Sara Pequeño: MAGA’s demise was never going to come from the left | Opinion

If you’re looking for the hottest gift for your socialist situationship, you may find it in an unlikely place. Tucker Carlson’s media company just released a batch of merch, and some of it is pretty good.

While there are a few items ribbing liberals, like the hats making fun of the Minnesota day care fraud scandal, the majority of the items featured are making fun of Republicans. Designs include baseball caps and T-shirts that say “Neocons are gay for Israel” and “AIPAC – an offer you can’t refuse,” referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. There’s even a series of hats declaring “United States vs. Lindsey Graham,” the Republican U.S. senator from South Carolina.

I can’t lie – the merch made me chuckle. If I were a little less rigid in my values, you might even see me sporting the NYC beanie with a hammer and sickle in place of the C, or drinking my morning coffee out of the “I (heart) Nicotine” mug.

But what’s more interesting to me is how Carlson, once a quintessential spokesperson for the Make America Great Again movement, is embracing Republican infighting. It really seems like MAGA, which has been riddled with arguments over the course of Donald Trump’s second presidential term, is starting to implode.

Carlson, coincidentally, is often the impetus for headlines declaring a MAGA divide. He ruffled feathers in October when he interviewed Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes on his podcast. This led elected officials like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to condemn Carlson.

“The most dispiriting fact of the last nine months is that huge proportions of the institutional Republican Party all kind of hate free speech every bit as much as the left does,” Carlson told the New York Times in November. “They are every bit as censorious as some blue-haired, menopausal Black Lives Matter activist.”

Carlson has been leading this fight from within for some time now. He’s spoken out against the war with Iran. He’s critiqued the administration’s handling of the Epstein files. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s doing it for attention – controversy begets clicks – but perhaps there’s more to it.

As someone who is constantly at odds with the Democratic Party, I’m not one to talk about infighting. I don’t mind it on the left because I believe it leads to better discussion, and hopefully better policy. To give Carlson the benefit of the doubt, there’s a real possibility he released this merch to generate discussion within the Republican Party about supporting Israel.

But a big part of Carlson’s merch drop – aside from luring Brooklynites into visiting his website – is to agitate people who once supported him. No one on the left is going to wear a hat condemning Graham, but people on the right will.

In college, I was part of a Facebook group with other women in our community that imploded once members started trolling. It was sad to watch the ship sink, but not as much as it was amusing.

MAGA, like a group of mostly aligned college juniors avoiding midterms, is starting to face trolling from within, which will only lead to the movement eating its own tail. And just like the inconsequential drama of a Facebook group, the only people affected are the people involved.

MAGA’s demise was never going to come about because members of the movement snapped out of Trump-induced psychosis and shifted left. It was always going to come about because of bickering within the movement – whether it be about serious issues or petty drama.

At the end of the day, any “movement” provides an opportunity for the worst tendencies of human nature to appear.

So while the left is foaming at the mouth to get their hands on some Carlson merch, we can revel in the fact that it’s also a signal of the inevitable conclusion of the MAGA movement.

Follow USA Today columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social