I remember when an enthusiastic “yeah!” would end a politicians career and mark them as “too unhinged” to represent anyone.

That’s why I say “in the best scenario”. In the typical they won’t see a problem in that.

I think its true. Think about it, a big part of right wing ideology, at least in the US, over the past decade or so is the idea that there’s global network of powerful individuals who influence how the world is run, who are discretely working together to run a child trafficking ring. This idea has spanned quite a few conspiracy theories from pizzagate to Q anon to the Epstein list. A very large chunk of the right not only believe this, but it is the basis of their political beliefs.

The reason why this part of the right gravitated towards Trump to begin with is because he’s the only one who entertained the idea. While all the other politicians ignored or denied these conspiracies, Trump used them to gain support. In 2016 Trump claimed that he was going to go against the establishment, expose their crimes, and drain the swamp. In 2020 he claimed that the powerful elites were conspiring against him because he was close to exposing them and they’re trying to steal the election to keep him out. In 2024 he claimed that he will release the Epstein files the first day he’s in office again.

A lot of people genuinely believed that he would do this even though he himself is a powerful elite, has close ties to the people who ran the pedo rings, and there’s allegation that he even participated… but then again, we’re not talking about the most critically skilled bunch. Regardless, these people supported Trump because he promised to deliver what they sought, and so in that sense they’re more loyal to their belief in their conspiracies then they are to Trump himself.

When the Epstein list turned out to be a real thing, their long running conspiracy theory has finally been validated, and they pinned all their hopes on the one guy in the political sphere who promised to bring it all out to light on day one. So when that time came and Trump started his second term, nothing happened. These people started getting antsy and they started putting more and more pressure on Trump and his admin to explain the delays, especially after Bondi explicitly stated that the files were on her desk.

So when Bondi and Trump suddenly did a 180 and not only refused to release the Epstein files, but straight up denied their existence, that’s when the spell was finally broken on some of these MAGA types who hitched a ride just for these files to be exposed to the public. This was doubly so when he publicly disowned any supporter who even entertained the idea of its existence. At that point even the most dimwitted MAGA who joined the movement for the truth saw that Trump was not only not going to deliver on his promises, but he basically just admitted that he’s guilty. He’s one of the elite they were trying to go after all this time.

This portion of MAGA is what became disenfranchised, they’re no longer see Trump as a fit leader for the movement even if they believe a lot of what he stands for. You don’t hear about them or see them as much, because they’re not really a part of MAGA anymore. They’ve been banned from all MAGA spaces virtual and irl the moment Trump disavowed them, and they’ve been rejected as being liberals by the more brainwashed MAGAs who are still in the movement, in fact these ultra brainwashed MAGAs are the movement.

This may ironically be a conspiracy theory on my part, but I firmly believe that this rift is real. I have never, ever seen the comment sections on Fox News, ONN, Brietbart as well as the Twitter, Truth Social, and the right wing youtube space turn as heavily against Trump as that moment. I think this was the last straw for a lot of them, and I assure you that Trump and his MAGA candidates are going to be shells of themselves in terms of performance in every election from now on.