This weekend, Donald Trump sparked conflicts with two Republican lawmakers in Congress, only to hit a wall.

According to reports, he was furious about a vote coming up in the House of Representatives—whether the Department of Justice should release its files on financial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. On Friday, Trump first directed his anger at Thomas Massie. This eccentric conservative congressman, along with California Democrat Ro Khanna, tried to bypass the House leadership and force the Epstein file bill into a vote. Massie had just lost his wife after 30 years of marriage, and Trump mocked him for remarrying too quickly on social media: "Wow, that's fast!" he wrote, adding, "His new wife will soon find out she married a loser!"

On Saturday, Trump turned his attention to Marjorie Taylor Greene, a loyal MAGA supporter who has long demanded the release of the Epstein files, and called her a traitor, among other things.

He was clearly trying to scare other Republicans, hoping they would not vote for the Epstein File Transparency Act drafted by Khanna. But many were still prepared to switch sides, with Massie even predicting that as many as 100 Republicans might join. Khanna told me that this rebellion would reflect "a weakening of Trump's control over his party, which may signal the beginning of the end of his dominance."

Perhaps Trump also realized this, because on Sunday night he suddenly changed his stance, announcing that the Republicans should support the release of the Epstein files. This move avoided public humiliation, but he couldn't escape the growing weariness within the conservative base toward this highly unpopular, soon-to-be-ex-president.

The past terrible decade reminds us to be skeptical of predictions about so-called MAGA splits. After all, Trump has repeatedly seemed to lose power within the right-wing, yet it often ended up strengthening his control instead.

But this time, things are indeed different. During his first term, he inherited a good economy from Obama, and the establishment Republicans around him prevented him from launching large-scale trade wars or mass deportations, thus avoiding economic disaster. Although his hardcore supporters saw these establishment figures as part of the "deep state," they did prevent some of Trump's erratic policies from causing real damage.

This time, however, the economy was already very fragile when he took office, and without any constraints, he made the national situation worse, leaving the whole country in a low mood. Greene told Politico: "The most urgent top priority now is healthcare and living costs—it's the main issue."

Previously, the Republicans could dismiss polls showing public dissatisfaction with Trump as fake news. But after this month's election results, this ostrich-like attitude is hard to maintain—the Democrats won overwhelmingly almost everywhere. Axios even pointed out that the Republicans are now worried that even in Tennessee, a district where Trump won by 22 points, there might be a flip.

When the president becomes a burden on the party, the internal mindset changes quickly. Some previously overlooked flaws suddenly become glaring. (Think about how many Democrats refused to acknowledge Biden's aging until it became a political crisis.) Perhaps we won't see a mass exodus of Republicans from Trump, but some of his supporters have indeed started to recognize his character issues.

In fact, before this weekend, many conservatives were already angry at his comments during an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News. Ingraham questioned why the US needed H-1B visas to bring in foreign high-skilled laborers when it supposedly had enough talent. Trump responded directly: "No, you don't."

For many of Trump's supporters who are angry about immigration issues and an increasingly bleak job market, his remarks were a slap in the face. Florida Republican county commissioner Anthony Sabatini wrote: "I've never seen a government mess itself up this badly in its first year in office."

A few days later, Mike Cernovich, a "Pizzagate" conspiracy theorist and influential figure in the MAGA circle, gave a rare sharp criticism of the government. He wrote during a visit to Washington: "Everyone is talking about how naked the corruption is. Such levels of corruption are usually only seen in history books." He said many people are asking: "Do they really think the Democrats will never win again, so they can get away with it forever?"

Certainly, anyone with common sense wouldn't be surprised by the absurd level of corruption in this White House. When Trump was popular, his followers seemed to enjoy watching him make money in a crude way to annoy the Democrats. But now, as Trump continues to spend political capital on personal gain, some people within the right wing are starting to question whether it's not only the liberals who are being "taken down."

Under this atmosphere of conservative disappointment, Trump went on to scold Greene and Massie. Many right-wing influencers responded with rare anger, some even posting burning MAGA hats. Texas Republican Theresa Hoppe, who attended the January 6th rally, wrote that she no longer found Trump funny, and even "began to find him repulsive." Townhall columnist Scott Malcolm Field called Trump's posts "cruel enough that anyone with basic empathy should question if he's even a decent person."

It would be easy to say something about "kicking the ladder." But whenever Trump attacked Republicans, his supporters usually followed quickly. He has ended the political careers of Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a former Tea Party star, former House Freedom Caucus chairman Bob Good, and his own first Vice President Mike Pence. This time, however, he couldn't suppress Greene and Massie, indicating that things have really changed.

Trump's half-hearted support for the Epstein File Transparency Act is actually quite ridiculous—after all, if he wanted, he could have directly ordered the Department of Justice to release the documents. Even if Khanna's bill passed in the House, Trump still had ways to block it. The Republicans could easily kill it in the Senate, as it requires 60 votes. Last week, under Trump's pressure, the Department of Justice announced it would investigate prominent Democrats connected to Epstein, and the government is likely to keep the files sealed by claiming the investigation is ongoing.

But even if these files never get released, the fact that the MAGA camp is splitting is becoming increasingly clear. On Monday, I asked Field how serious he thought the rift was. He said, "I think it's pretty serious. The Epstein incident is actually the trigger, like the first crack in a dam."

Even if this dam holds for a while, we've already seen how fragile it really is. (Author: Michelle Goldberg, original source: The New York Times)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7574205104098738729/

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