The latest Democrat talking point is that Trump is losing support from the media influencers who got him elected president. The trouble is, they didn’t get him elected because he won the presidency without most of them in 2016.
Axios declared, “The architects of MAGA’s media empire are in open revolt against President Trump, disgusted by his threat to destroy Iran’s whole civilization.”
Axios listed 8 architects. It is to laugh. Remember where were you in 1962? I ask where were these beings in 2016?
With one exception, they were nowhere to be seen. Let us review the facts.
In 2016, Joe Rogan was a pioneer podcaster already raking it in. He also was a successful comedian and a popular UFC announcer. On Election Night, he hosted a special End of the World episode with comedians like Doug Stanhope and Bill Burr reacting to the results as they came in.
But Rogan voted for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and publicly endorsed him. Rogan described himself at the time as leaning “FAR more left than right.” In earlier elections, he supported Ron Paul.
In 2016, Tucker Carlson did not endorse or vote for Trump. He wasn’t all that influential as Fox News launched Tucker Carlson Tonight six days after the election.
In 2016, Candace Owens was primarily focused on launching SocialAutopsy.com, a controversial crowdfunding project (via Kickstarter) aimed at doxxing online bullies. She didn’t vote at all. After Trump’s inauguration, she began supporting him.
In 2016, Marjorie Taylor Greene was a business owner and fitness enthusiast who had been largely apolitical for years. She did make a small donation to the Trump campaign but she did not vote in 2016.
In 2016, Theo Von finally broke through as a stand-up comedian with a Netflix special. That is quite an admirable accomplishment. He was too busy working to pay attention to politics and did not endorse Trump or anyone.
In 2016, Tim Dillon also had a breakout year as a comedian. Like Von, he was an overnight success 10 years in the making. I cheer for talented people. But like Von, he did not bother with politics and he made no endorsement in the election.
In 2016, Nicolas Kenn De Balinthazy (Sneako) turned 18. He was breaking through on YouTube making videos for money, but he was apolitical and didn’t even mention the election in his videos, much less endorse anyone. He later said he supported Bernie Sanders and was bummed that he did not get the Democrat nomination.
The only one listed by Axios as a MAGA influencer who actually helped elect Trump president in 2016 was Alex Jones. His radio show was then at its peak in popularity. He was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Trump for more than a year before the election.
Trump became president without any help from 7 of the 8 people Axios implied got him elected. I am not saying they all hopped on bandwagon to profit themselves. Certainly Rogan, Von and Dillon were successes on their own.
But some did. For example, MTG’s support for Trump got her elected to Congress in 2020. She qualified for a small pension and quit in January. On Tuesday, voters elected Republican Clay Fuller to replace her. Democrats claim the 11-point landslide against their candidate was actually a major victory. They think like mullahs.
Not until Paragraph 19 did Axios bother to say, “Rank-and-file Republican voters tell a different story: Roughly two-thirds of Republicans still express confidence in Trump’s handling of Iran, even as broader public trust has eroded, according to a new WSJ poll.”
So who are these great influencers influencing? As the War Secretary’s dad said in a tweet, “Unfortunately they thought they were the MAGA core and would define what the actual creator of MAGA meant by the term. Is Trump a Republican? An Independent? A Conservative? He’s Trump/MAGA; his own brand. He’s got a short one term chance to make big necessary changes his way.”
The media believes that it can use Operation Epic Fury to divide Trump from his supporters.
Figures associated with the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement have spoken out against President Donald Trump as the U.S.’ war with Iran continues.
The U.S. and Israel have been attacking Iran for six weeks in a conflict that began when the U.S. carried out strikes in February in an operation dubbed Operation Epic Fury. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has said more than 3,500 people have been killed in Iran since the attacks began, including at least 1,665 civilians.
Newsweek left out the part where George Soros helps fund that news agency.
It also left out the part where the news agency counted each and every body killed in the middle of a war to come up with an exact figure. No one does that. Only propagandists like the Gaza Health Agency do.
Carlson is a peculiar case. Although Fox fired him years ago, the news channel had to pay him until his contract expired in early 2025. When the contract ended, he transformed into an anti-Trump activist, ranting this week: “We’ve intentionally bombed civilian infrastructure. That’s totally unacceptable. Not under the phony laws of some international body but under moral law, God’s law. Killing noncombatants who did nothing wrong, who are people created by God, is immoral.”
No one told him about World War 2, did they?
Who needs the Cucker? As Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin sang in All of My Love:
Ours is the fire, all the warmth we can find
He is a feather in the wind
As for Iran, it is twice the size of France and Germany with a population of 92 million (minus about 1,000 ayatollahs and their military leaders). Drew Pavlou explained what critics of Operation Epic Fury missed:
Imagine Iran killed Trump in the first 5 minutes of the war, established air superiority over the U.S. mainland, wiped out the entire U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, killed half the Cabinet, flattened the U.S. military industrial complex, then started building runways in Missouri to land Iranian troops without losing any casualties.
Would you say it was a U.S. victory if the U.S. managed to keep the Panama Canal closed throughout this all?
Maybe Trump ceased fire because we ran out of targets. Britt Hume, hardly a Trumpette, said on Fox News last night:
I heard the Pentagon briefing this morning with Pete Hegseth and General Caine. They both acted as if the war is basically over. Something has occurred that we don’t know the details of that has given this administration and the President high hopes that Iran has blinked here.
And while the ceasefire may take a while to settle in, there’s a real chance of a negotiated settlement along our terms. I think it remains to be seen if that turns out to be true but that’s what they think.
I also think we will keep our hardware and personnel in the area and if it turns out Iran is playing games again, or that whoever we’re dealing with is not really in control, I think there’s a high chance of hostilities resuming.
The 22nd Amendment limits presidents to two terms. For any other president, this is a hindrance. But as you may have noticed, Donald Trump is unlike all those other presidents. For him, the amendment is liberating, freeing him from worries about re-election. He is free to Make America Great Again because his supporters are there for him no matter what. Even those who are unnerved by Operation Epic Fury stand by him because they know he is their only hope of restoring this great nation.
The Tucker Carlson Crowd wants to take their ball and go home, but as I have shown you, they have no balls.
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This article first appeared on Don Surber’s Substack. Reprinted here with permission.
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