MAGA movement
American right-wing populist political movement
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The movement reshaped the country's identity, particularly within the Republican Party. In a poll conducted by YouGov in March 2026, sixty percent of Republicans identified themselves as MAGA, making it the biggest modern movement within the party.
History
2015–2016: Establishment and Trump's initial victory
In June 2015, reality television star and businessman Donald Trump announced that he was running for president in the 2016 United States presidential election. His campaign employed the term "make America great again", a political slogan previously associated with Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign and mentioned by President Bill Clinton several times in his presidential campaigns and presidency. Trump used the phrase in his announcement speech to criticize other presidential candidates as "controlled fully by the lobbyists". The phrase was also used on Trump's campaign website and by Texas senator Ted Cruz in praising Trump for announcing his presidential campaign.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump stated that he thought of the phrase after the 2012 presidential election and filed for a trademark five days later; the trademark came into effect a month after Trump announced his campaign. Merchandise containing the phrase "Make America Great Again" was sold at Trump Tower. The phrase was also used on baseball caps worn by Trump as early as July, in a visit to Laredo, Texas. It was additionally the name of two political action committees supporting Trump's campaign.
2017–2021: Trump's first presidency
As the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States worsened in March 2020, conflicting beliefs regarding disease severity the federal government's response divided the MAGA movement, though supporters of Trump remained steadfast in seeking to contain COVID-19 to ensure Trump's victory in the 2020 presidential election. The threat of COVID-19 was made apparent to followers of the MAGA movement after warnings from Trump's health officials; nonetheless, several Trump supporters articulated that Trump's response could be extreme. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, received criticism from a minority of far-right Trump supporters for his apparent political beliefs. As protests began across the United States in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, followers of the MAGA movement vociferously opposed the political slogan "defund the police". Several members approached demonstrations with counterprotests, a development that resulted in the killings of Aaron Danielson and Michael Reinoehl, a Trump supporter and his alleged killer, respectively, and the Kenosha unrest shooting, in which Kyle Rittenhouse shot three men, killing two.
As the 2020 presidential election results were broadcast, Trump publicly criticized Fox News for being the first news network to declare that Joe Biden had won the election in Arizona. His comments resulted in some members of the MAGA movement shifting towards news networks such as One America News Network and Newsmax, which embraced false claims of electoral fraud more vigorously than Fox News, and towards social networks such as Parler. Newsmax received criticism itself from QAnon supporters, who denounced the network's use of a photograph of a man wearing a hoodie to illustrate white nationalism, and Parler faced false allegations that it was owned by the investor and philanthropist George Soros, the subject of conspiracy theories from Trump's supporters.
2021–2025: Between presidencies
The MAGA movement remained a significant topic of public discourse between Trump's first and second term. During his presidency, Joe Biden stated that Trump and MAGA Republicans are a threat to the United States.
2025–present: Trump's second presidency
During Trump's second term, the ideology of the MAGA movement appeared to take a shift from non-interventionism to interventionism via increased commentary on the politics of foreign nations, military attacks on countries such as Venezuela and Iran, and expansionist ambitions in the arctic.
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Activities
Foreign involvement and recognition
Ahead of the 2019 Canadian federal election, accounts on Twitter identifying themselves as members of the MAGA movement mounted a failed campaign to defeat the Liberal Party and its leader, Justin Trudeau. Following the assassination of Uruapan mayor Carlos Manzo in Mexico in November 2025, protests against the country's president Claudia Sheinbaum received support from members of the MAGA movement.
After the 2024 Romanian presidential election was held and promptly annulled amid allegations of Russian interference, the resulting election the following year received attention from the MAGA movement. The controversy over Călin Georgescu's disqualification was brought to several MAGA figures by Adrian Thiess, a Romanian political fixer.
The MAGA movement has attracted an international audience, particularly from traditionalist conservatives in the United Kingdom. British prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss began appearing at several events hosted for the MAGA movement after their premierships. Ahead of local elections in May 2025, Nigel Farage began hosting political events similar to MAGA rallies.
Amid concerns that the Alternative for Germany would be banned for political extremism after the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the party as right-wing extremist, several party officials began meeting with MAGA figures to protect itself.
Ideology
The MAGA movement has been described as right-wing. President Joe Biden described the ideology of the MAGA movement as "semi-fascism". According to Ian Goldin, a professor of globalization at the University of Oxford, the MAGA movement was bolstered by economic inequality and anxiety, conditions that persisted through Trump's second term.
Immigration
According to Politico, a poll was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, which is a pollster that Trump has used in all of his presidential election runs. The poll found that 87 percent of 2024 Trump Voters want Trump to exceed the previous largest deportation effort in US history which was led by President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. Between January 27 and February 6 of 2026, NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey, surveyed over 20,000 adults online. The survey found that 74 percent of MAGA Republicans support federal immigration agents wearing masks.
Internal conflicts
According to Politico, the MAGA movement has been defined by internal conflicts since as early as December 2016 when members of the movement conflicted over ideologies at inauguration parties. An instance of a prominent conflict has been characterized at the extremes by the divide between the nativist ideology of the groups such as the Groypers and Nick Fuentes on one end and the pro-immigration technolibertarians such as Elon Musk on the other.
After the October 7 attacks and the resulting Gaza war, the MAGA movement divided over U.S. assistance to Israel and the legitimacy of the State of Israel. The split has extended to the USS Liberty incident in the Six-Day War; the political commentator Ben Shapiro, Texas senator Ted Cruz, and the National Review's editor-in-chief, Rich Lowry, have defended the conclusion of the Naval Court of Inquiry and the government of Israel that the ship was sunk by the Israeli military by accident, while the commentators Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, and Arizona representative Paul Gosar have claimed that the ship's identity was known to Israel and was an intentional false flag operation.
Composition
According to Laura K. Field in Furious Minds (2025), intellectuals in the MAGA movement comprise several primary ideological associations centered around differing ideals yet connected through a collective disdain for liberalism. Field's groupings include individuals associated with the Claremont Institute, postliberals, and Christian nationalists; Field additionally noted the existence of a loose collective on the peripheries of the MAGA movement that engages in a hypermasculine and Chauvinistic aesthetic and rhetoric with absurdist names, such as Raw Egg Nationalist and Bronze Age Pervert.
As of November 2025, over a third of Republicans do not consider themselves to be MAGA Republicans, according to a Politico poll.
Notable individuals
Charlie Kirk
Right wing activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk was a key ally of Donald Trump and a central figure in the MAGA movement, particularly for his influence on the youth. Kirk primarily built his career off of interacting with young people. He was best known for being the co-founder and CEO of Turning Point USA (TPUSA); an organization which aims at mobilizing conservative youth. He was also briefly Chairman of Students for Trump. Kirk was assassinated on September 10, 2025, while speaking at a public debate event at Utah Valley University hosted by TPUSA as part of their American Comeback Tour.
Some of Kirk's main views are described as being pro-life, transphobic, and anti-gun control. He also sometimes used white nationalist talking points such as the Great Replacement theory.
Many consider Kirk an instrumental figure in the rise of Trump and the MAGA movement. Following his victory in the 2024 presidential election, Trump credited Kirk with increased support amongst young people.
Ben Shapiro
Right-wing political commentator Ben Shapiro is considered one of the most influential figures in the MAGA movement due to the large media empire catering to conservative and right-wing audiences he built. He is best known for being the co-founder and CEO of The Daily Wire.
Nick Fuentes
Nick Fuentes is a far-right neo-Nazi podcaster and internet personality who previously supported Trump in 2016 and 2020. However, in 2024 he became more vocally against him and has said he did not vote in that election. During Trump's second term, Fuentes has been critical of the administration mainly in regards to Israel policy and the Epstein files.
In March 2026, he encouraged his followers to vote Democrat.
Fuentes has been consistently denounced by "Mainstream MAGA figures" such as Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin while others, such as Megyn Kelly and former MAGA figure Tucker Carlson, have defended or even embraced him.
Political theorists
Political theorists associated with the MAGA movement include Patrick Deneen, a University of Notre Dame professor who authored Why Liberalism Failed (2018).