MAGA is not Big Tech but Trump is Trump
...I won't say I told you so, but...
A couple weeks ago, the press was pushing a pretty lazy narrative about Trump and Big Tech. Post-election, the Lords of the Universe were “rushing to Mar-a-Lago” to “make peace” with the incoming president and to “kiss his ring,” at least according to the narrative. I thought that line was a big pile of bullshit, and wrote about it with enough evidence to easily debunk that BS. My contention was that Big Tech’s “courting” Trump was not the “Great Capitulation” that the pundits pushed but a “Grand Negotiation” over things like tariffs, regulations, subsidies, and immigration. I was right.
Over the weekend, we saw the start of a piss-fight between MAGA Mouths and the Tech Lords over immigration, specifically H-1B visas for tech workers. Given how arrogant, ornery, and obstinate these people are – and how much their identities and desires dictate their politics – this fight is no surprise. Nor is it shocking that the scrum got scummy – and honest - real quick like.
The MAGAs “led” by alt-right nuisances Laura Loomer and Mike Cernovich immediately went White supremacist, attacking and denigrating the ethnicity of H-1B visa holders. The Tech Lords led by Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk hit back with the kind of elitist high-handedness San Francisco Bay Area residence are all too familiar with. MAGAs zeroed in on Ramaswamy and Musk, attacking their immigration status (Musk is an immigrant, Ramaswamy is not) and accusing Tech of being carpetbaggers. Trump, they insisted, will not stand for the Tech agenda. MAGA will not be sold out.
On Saturday, Trump sold out MAGA, publicly backing Musk on immigration, declaring that he’s “always like the [H-1B] visas…I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program” (Trump actually employs H-2A and H-2B visa holders – agriculture and seasonal workers). Again, none of this should shock anyone who pays attention to more than Trump’s words.
Since 2015, we’ve known that Trump uses immigrant labor – “legal” and “illegal.” When he rode his golden escalator into the depths of xenophobia, centering his presidential campaign announcement in anti-immigrant rage, investigative journalists started digging into the Trump Org.’s hiring practices. He was immediately exposed as a hypocrite, something his supporters ignored. When confronted with the truth, Trump talked around it, admitted to using a program he “hated,” and recast himself as a wily businessman. Since then, Trump has gone back and forth and back and forth and back and forth on what he “thinks” about immigration, specifically, but, what Trump really thinks about immigration, well, that should be as obvious as the man himself.
Donald Trump is a very greedy, very vain, and very insecure man. He bases his self-worth on his financial worth, and on the respect he gets from his uber-wealthy peers. For most of his life, Donald Trump has been viewed as a joke by the New York Big Money crowd, a vulgar striver, a gaudy nincompoop, a loud asshole. When he wasn’t snubbed by the elite, he was tolerated, and he knew that and it only made him want to be accepted more. Again, no secrets here. Even though this profile counters the MAGA myth, every solid biography and study I’ve read on the man is in agreement on this.
Two more Trump reality checks: First, Donald Trump has no core politics. He is the ultimate crowd-pleaser and what crowd he aims to please is contingent on the second point: Trump is transactional. Thus, having no core beliefs that aren’t totally self-centered, Trump is for sale to the highest bidder. For eight years, the highest bidder was MAGA, tens-of-millions of nickel-and-dimers, all willing to send in whatever money they could afford, especially if they received merch in return. And so, Trump did what he’s done since he first slapped his name a building, he put his name and slogan (Make America Great Again) on whatever he could sell to his marks – hats, beach towels, teddy bears, books, sneakers, Bibles, etc. (MAGA also supplied Trump with votes, which I will get to.)
Trump made a hell of a lot of money from the MAGAs, but in piecemeal. Ten dollars here, twenty there, a hundred, five hundred, even a thousand – in politics that’s the “mother’s milk,” in elite social and economic circles, it’s chump change, emphasis on chump. Trump knows that, which is why when Peter Thiel – a man much wealthier than Trump – set Trump up with J.D. Vance, Trump bit. When Elon Musk – the “Wealthiest Man Alive” – paid to play jumping monkey (and inside man), Trump danced along. I mean, why spend all that time and energy plucking pennies from pensioners when a living room full of Tech Lords can put a hundred million in your bank in one afternoon?
To make it worse for MAGA, Trump just endorsed Mike Johnson to continue as Speaker of the House, an endorsement that should ensure Johnson the speakership, something the MAGAs wanted to rip from him. Why? Because Johnson “compromised” with Democrats to keep the government running, which is his job, and something Trump is ultimate okay with.
That’s not all: Dana Milbank writes that Trump’s Panama/Greenland/Canada obnoxiousness is simply a smokescreen for a whole lot a Trump backtracking. No deal on government spending without 86ing the debt ceiling became let’s make a deal while keeping the debt ceiling. Immediately bringing down inflation is now it will be “very hard” to bring down prices. On immigration, Trump promised zero tolerance/mass deportation. Milbank writes,
[Trump] promised to round up and deport 20 million migrants. Now his appointee to be “border czar,” Tom Homan, tells The Post’s Nick Miroff that “I don’t see this thing as being sweeps and the military going through neighborhoods.” Instead, he says it will be a “targeted” operation aimed at the much smaller number of migrants who have criminal records.
Trump vowed to stop the Russia/Ukraine War within 24-hours of taking office. Now he is admitting that that might not happen, that the war is a “tough one,” harder to solve than what is going down in the Middle East, another region he promised immediate peace to. Trump went from demonizing all trans people to saying that the “trans problem” is limited to a small number of people. Who knows where Trump is on abortion? Tariffs went from a tool of punishment to a lever of negotiation. And China’s Xi Jinping is back to being a great pal.
Before anyone reacts with, “Well, MAGA doesn’t care. They will stick with Trump.” No and yes, perhaps. MAGA does care and they are being very vocal about how much they care. And they are sticking with the Trump that they believe is Trump, claiming that their Trump is being “misled” and “lied to” by Musk and “the elitists.” While a good number of MAGAs will die with that delusion, some are finally realizing that Trump is and has always been the Elite, even if he isn’t accepted by the stuffiest of the stuffy, and that they have been conned.
And, once again, everyone should have seen this coming. Donald Trump is no loyalist, we know that. Donald Trump uses people and throws them away. The minute any shade falls on an associate, no matter how close, Trump distances himself, often claiming he’s never heard of the person, though all evidence says otherwise. Trump has sold out business associates, political supporters, and family members. He is only in it for himself. That’s it.
So, of course, once MAGA served its purpose – provide the votes to get him elected – MAGA was no longer needed to sustain him – especially now that Tech money is flowing. Trump has no need to follow through on any of his campaign promises, especially not if following through costs him money. That means that MAGA is sidelined, but it is not gone. MAGA is a robust fascist movement, one that still could find common cause with the Tech Lords, with or without Trump. And, even though we have a shit show, its not like Big Tech being Trump’s backer is anything but horrible. Still, I’ll take the split over unity. Hopefully, the “war” will find its way into his administration.
I want to be clear about something: I know that taking the information above and put it into something readable is not something everyone can do. It takes a bit of practice. However, all the information I just relayed to you is easily obtainable and my analysis is not as keen as it seems. Refuse to project your fears on Trump (or anyone else) and it is easy to see the man as who he is: Greedy, vain, and insecure. Once you know the man, identifying his motivations and urges is pretty simple, especially when he does the same things over and over. Tune Trump out and watch him (or frame his talking as word-actions), and he is as predictable as his food choices. You just have to find the discipline to block out the noise and focus. Almost all of us can do that for sure.