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For the political ideology, see Trumpism.

The Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement is an American political movement that began with Donald Trump‘s announcement initiating a campaign in the 2016 United States presidential election. The movement is closely aligned with Trumpism, a set of ideologies and beliefs surrounding Trump. Due to the alignment with Trumpism, the movement commonly advocates for right-wing populist, American nationalist, right-wing anti-globalist, and national conservative policies, as well as mass deportations, strong borders, and a small but strong government. The movement is considered to be the biggest modern movement in the Republican Party.[1]

History

See also: History of the United States (2016–present)

2015–2016: Establishment and Trump’s initial victory

In June 2015, the businessman Donald Trump announced that he was running for president in the 2016 United States presidential election. His campaign employed the term “make America great again“, a political slogan previously associated with Ronald Reagan‘s 1980 presidential campaign and mentioned by president Bill Clinton several times in his presidential campaigns and presidency.[2] Trump used the phrase in his announcement speech to criticize other presidential candidates as “controlled fully by the lobbyists”.[3] The phrase was also used on Trump’s campaign website[4] and by Texas senator Ted Cruz in praising Trump for announcing his presidential campaign.[5] In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump stated that he thought of the phrase after the 2012 presidential election and filed for a trademark five days later; the trademark came into effect a month after Trump announced his campaign.[6] Merchandise containing the phrase “Make America Great Again” was sold at Trump Tower.[7] The phrase was also used on baseball caps worn by Trump as early as July, in a visit to Laredo, Texas.[8] It was additionally the name of two political action committees supporting Trump’s campaign.[9]

2017–2021: Trump’s first presidency

As the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States exacerbated in March 2020, conflicting beliefs on the severity of the disease and how the federal government should respond divided the MAGA movement, though supporters of Trump remained steadfast in seeking to contain COVID-19 to ensure Trump’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.[10] The threat of COVID-19 was made apparent to followers of the MAGA movement after warnings from Trump’s health officials; nonetheless, several Trump supporters articulated that Trump’s response could be extreme.[11] Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, received criticism from a minority of far-right Trump supporters for his apparent political beliefs.[12] As protests began across the United States in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, followers of the MAGA movement vociferously opposed the political slogan “defund the police“.[13] Several members approached demonstrations with counterprotests, a development that resulted in the killings of Aaron Danielson and Michael Reinoehl, a Trump supporter and his alleged killer, respectively, and the Kenosha unrest shooting, in which Kyle Rittenhouse shot three men, killing two.[14]

As the results of the 2020 presidential election were broadcast, Trump publicly criticized Fox News for being the first news network to declare that Joe Biden had won the election in Arizona. His comments resulted in some members of the MAGA movement shifting towards news networks such as One America News Network and Newsmax, which embraced false claims of electoral fraud more vigorously than Fox News, and towards social networks such as Parler. Newsmax received criticism itself from QAnon supporters, who denounced the network’s use of a photograph of a man wearing a hoodie to illustrate white nationalism, and Parler faced false allegations that it was owned by the investor and philanthropist George Soros, the subject of conspiracy theories from Trump’s supporters.[15]

2021–2024: Between presidencies

2025–present: Trump’s second presidency

During Trump’s second term, the ideology of the MAGA movement appeared to take a shift from non-interventionism to interventionism both by increased commentary on the politics of foreign nations[16][17] and by military attacks on countries such as Venezuela and Iran, as well as expansionist ambitions in the arctic.[18][19][20][21]

Activities

Foreign involvement and recognition

Ahead of the 2019 Canadian federal election, accounts on Twitter identifying themselves as members of the MAGA movement mounted a failed campaign to defeat the Liberal Party and its leader, Justin Trudeau.[22] In Mexico, protests against the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, following the assassination of Uruapan mayor Carlos Manzo in November 2025 received support from members of the MAGA movement.[23]

After the 2024 Romanian presidential election was held and promptly annulled amid allegations of Russian interference, the resulting election the following year received attention from the MAGA movement. The controversy over Călin Georgescu‘s disqualification was brought to several MAGA figures by Adrian Thiess, a Romanian political fixer.[24]

The MAGA movement has attracted an international audience, particularly from traditionalist conservatives in the United Kingdom. British prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss began appearing at several events hosted for the MAGA movement after their premierships.[25] Ahead of local elections in May 2025, Nigel Farage began hosting political events similar to MAGA rallies.[26]

Amid concerns that the Alternative for Germany would be banned for political extremism after the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the party as right-wing extremist, several party officials began meeting with MAGA figures to protect itself.[27]

Ideology

Main article: Trumpism
These paragraphs are an excerpt from Trumpism.[]

Trumpism is the political ideology behind Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, and his political base. It is often used in close conjunction with the Make America Great Again (MAGA) political movement. It comprises ideologies such as right-wing populism, right-wing antiglobalism, national conservatism, Christian nationalism, and neo-nationalism, and features significant illiberal, authoritarian,[28][29] and autocratic beliefs and practices.[a] Other ideologies include nativism,[30][31] economic nationalism,[32][33] anti-environmentalism,[34] and anti-intellectualism.[35][36] Trumpists and Trumpians are terms that refer to individuals exhibiting its characteristics. There is significant academic debate over the prevalence of neo-fascist[b] and alt-right elements of Trumpism.

Trumpism has been characterized by scholars as having authoritarian leanings,[37][38] and has been associated with the belief that the president is above the rule of law.[c] It has been referred to as an American political variant of the populist, radical right[39][40] and the far-right,[41][42][43][44] as well as the national-populist and neo-nationalist sentiment seen in multiple nations starting in the mid–late 2010s.[45] Trump’s political base has been compared to a cult of personality.[d] Over the course of the late 2010s and early 2020s, Trump supporters became the largest faction of the Republican Party, with the remainder often characterized as “the elite”, “the establishment“, or “Republican in name only” (RINO) in contrast. In response to these developments, many American conservatives opposed to Trumpism formed the Never Trump movement which opposes Trump and his political practices, often advocating to achieve a more traditional Republican Party.

The MAGA movement has been described as right-wing.[46][47] President Joe Biden described the ideology of the MAGA movement as “semi-fascism”.[48] According to Ian Goldin, a professor of globalization at the University of Oxford, the MAGA movement was bolstered by economic inequality and anxiety, conditions that persisted through Trump’s second term.[49]

Internal conflicts

According to Politico, the MAGA movement has been defined by internal conflicts as early as December 2016, when members of the movement conflicted over ideologies at inauguration parties.[15] An instance of a prominent conflict has been characterized at the extremes by the divide between the nativist ideology of the groups such as the Groypers and Nick Fuentes on one end and the pro-immigration technolibertarians such as Elon Musk on the other.[50][51] After the October 7 attacks and the resulting Gaza war, the MAGA movement divided over U.S. assistance to Israel and the legitimacy of the State of Israel. The split has extended to the USS Liberty incident in the Six-Day War; the political commentator Ben Shapiro, Texas senator Ted Cruz, and the National Review's editor-in-chief, Rich Lowry, have defended the conclusion of the Naval Court of Inquiry and the government of Israel that the ship was sunk by the Israeli military on accident, while the commentators Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, and Arizona representative Paul Gosar have claimed that the ship’s identity was known to Israel and was an intentional false flag operation.[52]

Composition

According to Laura K. Field in Furious Minds (2025), intellectuals in the MAGA movement comprise several primary ideological associations centered around differing ideals, but connected through a collective disdain for liberalism. Field’s groupings include individuals associated with the Claremont Institute, postliberals, and Christian nationalists; Field additionally notes the existence of a loose collective on the peripheries of the MAGA movement that engages in a hypermasculine and Chauvinistic aesthetic and rhetoric with absurdist names, such as Raw Egg Nationalist and Bronze Age Pervert.[53]

As of November 2025, over a third of Republicans do not consider themselves to be MAGA Republicans, according to a Politico poll.[54]

Notable individuals

Political theorists associated with the MAGA movement include Patrick Deneen, a University of Notre Dame professor who authored Why Liberalism Failed (2018).[55]

The MAGA movement was influenced by the political activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September 2025.[56]

Marketing and communication

Branding and symbolism

The MAGA hat is a symbol for the MAGA movement.

Rallies

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Authoritarian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Books and journal articles:
    • Cox & O’Connor 2025, p. 1: “This debate has unfolded in stark binary terms of presence or absence. Alarmists argue that Trumpism bears all of the hallmarks of fascism and should therefore be labelled as such. Sceptics suggest that this conclusion is premised on shallow historical analogizing that mistakes form for substance… although Trumpism does not conform to inter-war European iterations of fascism, and while the conditions under which they emerged are strikingly different, Trumpism nonetheless exhibits fascistic tendencies that have intensified in recent years. We refer to this as ‘proto-fascism‘, and suggest that neoliberal capitalism has been centrally implicated in its emergence.”
    • Jackson 2021
    • Maher 2023, p. 393
    • McGaughey 2018: “Trump is closely linked to neo-conservative politics. It is too hostile to insider welfare to be called ‘fascist’. Its political ideology is weaker. If we had to give it a name, the social ideal of Donald Trump is ‘fascism-lite’.”
    • Tourish 2024
    • DiMaggio 2021

    Opinion pieces:
    • Homans 2024: “No major American presidential candidate has talked like he now does at his rallies—not Richard Nixon, not George Wallace, not even Donald Trump himself.”
    • Bender & Gold 2023
    • Lehmann 2023
    • Basu 2023
    • Cassidy 2023
    • Lutz 2023
    • Browning 2023
    • Kim & Ibssa 2023
    • Ward 2024: “It’s a stark escalation over the last month of what some experts in political rhetoric, fascism, and immigration say is a strong echo of authoritarians and Nazi ideology.”
    • Applebaum 2024: “In the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. … The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the ‘bloodbath’ that Trump has said will unfold if he doesn’t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents—none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics. But neither has this rhetoric been tried in modern American politics.”
    • Rubin 2024
    • Brooks 2024: “Trump, however, has also used the term fascist to describe Harris as he has doubled down on his insults against Harris and ratcheted up the intensity of his own rhetoric against political opponents. ‘She’s a marxist, communist, fascist, socialist’, Trump said at a rally in Arizona in September. Johnson and McConnell made no mention of Trump’s rhetoric in their statement, keeping the focus on their political rival.”
    • Schmidt 2024
    • Balk 2024
  3. ^ Attributed to multiple sources:
    • Havercroft et al. 2018
    • Fassassi 2020
    • Strauss 2019, p. 440: “what has been for me the disturbing trend toward essentially unchecked presidential exercise of authority: Reagan presidency (Strauss, 1986) Clinton presidency (Strauss, 1997), Bush II presidency (Strauss, 2007), Obama Presidency (Strauss, 2015). With President Trump, this trend has, if anything, accelerated.”
    • Darby 2024
    • Lusane 2024
  4. ^ Attributed to multiple sources:

References

  1. ^ “How Trump has transformed the Republican Party”. November 8, 2024. Retrieved April 9, 2026.
  2. ^ Itkowitz, Colby (June 17, 2015). “Help Donald Trump pick an original campaign slogan”. The Washington Post. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  3. ^ Burns, Alexander (June 16, 2015). “Choice Words From Donald Trump, Presidential Candidate”. The New York Times. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  4. ^ Gass, Nick (June 16, 2015). “Donald Trump’s greatest 2016 tweets”. Politico. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  5. ^ Karni, Annie; Lerner, Adam (June 16, 2015). “Trump says he’s running for president, really”. Politico. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  6. ^ Tumulty, Karen (January 17, 2017). “How Donald Trump came up with ‘Make America Great Again’“. The Washington Post. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  7. ^ Chaban, Matt (July 13, 2015). “An Altar to Donald Trump Swallows Up Public Space in Manhattan”. The New York Times. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  8. ^ Tschorn, Adam (July 24, 2015). “Donald Trump’s madcap hat has two parody Twitter accounts — and trademark protection”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  9. ^ Mak, Aaron (July 31, 2015). “Trump lovers set up PACs”. Politico. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  10. ^ Nguyen, Tina (March 16, 2020). “Trump finds his MAGA movement fracturing over coronavirus”. Politico. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  11. ^ Nguyen, Tina (March 22, 2020). “A new MAGA movement debate: Is Trump overdoing it?”. Politico. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  12. ^ Nguyen, Tina (March 24, 2020). “Anthony Fauci becomes a fringe MAGA target”. Politico. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  13. ^ Nguyen, Tina (June 10, 2020). “Trump’s MAGA base finds its own rallying cry: Defend the police”. Politico. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  14. ^ Nguyen, Tina (September 4, 2020). “The MAGA movement hits the streets — and Trump latches on”. Politico. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  15. ^ a b Nguyen, Tina (November 14, 2020). “Trump’s media favorites battle for the Trump trophy”. Politico. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  16. ^ “JD Vance attacks Europe over free speech and migration”. BBC News. February 14, 2025. Retrieved March 6, 2026.
  17. ^ “Vance berates European leaders as tensions with close allies burst into the open”. NBC News. February 14, 2025. Retrieved March 6, 2026.
  18. ^ Pahlavi, Dr Pierre. “Beyond Isolationism: Trump, MAGA, and the Strategic Logic of Confrontation”. Australian Institute of International Affairs. Retrieved March 6, 2026.
  19. ^ “U.S. strikes on Iran mark Trump’s further shift toward interventionist foreign policy”. The Globe and Mail. February 28, 2026. Retrieved March 6, 2026.
  20. ^ “MAGA influencers shredded for change of heart over U.S. military intervention”. The Independent. January 5, 2026. Retrieved March 6, 2026.
  21. ^ “Regime change is back. MAGA is getting comfortable with it”. POLITICO. December 2, 2025. Retrieved March 6, 2026.
  22. ^ Stanley-Becker, Isaac (October 22, 2019). “The online MAGA movement tried to take down Canada’s Justin Trudeau. It fell short”. The Washington Post. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  23. ^ Dale Leal, Nicholas (November 19, 2025). “El mundo MAGA usa las protestas contra Sheinbaum para alentar la intervención militar en México” [MAGA movement uses protests against Sheinbaum to encourage military intervention in Mexico]. El País (in Spanish). Retrieved January 17, 2026.
  24. ^ Casey, Nicholas (June 10, 2025). “Why the MAGA Right Became Obsessed With the Romanian Election”. The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  25. ^ McElvoy, Anna (November 20, 2025). “‘I Never Heard of Her’: Liz Truss Hits the MAGA Speaking Trail”. Politico Magazine. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  26. ^ Castle, Stephen; Landler, Mark (April 30, 2025). “Why Nigel Farage is Bringing MAGA-Style Rallies to Britain”. The New York Times. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  27. ^ Pitel, Laura (January 15, 2026). “German far right courts Donald Trump and Maga in hunt for powerful friends”. Financial Times. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  28. ^ Abromeit 2018, p. 4.
  29. ^ Adler et al. 2022, p. 4.
  30. ^ Yang 2018.
  31. ^ “MAGA movement”. Britannica. Retrieved April 2, 2025.
  32. ^ Baltz 2021, p. 2: “But what do scholars, media outlets and the man himself mean when they talk about Trump as an ‘economic nationalist’? To whom or what does the economic nationalism of Trump and his administration mount a ‘challenge’ against? Definitive answers have not been forthcoming.”
  33. ^ Rosales, Antulio; Tarnowski, Ty (December 19, 2024). “Trump 2.0 and the rise of crypto-economic nationalism”. LSE Business Review. London School of Economics.
  34. ^ Darian-Smith 2023 (abstract)
  35. ^ Brewer, Mark D. (2020). “Trump Knows Best: Donald Trump’s Rejection of Expertise and the 2020 Presidential Election”. Society. 57 (6): 657–661. doi:10.1007/s12115-020-00544-w. PMC 7786860. PMID 33424054.
  36. ^ “Populism in America: Fake News, Alternative Facts and …” Harvard Business School. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  37. ^ Manno 2020, p. 172.
  38. ^ Wuttke & Floos 2025, p. 559.
  39. ^ Brug, Wouter van der; Hobolt, Sara B.; Popa, Sebastian Adrian (April 18, 2025). > “The Kids Are Alt Right? Age, Authoritarian Attitudes and Far-Right Support in Europe”. Journal of European Public Policy. 32 (1). Taylor & Francis: 469–494. doi:10.1080/13501763.2025.2488358. p. 20: The Republican Party of the US is not a far-right party, but since the rise of the Tea Party movement and especially under the presidency of Donald Trump, the party has embraced the main characteristics of a populist right party (such as authoritarianism, nativism, populism, conspiracy theories involving ethnic minorities, etc.)
  40. ^ Arhin, Kofi; Stockemer, Daniel; Normandin, Marie-Soleil (May 29, 2023). “THE REPUBLICAN TRUMP VOTER: A Populist Radical Right Voter Like Any Other?”. World Affairs. 186 (3). doi:10.1177/00438200231176818. ISSN 1940-1582. In this article, we first illustrate that the Republican Party, or at least the dominant wing, which supports or tolerates Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda have become a proto-typical populist radical right-wing party (PRRP).
  41. ^ Lowndes 2019.
  42. ^ Bennhold, Katrin (September 7, 2020). “Trump Emerges as Inspiration for Germany’s Far Right”. The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 7, 2020.
  43. ^ “Republican Party | Definition, History, & Beliefs | Britannica”. www.britannica.com. April 19, 2025. Retrieved April 20, 2025.
  44. ^ “Donald Trump: The Rise of Right-wing Politics in America”. studies.aljazeera.net/en. July 20, 2016. Retrieved February 13, 2026.
  45. ^ Isaac 2017.
  46. ^ Abelson, Reed (December 4, 2025). “Poll Suggests G.O.P. Will Face More Blame if Obamacare Subsidies Go Away”. The New York Times. Retrieved February 21, 2026. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who said they did not support the right-wing MAGA movement said they would blame Mr. Trump or congressional Republicans.
  47. ^ Reston, Maeve (May 2, 2025). “Why do so many people hate Elon Musk?”. The Washington Post. Retrieved February 21, 2026. But that sentiment faded as they watched him use his massive wealth to align himself with Trump and the right-wing MAGA movement — and then go on to lead the chaotic DOGE cost-cutting effort, which has gutted a swath of federal agencies while providing relatively marginal savings so far.
  48. ^ Sabur, Rozina; Bowman, Verity (August 26, 2022). “Joe Biden brands Trump supporters as ‘semi-fascist’“. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved February 1, 2026.
  49. ^ Cohen, Patricia (April 28, 2025). “Why Trump’s Economic Disruption Will Be Hard to Reverse”. The New York Times. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  50. ^ Gilbert, David (November 4, 2025). “The GOP Civil War Over Nick Fuentes Has Just Begun”. Wired. Retrieved April 10, 2026.
  51. ^ Zurcher, Anthony (December 16, 2025). “What the divides within the Maga base mean for Trump”. www.bbc.com. BBC News. Retrieved April 10, 2026.
  52. ^ Bensinger, Ken (February 8, 2026). “MAGA’s Split Over Israel Extends to a Ship Attacked 58 Years Ago”. The New York Times. Retrieved February 8, 2026.
  53. ^ Szalai, Jennifer (December 17, 2025). “The Intellectuals Fueling the MAGA Movement”. The New York Times. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  54. ^ Wren, Adam (November 28, 2025). “How Trump’s base could break”. Politico. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  55. ^ Stark, Holger (January 10, 2026). “Diesmal ohne Blumen im Haar” [This time without flowers in their hair]. Die Zeit (in German). Retrieved January 20, 2026.
  56. ^ Voght, Kara (December 22, 2025). “At AmericaFest, the post-Kirk MAGA movement met at a crossroads”. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 26, 2026.