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@Maj. Bill Martin
Thank you for the assessment.
I think you described what I think in many ways.
So far, my experience (and this thread is consistent with that) has been that MAGA is a rallying cry and sales pitch.
Nobody in politics defines meaningful objectives anymore (not sure they ever did).
@HikerGuy83
There are just too many examples of Trump doing a 180 without his supporters batting an eye to conclude there is much there besides a personal commitment to Trump (and immigration). There's also the vague sloganeering of "America First", but exactly what that means seems to be highly malleable as well.
The most recent example of this was on support for Ukraine. For more than a year now, he and the vast majority of his supporters have been loudly and proudly against providing a penny for Ukraine. Instead, he promised to end the war within 24 hours, etc..
Then all of a sudden in mid-February, he says this:
“They want to give them $60 billion more,” Trump said Wednesday at a rally in North Charleston, as he campaigned before South Carolina’s Feb. 24 Republican presidential primary. “Do it this way. Loan them the money. If they can make it, they pay us back. If they can’t make it, they don’t have to pay us back.”
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-pushes-ukraine-aid-loan-014648755.html?fr=sycsrp_catchallAnd obviously, considering the wrecked state of the Ukrainian economy, and likely decades-long recovery period, they won't be able to pay it back. Which means that Trump is now perfectly willing to give them $60B after saying "not another penny" for more than a year.
Now personally, I'm in favor of supporting Ukraine, but that's not the point. The point is that the guy just pulled a massive 180 on an issue about which a lot of his supporters and allied politicians are very vocal,
and none of them batted an eye. Crickets. So all those America-Firsters who were so vigorously cheering on Trump for not sending more American money overseas don't seem to care much that he's done this 180.
So again..."MAGA" seems to be more a slogan association with Trump than any clear set of principles or priorities for governing the country.