This Was Unnecessary and Stupid

MAGA, prepare to be pissed off at me again…

I am as amused by some of Trump’s and other MAGA-types’ trolling of the left, but I also think that too much of it is only playing to the insiders and is alienating others unnecessarily.

Example #5343

Steve Bannon, after calling for Trump to be President for life, did a Nazi salute on stage at CPAC.

Nazism has officially taken over the GOP.

The few remaining conservatives have a choice: either leave the party and obstruct it—or choose to be complicit.pic.twitter.com/94o5Kj69Le

— Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 (@JoshEakle) February 21, 2025

Why did Steve Bannon have to make a gesture that–quite intentionally–looks like a Nazi salute?

When Elon Musk was criticized–wrongly–for making a Nazi salute, I thought it was outrageous and said so, both because it WASN’T a Nazi salute–it was a guy on “the spectrum” clearly “throwing his heart out to people,” as he clearly said. Elon is, if anything, a philosemite and is as Nazi as any random rabbi.

Donald Trump isn’t a Nazi. MAGA folks are not Nazis. The whole Nazi thing is slander and a hoax being perpetrated by a desperate left and Pravda Media in order to create a “vibe” that MAGA is outside the Overton window.

Steve Bannon also, is not a Nazi, but he deliberately made what could be interpreted as a Nazi salute to troll the left. He thinks it is funny, and to insiders, it is because they get the joke. It is a slap at Pravda and the propagandists.

It is also profoundly unhelpful to the MAGA cause. MAGA may be at war with the transnational elite and all the people who see us as an existential threat, but we shouldn’t be doing things that, for no good reason, make ordinary people who just want the government cleaned up and the grift to end shudder at being associated with us.

You may think it is stupid, but most people just want their lives to get back to some semblance of normal and don’t want to have to defend their support for what the Trump administration is doing every damn second of their lives. I am getting bombarded–as I am sure many of you are–with some of my friends and family who feel unnecessarily offended by all this.

If it accomplished some long-term good, I would be happy to defend it, but the opposite is true. No policy gains are made. No inroads against the left are made. It doesn’t undermine our enemies, who smile when they see Bannon do this. It just offends center-right people and makes MAGA insiders chuckle for a second.

It’s stupid. An unforced error.

Trump is doing so much right, and DOGE is exposing a ton of indefensible spending, but the controversies are dragging him down. That was inevitable and a necessary price to pay, but we need to be mindful that all the criticism is and will have an effect. Picking unnecessary fights undermines the efforts with the necessary fights.

The last day has been the worst polling day for Trump during his entire 2nd term.

-4 polls show his net approval rating underwater like The Little Mermaid.
-The 3 polls with a trend line show his ratings going down.
-His one time strength (the economy) is now a weakness. pic.twitter.com/l9IQOhXS9K

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) February 20, 2025