If Trump loses 'MAGA has nowhere to go but down': conservative columnist

Should Donald Trump go down to defeat in November in his bid for a second presidential term, that will, in all likelihood, be the death knell for the MAGA movement he began nine years ago.

That is the opinion of conservative David French in his column for the New York Times on Sunday, where he suggests there is ample evidence that the avid followers of the former president are so entrenched in their belief in him that they have no room to embrace an heir apparent for the 78-year-old Trump.

In his column, he bluntly stated "attempts to mimic Trump succeed in Republican primaries and deep red jurisdictions, but they fail in swing states and purple districts," before adding, "Trump is MAGA’s most popular figure, and if he loses, then MAGA has nowhere to go but down."

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As he pointed out, the former president selected Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate in 2024, but he has failed to catch fire with voters, and that a broad array of MAGA-like candidates including Arizona's Kari Lake, Georgia's Herschel Walker and Pennsylvania's Doug Mastriano all suffered defeats in 2022 — and the prospects for far-right candidates in 2024 are not looking any better.

"Trump is peak MAGA, and even peak MAGA hasn’t been able to achieve Mitt Romney’s share of the 2012 popular vote. Stronger turnout masked this reality, but Trump has never achieved even 47 percent of the total votes cast," he pointed out before adding, "I’m under no illusions that defeating Trump will resurrect Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party — or John McCain’s or Mitt Romney’s. I’m also under no illusions about the fate of Never Trumpers in a post-Trump G.O.P."

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With that, he suggested, "If Trump loses, MAGA will fade. It will not go away, of course. Reactionary populism is a permanent fixture of American politics, but don’t believe MAGA’s hype. Its national success depends on one man."

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