MAGA is also a Community
The nature of the community is why it is so hard to peel back support for the MAGA movement.
Beneath its veneer of patriotism and populist rhetoric lies a troubling truth: the MAGA movement is, at its core, the ideological and rhetorical heir to the Ku Klux Klan. While the MAGA movement lacks the overt violence and explicit racial terror of the Klan, its methods, symbolism, and goals echo a chillingly familiar story of white supremacy rebranded for the modern era.
The MAGA movement gained momentum in response to profound societal change. Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” was intentionally ambiguous, allowing followers to project their own vision of a better past — often one rooted in racial and cultural homogeneity.
For many, the “greatness” evoked by MAGA harkened back to a pre–civil rights-era America, before immigration reform, affirmative action, and the demographic shifts that have brought White Americans close to losing their majority status.
Much like the Klan cloaked its racism in the language of protecting Southern traditions and the “Lost Cause,” MAGA rallies its followers around a narrative of reclaiming America from perceived threats: immigrants, minorities, progressive activists, and now communists.
But MAGA is also a community, which many on the left do not understand, and that is why it is so difficult to bring people out of the movement. For many, it is like leaving one's family—a dynamic often associated with cults. Many people seek community, and MAGA is, as much as anything, a community. The branding and gear, the Facebook groups, Fox News, and the rallies all reinforce that sense of belonging. Many have a hard time understanding how a political movement rooted in hate can also provide a sustaining community, but that is the reality. When serial Trump rallygoers come back time and again, they say it is because of the love, support, and validation they find among the other people at these events.
It sounds counterintuitive, but it makes sense. It’s the same reason white supremacist groups survive, such as the KKK, Proud Boys, and Patriot Front. It’s not just because of their ideology, but also because they offer a group identity for rootless young white men. It must be no small comfort to be told that you — a loser, a social misfit, often a victim of trauma and abuse — are, in fact, a member of a superior group of people. The group gives them validation, identity, purpose, “history,” and a prepackaged list of grievances and wrongs that allows them to assume a sort of moral high ground as they march through the streets with their khakis, makeshift shields, torches, and masks.
The MAGA movement has relied on demonization. Trump’s political ascent was marked by incendiary statements. Mexican immigrants were labeled “rapists,” Muslim refugees were branded as “terrorists,” and predominantly Black cities were dismissed as “crime-infested hellholes.” These characterizations stoked fear and resentment, positioning marginalized groups as scapegoats for America’s economic and social challenges.
The result is a climate in which hate crimes, racial violence, and far-right extremism have surged. While many in the MAGA “community” may not openly condone such actions, their reluctance to speak out against the rhetoric creates fertile ground for radicalization, much as the Klan’s propaganda legitimized violence during the Jim Crow era.
When the less radical members are pressed about their beliefs and the underpinnings of their movement, MAGA members will crumble at the slightest pushback. They cannot defend their deeply held convictions about “sharia law,” “communism,” “the deep state,” “DEI,” or anything else because they have not interrogated those beliefs. Just as many members of religious communities fail to do the same with their own belief systems. Again, this very fact — the nature of community — is why it is so hard to peel back their support for the movement.
