Tag: MAGA

The MAGA Machine Can’t Save Trump From Epstein

Frum explains why Epstein shattered MAGA’s myths—and why Trump’s shame has his own movement turning on him.

The MAGA Machine Can’t Save Trump From Epstein (w/ David Frum) | The Bulwark Podcast
AI Note

AI was used to help summarize David Frum’s analysis, but it’s absolutely worth watching the full episode for the complete conversation and nuance.

David Frum breaks down why the Epstein scandal uniquely destabilizes Trump: it’s the one case where Trump acts genuinely guilty, triggering the conspiratorial right that built Epstein into a master myth. Frum explains how Epstein’s Jewish identity fueled para-MAGA’s antisemitic narrative machinery, why Trump can’t escape the story, and how the moral collapse around figures like Megan Kelly and Marjorie Taylor Green reveals a movement increasingly defined by paranoia, cruelty, and self-destruction.

Also in this episode:

  • Trump’s tariff policies and their role in raising consumer prices
  • The administration’s sudden pivot to reverse tariffs to curb inflation
  • Infighting across MAGA media personalities
  • Anti-Zionism, antisemitism, and how both left and right weaponize the distinction
  • Biden-era handling of Epstein/Maxwell documents
  • Michael Flynn’s $50M claim against the U.S. government
  • Political retaliation inside federal agencies during the Trump years
  • Expanding use of force in immigration enforcement
  • U.S. drug interdiction failures in the Caribbean
  • Venezuela policy and speculation around U.S. intervention
  • Canada’s economic vulnerabilities under Trump-era decisions

The K-Shaped Economy: Raging Moderates on the Moral Collapse of American Prosperity

Galloway and Tarlov’s Raging Moderates episode captures America’s moral divide: a K-shaped economy feeding the top 1 percent while MAGA normalizes hate and authoritarian awe. Between Gatsby’s glitter and populist rage, they find the same creed—power without empathy, cruelty mistaken for strength.

This summary was generated with AI assistance to capture the moral and political through-lines of Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov’s latest Raging Moderates episode.

The full conversation is worth your time; watch it here.

Podcast: Raging Moderates – “Trump’s K-Shaped Economy”
Hosts: Scott Galloway & Jessica Tarlov

1️⃣ The K-Shaped Economy: America’s New Gatsby Era

During the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, military families lined up at food pantries while Trump hosted a Great Gatsby-themed party at Mar-a-Lago—girls in martini glasses, confetti over unpaid workers. That tableau, the hosts argue, is the moral diagram of the K-shaped economy itself.

“Budgets are moral documents.”

“America is a terrible place to be unfortunate.”

GDP may grow 3.8 percent, but for most Americans “the bottom 90 serve as nutrition for the top 10 percent.” Markets become morality plays; as Galloway notes, “As long as the stock market is up, you can do anything—even deploy secret police with masks.”

The metrics that matter are off-book:

  • Pawn-shop sales, auto-loan delinquencies, Hamburger Helper spikes.
  • Teen self-harm, anxiety, and hunger.

These, not the S&P 500, are the nation’s true balance sheet.
The “K” is a hieroglyph of our values—one arm ascending toward excess, the other collapsing into despair.

2️⃣ MAGA’s Dark Communion

Later the hosts turn from money to morality. Their focus shifts to Nick Fuentes, whose praise of Stalin exposes what the MAGA movement has become: a coalition comfortable with white nationalism, antisemitism, and authoritarian awe.

“Strength and masculinity have been conflated with coarseness and cruelty.”

“The most dangerous person in the world is a young man without economic or romantic opportunity.”

Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, and their online echo chambers reveal a movement that glorifies domination and calls it leadership. Algorithms amplify the poison because rage pays. Ben Shapiro, once an architect of grievance media, now looks aghast at the antisemitic monster it unleashed—a moral recursion too late to contain.

3️⃣ The Moral Through-Line

Between Gatsby’s glitter and MAGA’s rage lies a single creed: power without empathy. One end worships wealth; the other worships strength. Both treat human beings as expendable.

“Budgets reflect the values of a nation.”

When compassion is weakness and cruelty is currency, prosperity becomes performative. The republic mistakes spectacle for virtue, the algorithm for conscience, and domination for destiny.