This IS what they voted for: MAGAReport 2/1/2025

It was never about groceries; it was always about burning it all down

It was never about the price of eggs. They lied about the eggs.

The eggs were a protective cover story, like so much of pre-election MAGA. I interviewed lots of people at Trump rallies this summer, and almost none would give me their full name. They were afraid that there could be repercussions if people knew they were MAGA. I wrote a lot about how the rallies were a safe space where people seemed to experience this collective relief mixed with defiance. They could share their politics and wear their hats and dare people to criticize them. Trump supporters knew it wasn’t socially acceptable to hold their political views, and they hid from the consequences.

Now that Trump has won, plenty of supporters publicly have celebrated his victory and brought their MAGA hats out. Still, they have not fully come out and honestly told us why they voted for him. But the real reasons were there at all the rallies, in all the cheers, in all the interviews. They voted for him because they wanted to destroy everything and see their enemies suffer. They were smart enough to know that wasn’t acceptable, so they made up stories to explain their vote. “Inflation” just sounded better.

Now that they’ve won, they are getting more comfortable sharing the real reasons. Here’s an image that kicked off a thread yesterday and some comments that followed.

The comments:

• I'll pay higher prices on tariffed goods if I can watch 4 years of mass deportations, liberal tears, tranny dieoffs, and the total and complete destruction of the established government.

• The best part of all the tears is that libs and leftists still have absolutely no clue what the hell we even wanted out of Trump. They think "Ha, they voted for X and Y and Z and they are not getting that" meanwhile X and Y and Z did not even cross my mind at the ballot box.

• I am philosophically aligned with Trump but even if I wasn’t I would still vote for him just as a kind of experiment: Take a man, an already powerful man, and relentlessly slander him, lie outrageously about him, try to throw him in prison for the rest of his life, try to have him unalived, twice, and then give this man ultimate power over the most powerful country the world has ever known. What would happen? How would he react when he finally had the upper hand over his tormentors? I am so eager to find out. Cost of eggs or whatever? I don’t give a shit. That’s just the price of admission. 🍿

• The salty tears and tantrums are just beautiful to watch

  • All this Salt...is Fucking Gold

So there’s the honesty. And it’s not just in this thread. There is another that is truly mind melting about the forthcoming tariffs on oil, gas, and steel. They realize this is going to make everything more expensive. It will cause inflation. It could cause a recession. They don’t care. The comments on the thread are such a wild stew of incomprehensible, uninformed economic theories that it’s hard to summarize (here it is if you want to give it a read). But the core consensus seems to be: this is going to be painful; Trump must have a reason for doing this, like maybe returning us to the gold standard???; and it will be worth it to destroy the current system.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the chaos and forthcoming challenges. These doubters are trying to remain loyal to Trump while also trying to find a bright side. They hope that maybe he will keep the trade war with Canada short; maybe he will come up with a plan to handle the inevitable inflation his policies will bring; maybe he will actually do this more gradually. They want the destruction, they just also want to be spared some of the pain.

This MAGA attitude contains lessons for people who oppose Trump. Neither the administration nor the MAGA movement will be swayed by calls to empathy, checks on consistency, or predictions and data about the country getting worse. Seeing the left upset, suffering, weak, and feeling helpless is what they want and they are willing to pay a high price for it. What counters them are demonstrations of strength. I know most of the left is still figuring out how to do that, but it’s worth knowing that there is no success to be found in complaining, waiting for them to experience the consequences of their actions, or pointing out that a policy is failing. If you want to counter what’s happening, consider that MAGA is willing to endure a lot of hardship as long as they can watch their enemies suffer, too. What can you do that will deny them that “success”?