MAGA had a dreadful day on Friday after two unrelated events sowed enmity and confusion on social media.
It began with Trump’s Oval Office tat-de-tat with admitted socialist and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who seemingly elicited smiles, handshakes, and, yes, effusive praise from the president. When asked by a reporter if he considered Mamdani a Jihadist, Trump responded in the negative, saying he had just spoken with a “rational man.”
“I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor. The better he does, the happier I am,” Trump said from the Oval Office with Mamdani standing beside him. “There’s no difference in party, there’s no difference in anything. And we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true. Having a strong and very safe New York.” He even said he’d move back to New York City under Mamdani’s leadership.
His words were a sharp departure from his earlier criticisms of Mamdani, a student of Barack Hussein Obama—who had coached him on how to appear charismatic—and a proponent of the Muslim Brotherhood. This violently radical pro-Islamic sect has insinuated itself into American culture.
On X and Truth Social, the reaction to Trump’s appeasements came swiftly. Some MAGA commentators accused the president of selling out and compromising the midterms, saying his lionizing of Mamdani effectively scuttled Elise Stefanik’s gubernatorial campaign. Stefanik is the Trump-endorsed MAGA Republican hoping to defeat Kathy Hochul in next year’s New York race for governor. She had long called Mamdani a Jihadist: “If he walks like a jihadist, if he talks like a jihadist, if he campaigns like a jihadist, if he supports jihadists, he’s a jihadist,” she wrote on X following the Trump-Mamdani meeting. “We’ll just have to disagree on this one.” Laura Loomer wondered why Mamdani received a “warmer welcome’ to the White House than had Volodymyr Zelenskyy. To paraphrase Loomer, she opined that if the GOP now supported socialism, Republicans shouldn’t bother voting in 2026 and 2028.
Yesterday evening, RRN reached out to a White House source for comments on Trump’s apparent reversal and the ensuing social media criticism.
“At times, a President of the United States, any President of the United States, must appear stately,” he said. “A POTUS can’t berate every guest he invites to the Oval Office, a privilege. This president, President Trump, plays a long game; he’s not interested in short-term gains. He knows exactly what he’s doing, promises made and promises delivered, and has demonstrated time and time again that he can manage opponents. Anyone judging him based on his kindness to Mamdani should either get with the program or get out,” our source said.
Unfortunately, the Trump-Mamdani meet wasn’t the only incident to rock the MAGA world yesterday.
Last evening, former Trump loyalist and MAGA adherent Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, representing Georgia’s 14th District, posted a 10-minute video announcing her retirement from politics. In a calm yet moving speech, she said January 5 would be her last day as House Representative, citing Trump’s initial reluctance to release the Epstein files, calling her “Whacky Marjorie’ Traitor’ Greene,” and promising to primary her as reasons for her retirement. She claimed, without evidence, that Trump had spent “millions of dollars” to ruin her career.
Their political divorce has certainly fissured MAGA. The social media replies to her video are a mix of people extolling her constitutional voting record or branding her a traitor for betraying President Trump. We won’t granularize her arguments here, as her video is available on her social video feeds. However, a second White House source shared his insight with us into the Trump-MTG breakup.
“Marjorie could’ve had 25 more years as a successful politician, but wouldn’t stay in her lane. Trump always planned to release the full Epstein documents, and if he seemed hesitant at times, it was part of his plan to expose potential traitors. Marjorie, and I’m being honest here, she did a lot of good for MAGA, but she got blindsided and didn’t stick to the plan. She revolted, and now it had cost her dearly. And if, and I can’t say that’s case, Trump discouraged her from running for senator or governor right now, it’s because he knows it’s not her time. Her time would’ve come, for sure. But her political ambitions got the best of her, and she was impatient.”
We’ll avoid the he-said, she-said, as it benefits no one. But Greene’s exodus won’t hurt Republicans, as the seat she holds is solidly Republican.
Her prediction that Democrats will sweep the midterms, our source said, is delusional.