There is no executive order too authoritarian, no lie too blatant, and no action too extreme for the MAGA base to defend. To understand why, one must dig deeper than party politics. MAGA is not merely a right-wing movement, it is a full-spectrum identity ecosystem built on loyalty, grievance, and manufactured narratives of moral clarity.
Trump's most recent executive order, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," is a case study in how propaganda becomes policy. It seeks to overhaul museums, public monuments, and the Smithsonian Institution itself, casting any mention of systemic racism, gender identity, or structural inequality as a dangerous ideological distortion. It does not merely revise history, it replaces pluralism with a state-sanctioned narrative that criminalizes complexity and centralizes the cultural narrative under one ideology.
And MAGA loves it.
The Authoritarian Blueprint, Seize the Culture
Paulo Freire warned of the oppressor's need to control cultural institutions to shape how the oppressed see the world. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he argued that once dominant forces dictate the terms of education and culture, the oppressed internalize their role, often fighting to preserve the very systems that subjugate them.
This is exactly what Trump’s executive order does, it forces federal institutions to frame American history not as a story of progress through struggle, but as a seamless celebration of exceptionalism. In doing so, it violates the core tenets of historical inquiry and replaces it with myth. This act is not simply about pride, it is about engineering consent.
As Golec de Zavala (2020) describes, collective narcissism emerges when a group sees itself as exceptional but under siege. MAGA doesn’t want an honest retelling of the past, it wants a curated myth that proves America has always been right, and that they, as its defenders, are righteous. This sense of victimized exceptionalism feeds directly into why they perceive criticism of the past as an existential threat to the present.
Cognitive Armor, Why MAGA Can’t Let Go
This loyalty is not accidental. It is scaffolded by a mix of psychological traits and media reinforcement. Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), and collective narcissism work in concert. RWA creates a desire for strong leaders and rigid social order. SDO creates comfort with inequality as long as the hierarchy benefits them. And collective narcissism transforms Trump from a politician into a totem of cultural survival.
In Understanding Peace and Conflict through Social Identity Theory, McKeown et al. (2016) explore how identity threats can entrench group loyalty. To the MAGA base, any criticism of Trump is not a political disagreement, it is a personal attack. Trump embodies their sense of justice, power, and cultural primacy. His humiliation is their humiliation. His success, their vindication. As a result, they engage in motivated reasoning, reversing the direction of logic so the conclusion always supports their loyalty, and any fact that contradicts it is viewed as propaganda.
This is why even when Trump is caught lying, indicted, or contradicting past statements, the base rushes to protect him. Their defense isn’t rational, it’s existential. And that existentialism is rooted in fear: fear of change, of equality, of perceived loss. That fear becomes the fuel that binds them emotionally to the narrative, no matter how contradictory or unsupported.
Why Defending Trump Feels Like Morality
When Trump passes an order demanding that museums stop displaying systemic racism as historical fact, the MAGA base doesn’t see it as censorship. They see it as moral clarity. This is how authoritarianism disguises itself. It doesn't arrive wearing jackboots, it comes cloaked in the language of virtue.
And MAGA loves it.
The Authoritarian Blueprint, Seize the Culture
Paulo Freire warned of the oppressor's need to control cultural institutions to shape how the oppressed see the world. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he argued that once dominant forces dictate the terms of education and culture, the oppressed internalize their role, often fighting to preserve the very systems that subjugate them.
This is exactly what Trump’s executive order does, it forces federal institutions to frame American history not as a story of progress through struggle, but as a seamless celebration of exceptionalism. In doing so, it violates the core tenets of historical inquiry and replaces it with myth. This act is not simply about pride, it is about engineering consent.
As Golec de Zavala (2020) describes, collective narcissism emerges when a group sees itself as exceptional but under siege. MAGA doesn’t want an honest retelling of the past, it wants a curated myth that proves America has always been right, and that they, as its defenders, are righteous. This sense of victimized exceptionalism feeds directly into why they perceive criticism of the past as an existential threat to the present.
Cognitive Armor, Why MAGA Can’t Let Go
This loyalty is not accidental. It is scaffolded by a mix of psychological traits and media reinforcement. Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), and collective narcissism work in concert. RWA creates a desire for strong leaders and rigid social order. SDO creates comfort with inequality as long as the hierarchy benefits them. And collective narcissism transforms Trump from a politician into a totem of cultural survival.
In Understanding Peace and Conflict through Social Identity Theory, McKeown et al. (2016) explore how identity threats can entrench group loyalty. To the MAGA base, any criticism of Trump is not a political disagreement, it is a personal attack. Trump embodies their sense of justice, power, and cultural primacy. His humiliation is their humiliation. His success, their vindication. As a result, they engage in motivated reasoning, reversing the direction of logic so the conclusion always supports their loyalty, and any fact that contradicts it is viewed as propaganda.
This is why even when Trump is caught lying, indicted, or contradicting past statements, the base rushes to protect him. Their defense isn’t rational, it’s existential. And that existentialism is rooted in fear: fear of change, of equality, of perceived loss. That fear becomes the fuel that binds them emotionally to the narrative, no matter how contradictory or unsupported.
Why Defending Trump Feels Like Morality
When Trump passes an order demanding that museums stop displaying systemic racism as historical fact, the MAGA base doesn’t see it as censorship. They see it as moral clarity. This is how authoritarianism disguises itself. It doesn't arrive wearing jackboots, it comes cloaked in the language of virtue.
by The Rational League | Read more:
Image: uncredited
[ed. Reality really is crazier than fiction. Who'd have thought we'd see a massive crazy cult form around a scamming billionaire in our lifetimes? Which begs the question: is it transferable? See also: Why MAGA’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Repeats Every Economic Mistake Since Reagan. More here (TRL).]
