The Real Threat To MAGA Isn’t “Neo-Nazis” – It’s the People Using That Word to Divide Us

To be honest, I don’t think this even needs to be said, but I’ll say it anyway: anti-Semitism is abhorrent and being a hateful loser is not cool. White supremacy is lame, and being so proud of something you can’t control is beta energy in my book. I’ve never thought otherwise, and I never will.

Now that that’s clear… let’s talk about what’s really going on.

I’m not sure these latest moral panics over “neo-Nazis” and “white supremacy” are being made in good faith. Some people wringing their hands about “saving the conservative movement” are genuinely concerned, sure. But after nearly two decades in campaign politics, I’m jaded enough to recognize a familiar playbook when I see one. The loudest voices attacking Tucker Carlson right now are the same people who’ve been attacking Donald Trump—loudly, relentlessly—since the day he rode down that golden escalator in 2015.

People seem to forget now, but this isn’t a new accusation. The idea that Trump “embraces white nationalism” has been recycled since Charlottesville in 2017, when a single quote was twisted beyond recognition to smear an entire movement. It wasn’t true then, and it isn’t true now.

Let’s also be real: people like Nick Fuentes have existed forever, and they’ll keep existing no matter what anyone says online. I didn’t watch the full two-hour Tucker interview because frankly, Fuentes is obnoxious. But I’m not afraid of him being interviewed. The best disinfectant for bad ideas is sunlight, not censorship. Let him talk—so people can hear it, reject it, and move on.

This isn’t even the first time this same stunt’s been pulled with Fuentes! Every few years, the same media personalities and politicos dust off the “Fuentes panic” to divide MAGA. (Remember his attendance at a dinner with Kanye and Trump was supposed to be CAREER-ENDING for DJT?) It’s performative outrage on repeat.

I still remember the sneers from colleagues back in 2016 who insisted Trump was a white supremacist and that anyone who supported him—people like me—must be too. That’s the problem with the “never platform white supremacists” crowd: they’re real loose with the definition. Give it time, and they’ll slap that label on you next.

That’s why so many conservatives aren’t taking the bait this time. We’re not joining the pile-on against Tucker, Megyn Kelly, Matt Walsh, Brett Cooper, or the Heritage Foundation. The moral purity tests, the excommunications, the endless purity policing is all so exhausting and self-defeating.

And for what? Tucker’s interview racked up about 4 millionish views worldwide. In a country where over 81 million people voted Republican in 2024, that’s not a “movement-defining event.” It’s a YouTube video. Turning it into a party-dividing emergency is political theater, not strategy.

The truth is, the Right is stronger than it’s been in decades. The America First platform—built on secure borders, fair trade, and putting U.S. interests ahead of global elites has reshaped the Republican Party and given it unprecedented reach with working-class and minority voters. For the first time in recent history, we have real momentum.

If you go outside, offline, and ask normal people about the so-called Tucker/Fuentes “scandal,” they’ll have no idea what you’re talking about. Because it’s not real. It’s a fake fight, staged by people desperate to claw back influence they lost when grassroots conservatives stopped listening to them.

I am one of those Republicans who likes a big tent. I don’t want a Republican Party that’s an exclusive club for the self-righteous. I’m not running background checks on everyone who votes for my guy, and neither should you. Normal Americans don’t care about these fake purity battles—they care about their jobs, their families, their country.

That’s who I’m standing with.