Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump Tariffs: MAGAReport 2/20/26

When the line between calls for violence and irony is hard to discern

The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs this morning. Trump called the ruling “a disgrace”. The discussion about this is one of the top threads on the MAGA forums I monitor.

It’s almost not necessary to read the comments to know what they will say. They will accuse the court of going rogue. They will peddle in conspiracy. They will talk about how the justices need to be removed so they do not impede Trump’s agenda. They will probably talk about violence.

And, sure enough, that’s basically what we see there. But I had the impression this time that even they know that their talk of violence is a performance, not a real threat. Here is the top set of exchanges:

• Fuckin crazy. Tarrifs were too effective, they had to get rid of them. This is forced globalism.

  • What now? They murdered Scalia. The Supreme Court obviously needs an enema.

    • Fort Sumter is what happens.

    • [NOTE: we will come back to this comment in a minute!]
      TIME FOR SOME
      FUCKING CIVIL WAR

      FUCKING

      LOCK AND LOAD

      GENTLEMEN

      • If only caps locks won wars.

      • IT’S TIME BOYS, LOCK AND LOAD! IT’S NOW OR NEVER! AMERICA WILL BE LOST!

      • Typed from behind a computer screen while fat belly covered in cheeto dust

      • You’re a fucking joke. This whole place is a fucking joke now. Suck the government dick harder.

      • The cope is exceptionally strong with this one

      • Over tariffs? [NOTE: This comment is heavily downvoted]

        • Since when did MAGA come to love higher taxes? Asking for a fren.

    • “Sumter has fallen, Sumter has fallen”.

  • They can barely rule correctly on the 2a cases they choose to hear so...that’s my real indicator for them. Pretty worthless anti American bunch.

  • Yeah, I mean they don’t just stay home. They go out to drink and eat. Catch them after a few cocktails. Makes it really easy to pass if you can get them to lose control of their vehicle as one example...

I looked at the profile of the guy who made that initial civil war comment, and it seems to be a bit of a schtick. His handle is USNVET6541E5. Here are the titles of some threads he commented on with his comments indented underneath:

• For those still on the fence, with the unrealized capital gains tax.

  • CIVIL

    WAR

    HAS

    BE

    FUCKING

    GUN

• 🚨BREAKING: Law enforcement has ARRESTED one individual, but Nancy Guthrie remains missing, as reported by Fox.

  • EXACTLY. So lock and FUCKING load. Because the dirt naps have arrived.

  • I have a hard time getting it up for beaner bunny. We learned how to cook BUNNY’s in SURVIVAL SCHOOL. OORAH!!!

  • CIVIL WAR

    HAS FUCKING BEGUN [NOTE: This comment is heavily down voted]

  • FUCK YOU MOTHERFUCKERS FOR DOWN VOTING ME. I HAVE A GRENADE LAUNCHER & KNOW HOW TO USE IT. YOU BETTER CLICK THE ORANGE UP ARROW OR ELSE

• Shutting down the government DOESN’T TOUCH ICE at all, it’s funded for 3-4 YEARS thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill!

  • If they try to kill ICE by defunding,

    MY MILITIA IS GONNA VOLUNTEER!!!

    Oooooorah!!!

• Multiple Polls Show Majority Of Americans Want All Illegals Deported

  • I WANT ILLEGALS DEPORTED TO CECOT

    AND CIVIL WAR RIGHT NOW

I have been thinking a lot lately about the way Trump and some corners of MAGA talk. Whey they say something, it is often the performance of saying it that matters more than a commitment to doing what they said they would do. Whether they are threats or insults or plans to do things in 2 weeks, the words are intended to convey a feeling - anger, frustration, deflection - rather than a planned action.

This is not only a MAGA thing; some leftists have their own slogans that they don’t exactly mean literally, but that they use to convey a feeling about an issue.

When readers try to argue performative points as literal points, one of the main communication disconnects between the two sides emerges. I see a lot of online discourse where Trump supporters say something and opponents challenge them on whether they literally mean that thing, even though the literal meaning was never the intent.

This is related to a study we did in my lab where we found bad faith interactions - where a comment was not intended to further a conversation - made up nearly 2/3rds of all the interactions we looked at on Twitter.

It seems to me that we have followed a winding path in the evolution of social media discourse that has landed us at the awkward, aggressive, disingenuous state of online communication. My belief - that I hope to prove in some studies - is that this is more responsible for our political divisions than algorithmic echo chambers.

But for now, I do not see these threats of violence as actual threats. They are just frustration at a loss.