Trump is losing his grip on MAGA

Reeling from farmers' outrage over his plan to import Argentine beef and now the Democratic Party's victory in last week's election, Trump is facing sharp backlash from allies over immigration, the state of the economy, and the latest episode of the long-running Epstein scandal, which has affected every step of his second administration.

These tensions reached a peak in an interview with Laura Ingraham that aired on Monday, in which the Fox News host challenged the president on his unexpected praise of the granting of 600,000 visas to Chinese students and the H-1B visa program, calling him a clearly anti-MAGA stance.

Trump's defense—that China is no worse an enemy than France, and that the US needs foreign-born workers to address the talent shortage—has drawn as much criticism as his statements, although the White House maintains that Trump's core commitments remain unchanged.

 White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Newsweek, "In record time, President Trump has done more than any president in modern history to tighten our immigration laws and prioritize American workers." He cited the $100,000 fee on new H-1B applications and the Labor Department's crackdown on abuse within the program.

 The president himself immediately dismissed any disagreement within the MAGA camp on any of these issues.

 "Don't forget: MAGA was my idea. MAGA wasn't anyone else's idea," he said on The Ingraham Angle. "I know better than anyone what MAGA wants, and MAGA wants to see our country thrive."

 'A Presidency in Crisis'

Peter Loge, professor of media and public relations at George Washington University, said, "I think the MAGA base is fracturing. Donald Trump will never lose his core support, but there's suddenly a debate about what it means to be a MAGA or a true Republican."

Loge, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, told Newsweek that the mix of problems besetting the administration, rather than any single issue, indicates that Trump is losing his grip.

"We connect the dots to form a picture, and recent dots include Epstein, the election, the court's strong skepticism of Trump's tariff policies, growing economic insecurity, and declining polling data," he said. "This information, these dots, paint a picture of a presidency in crisis."

 Todd Belt, professor of political management at George Washington University, said evidence of fractures in the president's base includes town hall meetings in which Republican lawmakers questioned their support for the president. Furthermore, there was evidence that lawmakers and media figures—the MAGA "elite"—appeared comfortable breaking with Trump on key issues.

Belt also cited other issues that had undermined the perception of MAGA's unwavering support for the president, including growing dissatisfaction with US support for Israel and Trump's "flip-flop on Ukraine," which angered MAGA's isolationist faction. He added, "The biggest issue is Epstein."

The Justice Department's reluctance to release all documents related to the late convicted sex offender and new details about Trump's relationship with Epstein have led to accusations that the president, once a popular outsider, has become part of the very establishment he sought to overthrow.

"I think in the context of the movement, MAGA is willing to forgive Donald Trump on many things because they consider him a businessman, and when he's going back and forth with his tariffs and disruptive behavior, they know what they're doing," Belt said. "But this is a case where it really violates the ideology of whitewashing the Deep State and being on the outside—which he promised, and now it seems he's on the other side."

 Although lawmakers in the lower house had gathered enough signatures to force a House vote to release Epstein's files, Belt believed the bill would not pass in the Senate and avoid the explosive possibility of a Trump veto. He said the issue itself is a thorn in the side that will continue to plague Trump's presidency.