Ten months into his second term, President Donald Trump is facing growing unrest within the very movement he claims as his own creation, as a series of controversies threatens his support among core MAGA voters and complicates the political calculus for Republicans still closely aligned with him.
Already under fire from farmers outraged by his plan to import Argentine beef, Trump is now also absorbing the impact of recent Democratic wins in off-year elections. At the same time, he’s drawing criticism from his right over apparent shifts on immigration, unease about the state of the economy and renewed scrutiny from the long-running Epstein saga that has dogged his second administration.
Many of these tensions surfaced in an interview with Laura Ingraham that aired Monday, when the Fox News host pressed Trump on his proposal to grant 600,000 visas to Chinese students and his surprising praise for the H-1B visa program—moves she framed as sharply out of step with MAGA priorities.
Trump’s explanation—that China is no more of an adversary than France and that the U.S. needs foreign workers to make up for a supposed domestic “talent” shortfall—has fueled as much outrage as the policies themselves. The White House, however, insists his basic agenda is intact.
“In record time, President Trump has done more than any president in modern history to tighten our immigration laws and put American workers first,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Newsweek, pointing to a new $100,000 fee on H-1B applications and a Department of Labor crackdown on program abuse.
Trump has rejected the idea that his movement is splintering.
“Don’t forget: MAGA was my idea. MAGA was nobody else’s idea,” he said on The Ingraham Angle. “I know what MAGA wants better than anyone else, and MAGA wants to see our country thrive.”
A Movement Questioning Itself
“I think the MAGA base is splitting,” said Peter Loge, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University. “Donald Trump will never lose his core support, but what it means to be MAGA or a true Republican is now suddenly being debated.”
Loge, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, told Newsweek that it isn’t just one controversy but a cluster of missteps and setbacks that suggests Trump may be losing his grip.
“We connect the dots to make pictures, and the recent dots include Epstein, the election, the court being very skeptical of Trump’s tariff policies, increasing economic insecurity, falling poll numbers,” he said. “These bits of information, these dots, paint a picture of a presidency in trouble.”
Todd Belt, a professor of political management at George Washington University, said the fractures are visible in the town hall meetings where GOP lawmakers are being confronted over their loyalty to Trump. He also points to Republican officials and conservative media figures—the movement’s “elite”—who appear increasingly willing to break with the president on major issues.
Belt cited additional flashpoints straining the perception of an unshakable MAGA base: growing discomfort with U.S. support for Israel, Trump’s “flip on Ukraine” that has upset the isolationist wing of the movement, and, above all, the Epstein saga.
The Justice Department’s reluctance to release all Epstein-related documents, combined with new details about Trump’s relationship with the late convicted sex offender, has fed accusations that the president—once the insurgent outsider—is now behaving like the establishment he promised to topple.
“MAGA, as a movement, is willing to forgive Donald Trump on a lot because they see him as the businessman who knows what he’s doing with tariffs and disruptive behavior,” Belt said. “But this is the one that really cuts against the ideology of deep state cover-ups and being an outsider—all the things he promised and now seems to be on the other side of.”
Although House lawmakers have gathered enough signatures to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files, Belt expects the measure to die in the Senate, avoiding the spectacle of a Trump veto but ensuring the issue will continue to shadow his presidency.
The Affordability Squeeze
The Epstein furor comes on top of mounting frustrations over the cost of living. Polls show Trump’s ratings on economic issues such as inflation slipping even among Republicans.
Political scientist Sheri Berman says the combination of Epstein and the affordability crisis—an issue many believe has already hurt the GOP—has created a uniquely dangerous situation for Trump. It unsettles both the hardcore activists for whom the Epstein saga is central and the “potentially switchable” voters who will weigh rising prices when voting in 2026 and beyond.
“Either one of those things alone is something to manage,” she told Newsweek. “But the combination of discontent with the hardcore hard right and fears that these broad affordability issues might be causing people who might waver between voting Republican and Democrat to vote for Democrat—that is a somewhat different situation than Trump has faced in the past.”
Even as some in his movement peel away, Trump has turned his fire on perceived defectors—telling reporters that Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has “lost her way”—while publicly denying there is any real problem at all.
He has repeatedly insisted grocery prices “are way down,” a claim at odds with many families’ budgets, and has dismissed both the affordability crisis and outrage over Epstein as hoaxes manufactured by his opponents.
“You can’t out-message the economy,” Belt said. “What people are feeling and what they’re seeing in their finances, you can never out-message that in terms of saying it’s a hoax.”
Trouble for Republicans Down-Ballot
Democratic strategist Doug Gordon believes Trump can still shore up his most loyal followers, over whom he retains an “iron grip.” But he warns that Republicans who have benefited from their proximity to Trump may find that closeness becomes a liability.
“The problem for Republicans—which was once again made apparent in the recent elections—is that MAGA is a cult of personality,” he said. “And when Trump isn’t on the ballot, the MAGA base either splinters or stays home.”
Loge described the 2026 midterms as a “proxy for Donald Trump and Donald Trump’s policies,” predicting that Republican candidates will be forced into a painful choice.
“Republicans are going to be in the position of having to either continue to defend an unpopular president and unpopular policies and risk losing the general election,” he said, “or attacking an unpopular president and unpopular policies and risk getting attacked by that president during the election.”
MAGA remains Trump’s creation, and his most devoted followers are likely to stand by him through this fraught period. But as the broader Republican Party barrels toward the midterms, many of its members may soon confront the political cost of tying their fortunes to a leader facing growing dissent inside his own movement.
