MAGA is a dirt parking lot lined with oversized trucks. Flags sprout from their beds. A few proclaim Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my President. Another features the bloodied image of Donald Trump, post assassination attempt, defiant fist raised — the words Fight! Fight! Fight! beneath the image. One reads God Guns and Trump MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. There’s an unsurprising number of American flags. And a couple confederate ones too.
The movement descended on Robertson Park in Livermore. I saw MAGA. This rodeo venue was the last stop in a Trump flag-donning truck parade that started at the Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton. In 67-degree weather, next to parked vehicles, roughly 75 supporters stood around. Some drank to keep warm. One woman wrapped herself in a “Women for Trump” flag. The sky looked two-dimensional and dull.
Three days later Donald J. Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States. The movement would’ve likely remained even if he’d lost. It’s just that now, MAGA followers are considerably more emboldened.
This is their world now. They amassed the numbers for a sweeping victory. Their ways were validated by mandate — their beliefs now deemed the majority. Their absence of civility now the status quo. They bask in the glory of victory.
“He’s normal now,” Las Positas sociology professor Dr. Akihiko Hirose said of Trump.
“What he says: racist comments, misogynist comments, that’s acceptable. That’s the message, right? It’s ok to say those things. You can spew misinformation and disinformation. It doesn’t matter.”
It’s what MAGA supports.
MAGA — the acronym for Make America Great Again — is a noun. Merriam Webster defines it as a “political movement calling for strict limits on immigration and a return to policies in place before globalization.” But it feels like more. Like a tsunami of antiquated beliefs and brash decorum. Like the pending end of the inclusive normalcy America had gained.
A panel study by the University of Washington professor Christopher S. Parker and University of Oklahoma professor Rachel M. Blum found “the MAGA movement is a clear and present danger to American democracy.”
Here I was, not far from my high school, getting close enough to danger to understand it.
MAGA is an AI-created, Birth of Venus-esque tapestry of Donald Trump. It shows the former president naked apart from a red hat and the loose American flag covering his crotch. He’s surrounded by Renaissance-inspired redheads with distorted faces. He has angel wings.
Christine, a political lobbyist from the Bay Area, was hanging it up as I approached. Her dirt lot merchandise table looked mostly full. She was selling the gamut: there were “Trump Vance 2024” and “Biden sucks, but not like Kamala!” shirts. The booth’s final touch was a small gold bust of Trump with the engraving, “XLVII: Trumpucci.”
Trumpucci, according to Christine, is a play on Gucci. Her boss, who’s in charge of when, where and what merch gets sold, coined the name.
Christine’s competition across the lot notably had one piece she lacked: the “I’m voting for the convicted felon” shirt with a graphic of Trump in American flag sunglasses giving two middle-fingers.
Our conversation stalled. She shook her head. Christine, who is a Black woman, started paraphrasing something she apparently gets a lot: “You’re a person of color, you’re a woman, how could you support him?”
She never did give any whole answer as to why she could.
MAGA is a young couple. Josh is from Brentwood and Riley is from Dublin. They were sitting with their legs hanging off the edge of his truck bed. Riley’s mom had sent her a screenshot of a Facebook post advertising the event. Josh came to be around like-minded people. Pro-family, pro-life, America-first people.
“I think (Trump) has this assertive dominance,” Josh said. “And you know, it’s not toxic or anything.” Josh talked louder than his girlfriend.
Riley thinks this election cycle’s biggest issue is the volume of lies it accumulated. The ones about Trump exclusively. That the former president is trying to take away women’s rights is, to Riley, the biggest “lie” about him. Josh thinks it’s the “lie” that Trump is “trying to start wars,” he said.
Josh and Riley are isolationists.
MAGA is definitely not racist, fascist, or akin to Nazism. Well, that’s what Michelle told me.
“It’s a bunch of B.S.,” she said. “We’re far from it.”
Michelle was standing next to a jeep. It belonged to her friend Patricia, who was popping out of the truck’s moonroof. Patricia appeared to be standing on the center console. She had one of the “I’m voting for the convicted felon” shirts on. A pin near her left shoulder read “Fight!” over the infamous bloody-earred, fisty Trump photo. Her hat was the more refined “Trump Vance 2024.”
I asked questions to both women. Michelle was more vocal. Patrcia stood, unaffected — entirely detached from goodwill and completely enthralled by followership. Half out of the roof of her car, Patricia was like a crow on a lamppost. Some kind of omen.
Michelle’s favorite qualities about Donald Trump are as follows: he wants to “bring America back,” he wants to “take down the old establishment,” he is a “unifier,” he wants to bring “back our money to the people,” he wants to “stop wars,” “close the border,” and generally “bring back prosperity.”
“Right now we’re being controlled,” Michelle said.
“By the democrats,” Patricia added.
Michelle corrected her friend. “Well, it’s more than that…it’s the old establishment…the two-party system.” She thinks that there’s “evil” in both parties. Global, elitist, evil, oligarchs on both sides. That’s why Trump being rich is “actually an epiphany” for Michelle. But the idea that Trump is a “smart businessman” who is “not a politician” makes up for his being an elite.
I asked the women if they felt Trump transcended parties and politics. Michelle’s eyes got wide.
“Yes! I do. I do,” she said. “It’s the MAGA movement. It’s like one big party — America as a whole.”
MAGA is six white guys getting tipsy off Coors Light and smoking Marlboro Reds. They’re standing around excitedly. Drunkenly. One is wearing the gold Trump sneakers. Another is leaning on the grilles of his truck — the front license plate frame is a confederate flag print.
Two of the guys agreed to talk. Jason and Eric. But mostly Jason.
Jason likes that Trump is a “bull in a china shop,” he said. He’d take that kind of President over “Slick Willy all dressing good and bullshitting (him),” any day.
He thinks the democratic establishment is wicked — completely lacking in morals. That it “destroys any moral fiber it touches.” He looked directly at me when he said that. As if being a student journalist made me a part of some liberal cabal.
Jason got angrier the more he talked. He said something about a “bitch” getting “slapped the fuck up,” in reference to transgender people. It was implied he’d be the one doing the slapping.
Eric contributed briefly. He added that Trump, when in power, has the effect of stopping the left in its tracks. Like a flag pole getting caught in a bike wheel. That was Eric’s metaphor.
Jason agreed. He called Trump “The Interrupter.”
I spoke to Jason three days before Trump’s win. At the time, he said the election was already rigged. He falsely claimed that police officers were blocking conservatives from voting. He was sure the left was going to cheat. In the event Kamala had won, Jason figured military intervention would be the only solution to overturning the obviously “rigged” result.
MAGA is a husband prioritizing Trump-related conversation. She’s standing to the side of him and the man he’s talking to. She smiled while I walked up and introduced herself as Cindy. The two men next to her sneered.
I asked Cindy what she liked about Trump. She had a list: “safety, economy, border, fund the police.” She couldn’t think of a single bad thing about him. She just thinks he’s great.
She talked about election fraud, the “terrible” state of the country under President Biden and how Trump and Vladimir Putin’s friendship is actually useful. But her mirth was consistent. The whole time she wore this almost unthinking, wooden smile. It betrayed that she was used to speaking without being heard.
The grin was infused with something more genuine when she got to the subject of naming her favorite Trump-affiliates. Cindy loves Laura Loomer. Elon Musk, too.
“Oh, I love him,” she said of Musk. “He’s great. He’s going to take over the government and straighten it out.”
While that’s happening, Cindy thinks Trump’s presidency will mend America’s political divisions.
We’ll see.
Top photo: The movement powered by Donald Trump proved it has staying power. (Photo by Ian Kapsalis / Special to The Express)
Olivia Fitts is the News Editor and Opinions Editor for The Express. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @OLIVIAFITTS2.
