DALLAS, Nov 8 (Reuters) – As Republicans faced a crushing defeat nationwide in Tuesday’s midterm elections, supporters streamed out of a Dallas banquet hall, where they had hoped to celebrate the victory of U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton, one of President Donald Trump’s favorites.
In the hotel bar, Michael Little, a 59-year-old businessman who had voted for Trump three times, stared at the image of the president on the TV screen. “People are furious with Trump. Trump has cost us dearly,” he said, reflecting a sentiment sweeping the president’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement after the GOP’s worst electoral defeat in decades.
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Across the coalition, some supporters who previously saw Trump as MAGA’s greatest asset are beginning to question whether he has become its greatest obstacle.
The midterm election losses represented more than a rejection of Trump; they were a referendum on the political and cultural movement he built. A decisive force in American politics, which began as a campaign slogan during Trump’s 2016 presidential run, now faces a moment of decision, potentially existential, after voters disillusioned by soaring fuel prices, the war with Iran and the corruption in Washington secured Democrats decisive majorities in Congress.
The first major reaction from Trump to the midterm elections came on Friday. Rather than changing course, he doubled down on the movement’s core. He promoted Stephen Miller, the principal architect of the administration’s hardline immigration policy, to chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. Wiles had been seen as a stabilizing force within a White House that was often chaotic.
The move was celebrated by some of MAGA’s most fervent influencers, who saw it as a return to the anti-immigration agenda that is at the roots of the movement. “Exactly the energy we need,” posted right-wing influencer Benny Johnson on X to his 4.1 million followers. “The move is a sure bet. It’s Miller’s time.”
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The White House did not directly respond to Reuters’ questions about why Republicans lost, the defeat of candidates who embraced Trump’s false claims about the 2020 elections, or where MAGA goes from here. Instead, it pointed to Trump’s statements on Wednesday, when he said: “If I were on the ballot, we would have won.” He also said it was “largely true” that the war with Iran had cost Republicans dearly because “it raised gas prices,” but that he would do it all again.
For nearly a decade, MAGA reshaped the Republican Party and transformed national debates on issues such as trade, immigration, race, and gender. The movement installed loyal partisans in all federal agencies, curtailed immigration, and pressured businesses and public institutions to retreat from diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. MAGA survived the consequences of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and propelled Trump back to the White House. In Trump’s second term, MAGA was no longer a faction of the Republican Party; it was the party itself.
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Now, the Democrats’ crushing victory forced the movement to grapple with an unexpected question: Is MAGA finished?
Reuters interviews with more than a dozen MAGA activists, influencers, party strategists, Christian nationalist leaders and researchers who monitor right-wing politics, along with an analysis of MAGA supporters’ posts and podcasts since Tuesday, show a movement turning its anger back on itself.
The fraud claims that propelled MAGA since Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election have largely quieted. Instead, supporters are blaming Republican leaders and Trump’s aides—and, in some cases, the president himself—for unkept promises about the cost of living, the war against Iran and the government’s decision to censor or hide parts of its investigative files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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The MAGA factions also disagree on what comes next. Some want a return to the core principles of populism and nationalism. Others want a movement less tied to a single man. And a vocal minority argues that MAGA is already dead.
“We have to rebuild ourselves,” Steve Bannon, a prominent MAGA advocate, podcaster and former Trump adviser in the White House, told Reuters. He urged the party to devote itself even more to an aggressive populist and nationalist agenda and praised Trump for promoting Miller. “The appointment of Miller as chief of staff strengthens my argument,” he said. “There is no stauncher MAGA defender than Stephen.”
As pro-Trump forums on the internet digested the election results, a notable share of those who call themselves MAGA loyalists — more than 20% — raised doubts about the leadership and direction of the movement, according to an analysis of social media traffic conducted for Reuters by PeakMetrics, a data intelligence company. About half of that group continued to support the MAGA movement, but no longer supported Trump as its leader. The other half remained loyal to the president himself, albeit with criticisms.
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The analysis was based on 12,850 posts selected from a total of 4.6 million Trump-related comments on X and Reddit, from 9 p.m. on election night until 8 p.m. the following evening. It revealed broad concerns among MAGA supporters as the results became clear.
Among the posts assigning blame for the defeat, nearly a third said concerns about the Iran war and Israel’s influence on U.S. policy had overshadowed Trump’s message. A quarter said Republicans who were not fully committed to the MAGA agenda had undermined the movement.
The results left Trump facing broad Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress. Democrats could hold up to 56 of the 100 Senate seats, more than enough to block his judicial nominees. They would also assume governorships in all seven key states Trump won in 2024 and won all statewide contests in Texas, which supported a Democratic presidential candidate for the last time in 1976.
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Some prominent Republicans, long wary of a MAGA base that punished dissent, began openly criticizing Trump.
The Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson said on Saturday that corruption was present in “all the powers of government,” including—“sorry to say”—within the Trump administration. He cited Calley Means, a former White House aide who told the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” on Friday that Trump’s top aides served special interests and blocked popular policies alongside Trump’s Make America Healthy Again movement. The voters “expected us to drain the swamp, but it seems the swamp won,” Johnson told Fox News.
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Asked about Johnson’s statements and Means’s allegations, White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster did not comment on the corruption claims, saying that Trump had “made incredible strides to make the United States healthy again.”
On Sunday, Indiana Republican Representative Marlin Stutzman, who won reelection despite his party’s losses, called Trump’s promotion of Miller “a big mistake.” “You don’t promote someone who was in charge,” Stutzman told CNN. “He is not well-liked by people here in the Midwest. They do not like his tone,” he said about Miller.
The White House spokeswoman, Lauren Bis, said that Miller “has been a key figure” in delivering Trump’s agenda “from day one” and that “he will continue to achieve historic successes” as chief of staff. The White House also highlighted statements by 19 Republican lawmakers supporting Miller’s promotion.
