump and his power to remake the world, and loyalty toward him in all things, even when his words and actions might lead some to doubt. Now, however, their faith is being tested and their loyalty is wavering. In part, this is a rather simple story about failure and weakness. It’s not hard to keep a movement together when it’s succeeding, but when the ship begins taking on water, the crew starts looking for lifeboats to jump into. But even more fundamentally, th...

"TRUMP'S CULT: A NATION IN PERIL" Commemoration vs. Cultish Canonization: when lawmakers worship power over principle, democracy dies in the shadow of idolatry. Michael Cohen Mar 23 Let me be clear: we’re not witnessing a political movement. We’re watching a cult; an all-consuming, leader-worshipping, power-obsessed cult with a singular devotion to one man, Donald J. Trump. This is no longer about policy or governance. It’s about subservience, blind loyalty, and the disturbing, almost religious deification of a man who cares for no one but himself. The cult has long since consumed the MAGA base, but what makes it infinitely more dangerous is that it has now infected the very halls of Congress. If you want proof, look no further than the latest act of unhinged sycophancy: legislation introduced by freshman Congressman Addison McDowell to rename Washington Dulles International Airport after the messiah himself; The Donald J. Trump International Airport. Because nothing scr...

  By  Ian Ward Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) speaks to the press outside the Capitol after the House passed legislation to fund the government through September 30. Massie was the only Republican to vote against passing the legislation. | Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images MAGA NON GRATA  — Republicans today narrowly passed a continuing resolution to fund the government, averting a March 14 shutdown deadline. But the one Republican vote against the CR exposed an unexpected test of President Donald Trump’s control over his party. And this test has a name: Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Massie — an idiosyncratic, libertarian-minded conservative from Northern Kentucky’s 4th District — has long been a thorn in the Trump administration side, having refused to fall in line behind Trump on several key votes during Trump’s first term. Just last month, Massie was also the only Republican to vote against the  “big, beautiful” budget bill  that the White House was pushing ...