Inside the total collapse of Trump’s MAGA coalition: How Tucker Carlson has ‘passionately hated’ the President for years… why Joe Rogan feels ‘betrayed’… and fatal warning about what’s coming next

Just four months ago, Donald Trump Jr. declared the Republican Party dead.

“This is not the Republican Party anymore,” he told a cheering crowd at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix. ‘This is the America First Party. ‘This is the Make America Great Again Party and we’re not going back.’

They say be careful what you wish for. It’s unclear who will lead this new merger, as the GOP’s traditional coalition of fiscal and social conservative voters gives way to a roving mix of moderates and right-leaning populists.

And Don Jr., who is known for assembling a disparate group of new media voices, from hunting buddy Tucker Carlson to comedian Theo Von to Joe Rogan, to hasten his father’s return to the White House in 2024, is now watching those alliances collapse.

On Tuesday, Carlson issued a humble live-stream apology to fans for supporting Trump, saying, “I think this is our moment to wrestle with our own consciences.”

“We will be tormented by this for a long time,” he lamented, his brows deeply furrowed. ‘I will be and I want to say that I’m sorry for misleading people and that it wasn’t intentional. That’s all I have to say.”

Such a momentous departure could not come at a worse time for Trump, who faces dimming political prospects ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and set the tone for the remaining two years of his presidency.

Tucker Carlson with President Trump in the Oval Office in January

One of the key foundations of the MAGA movement was a parallel media system of podcasts. Acting as a kind of hive mind, it’s a background chatter for MAGA, similar to how talk radio once functioned for traditional Republicans, with its growing audience of disaffected Americans.

Don Jr was at the heart of this friendly media cocoon with his own ‘Triggered’ podcast on Rumble and Spotify. He was the conduit between himself and his father, who preferred to read printouts of newspaper articles and engage in pitched battles with mainstream media outlets.

At his son’s urging, the elder Trump embarked on a podcast tour aimed at influencing the so-called “manosphere” of young male voters.

This most notably included a three-hour appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, and the host supported him.

Senior lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School, Dr. The Trump campaign podcast strategy was the driving factor behind the largest shift to the right of young male voters in two decades, increasing Trump’s overall support by between 1 percent and 2.6 percent, according to research by Raffaele F Ciriello. Half of that change was specifically tied to Rogan’s support.

Fast forward to today and the picture is very different.

In the months since Trump’s decision to attack Iran, the unofficial coalition of podcasters and alternative media figures has experienced its own nuclear explosion. Some of its biggest names insult Trump every day.

Last week, Carlson suggested that Trump could be the ‘Antichrist’ after the President released an AI-generated image of Jesus Christ. Amid the turmoil, Carlson’s 29-year-old son Buckley resigned as deputy press secretary to J.D. Vance, but the White House said the move had been long planned.

Some cracks in this MAGA coalition were beginning to appear at the same America Festival where Don Jr. celebrated his new America First Party in December.

Donald Trump Jr backed a successful podcast strategy for his father in 2024, but many influential podcasters have now turned to that strategy

Influential podcaster Joe Rogan expresses doubts about Iran war

Following the murder of her husband, Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA’s new CEO, Erika Kirk, tried to keep the peace at the event with a call for unity. But while conservative media figure Ben Shapiro took to the stage to criticize ‘hustlers and grifters’, pundit and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon also accused Shapiro of being ‘like a cancer’ for the movement.

Shapiro also attacked Carlson for hosting far-right commentator Nick Fuentes on his show and berated Candace Owens for “spewing all kinds of disgusting and conspiratorial nonsense.”

In March, anti-war podcaster Megyn Kelly and Fox News host Mark Levin began a bitter personal feud.

‘Poor Megyn Kelly. Levin wrote on social media that he was an emotionally unstable, amoral and moody wreck. Kelly responded by calling Levin the “Micropenis Sign” and they both launched several more salvos.

The White House is alarmed by such controversies in the MAGA sphere. Trump could have stayed out of the debate, but he decided to pick a side and issued a 348-word statement that Truth Social was endorsing Levin over Kelly. “Anyone who speaks ill of Mark will quickly step aside,” Trump ominously warned.

Trump then attacked Kelly and her friends in another post.

“I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have been fighting me for years,” Trump recently wrote on Truth Social. ‘Because they have one thing in common, their low IQ.’

Carlson’s definitive abandonment of Trump poured kerosene on the fire already engulfing right-wing circles.

Conservative media mogul Jeremy Boreing, co-founder of the Daily Wire, told the Daily Mail: ‘We already know what Tucker thinks about Trump. She told colleagues she hated him “with a passion”, then supported him anyway and helped management recruit staff. He’s not sad. He’s a man who made a bet that didn’t pay off and now wants his regret to be a story.’

This is a reference to messages Carlson sent to a Fox News colleague in 2021, saying he ‘hated’ Trump and that there was ‘no real upside’ for him.

Erika Kirk tried to keep the peace in the MAGA movement

Podcaster Candace Owens is also among those who have criticized Trump recently

Pro-Trump activist and internet personality Laura Loomer responded to Carlson, writing about X: ‘I’m so happy to permanently cut off anyone who continues to defend him. ‘Good riddance.’

Loomer, meanwhile, was even harsher about Owens, who has previously supported Trump but recently called for his replacement under the 25th Amendment.

Loomer wrote to Owens in X: ‘God hates you. That’s why he gave Charlie (Kirk) to Erika and you couldn’t even say goodbye. God hates you.

‘Look in the mirror and internalize how much God hates you. We all hate you. Humanity hates you. And you are irredeemable.’

Pollster Professor Larry Sabato, Director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said the feeding frenzy destroying the internet had reached its peak, but in fact the eventual collapse of support for Trump was ‘inevitable’.

‘There’s a lot of stress and tension on this coalition,’ he said. ‘Trump is going to war, after basically saying his move is about not doing that… after a while even the most dedicated PR people, the podcasters, wake up and smell the coffee, and it’s a very strong pot of coffee.’

He said Carlson’s departure from the MAGA coalition was a “shocking departure.”

“Many Tucker Carlson supporters will still be with Trump, but many will not be,” he concluded. ‘Many will agree with Carlson, especially on foreign wars.’

Carlson, Kelly and other conservative figures objected to this AI-generated image that Trump posted and later deleted.

Rogan definitely is. ‘A lot of people feel betrayed, right? [Trump] “In March he said ‘no more wars, stop these stupid, senseless wars’ and then we were faced with a war where we couldn’t even clearly define why we were doing this,” he said.

On April 3, Rogan was interviewed by podcast host Theo Von. When Rogan said: ‘Supposedly, [Trump is] “I’m trying to stop terrorists,” Von said, bursting into laughter.

‘But if you’re the fucking terrorist, this is crazy!’ Von said. ‘Do you know what I said? Like, if you want to stop them, stand in front of the damn mirror and start from there.’

The big question for Trump and the Republican Party now is what impact Don Jr.’s loss of podcast strategy will have on the midterm elections in November.

It looks like there will be no repeat of Trump’s successful tour in 2024, which included long conversations with Rogan and Von. White House officials are gambling as they consider releasing Carlson and Kelly, who both have large conservative followings.

Professor Sabato said moving away from the podcast strategy in the midterms could mean Republicans losing “a point here, a point there, five points there, ten points there.” ‘But in a contentious country like the United States, this is important,’ he said.