Old MAGA vs New MAGA’s cage match begins

Steve Bannon, the rumpled bard of MAGA, made a characteristically bold and combative promise when asked recently about the relationship between Donald Trump's base and Elon Musk — tech titan, world's richest man and Trump bestie.

"I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day. He will not have a blue pass to the White House, he will not have full access to the White House, he will be like any other person," he proclaimed in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera where he also suggested that Musk was a racist with the maturity of a little boy. "He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down. Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it; I'm not prepared to tolerate it anymore."

Well, the inauguration is upon us. By all accounts, Musk will not only get prime indoor seating but as the head of Trump's cost-cutting efforts, Musk is also slated to have office space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), which is part of the White House office complex. Bannon, who speaks and dresses like a man at war, lost this round, misreading the current power dynamics. More recently, he has sounded less confrontational and a bit defeated, saying Musk, with his billions and his own social media platform, is here to stay.

"As soon as I can turn Elon Musk from a techno-feudalist to a populist-nationalist we will start making progress," he said in a Politico interview.

Still, this will be one of the defining rivalries of the Trump 2.0 era. And Bannon, Trump's former strategist, is relentless. Don't expect Trump to douse the flames; Trump loves a good fight. Even better if it's between people on the same side — a feud is always good for ratings.

The battle pits old MAGA, of which Bannon was an intellectual architect, against new MAGA, of which Musk was the biggest funder and disseminator of ideas via X, the platform he bought in 2022. The immediate spark for the feud was immigration — Musk and (now) Trump back H-1B visas and Bannon doesn't. But it's also about who MAGA is for. The wealthy or the working class? The rich tech geeks who have sidled up to Trump as the AI boom looms? Or those working-class Americans who disdain globalists and elites?

The broader GOP coalition also includes evangelicals and pro-lifers, presumably with expectations around abortion, as well as business owners who want tax cuts, deregulation and smaller deficits (but not tariffs). More recent additions to the mix include younger Republicans and a larger share of working-class Blacks and Latinos, particularly men.

It's an unwieldy coalition held together by Trump, a grip that will be tested, but likely unbroken, as he turns to governing.

Trump's movement has always been his id writ large — he was the outsider, ever the aggrieved victim, wanting recognition and status with the insiders. Now, powered by the working class and funded by the elites, Trump finds himself an insider, flanked by people who previously ostracised him. He is at the apex of his political power, with some of his highest favorability ratings and a largely optimistic public, according to a CNN poll. The tableau of faces at the inaugural events and the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars into his coffers speaks to how far he has come since 2017. He isn't the accidental president this time. He now sits atop an expanded movement and has unprecedented power, bending the will of corporate America, the media and every wing of the GOP.

But he is also a second-term president who will never again be on the ballot, though Bannon has suggested a third term. (That would require a constitutional amendment and seems unlikely.) And his favorability ratings may be close to a personal best, but they are rather low — just 46% — for a president fresh off a victorious campaign who wants to claim a mandate. The grind of governing will likely dampen those ratings over the next weeks and months, ending Trump's brief honeymoon period.

And in some ways, he has created a movement he no longer needs — reelection finally brought him the glow-up he always wanted. The Supreme Court has granted him a sweeping degree of criminal immunity, which gives him a level of power he long sought and always thought he deserved.

So the MAGA factions will fight, though it's not clear it matters much to Trump. He wins no matter what. His second inauguration will be the pinnacle of his power, with hundreds of thousands of MAGA loyalists flocking to DC to celebrate. His swearing-in has been moved indoors — where there could be room for fewer than 100 witnesses — because of the bitter temperatures expected. The location change is also a useful metaphor for Trump's political ascent, from mocked outsider to flattered insider.

Trump has suggested that he would bring the grassroots along on his journey, elevating their status, economically and culturally. Yet it could be that there's simply not enough room on the inside.

Sketch: TBS

Nia-Malika Henderson is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former senior political reporter for CNN and the Washington Post, she has covered politics and campaigns for almost two decades.

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by a special syndication arrangement.