Massimo Gagg i - Corriere della Sera
Adolf Hitler? A “cool guy.” Jews? They control America and should be “get rid of.” Women? According to him, “they like to be raped.” Until recently, the author of these statements, Nick Fuentes, a far-right provocateur with a small group of loyal followers, remained outside the circle of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement.
However, even though Donald Trump had dinner with him in 2022, the US president later justified himself by saying he was unaware of his extremist ideas.
But now, after the murder of Charlie Kirk, the former leader of the most radical youth of the American right, a battle for leadership has opened, and Fuentes (supported by Tucker Carlson), the ultra-conservative journalist and close friend of Trump, is gaining more and more influence.
Trump, who has spoken of a “divide on the left” since the last election, is now facing deep divisions within the MAGA camp itself. There are two factions: traditional conservatives, who support the “Judeo-Christian” values and political authoritarianism of the Trump era, and a new generation of far-right activists with openly racist and anti-Semitic ideas that once had no place in American politics.
These movements are taking shape on social media, creating "digital tribes" that embrace white supremacy and anti-Semitism as the "purest" essence of MAGA ideology.
The crisis erupted mid-week, when Tucker Carlson invited Fuentes on his show and appeared to essentially agree with some of his extreme ideas. The backlash was immediate: prominent Republican figures such as House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Ted Cruz sharply condemned Carlson for giving a platform to anti-Semitic ideas.
At the same time, the Heritage Foundation, one of the most important conservative American institutions that has influenced Republican policy from the Reagan era to Trump, was embroiled in chaos. Some of its leaders demanded that its president, Kevin Roberts, distance the organization from Carlson, but he refused and even called the critics “globalists,” a term often used in sovereigntist circles with anti-Semitic overtones.
The clash led to the resignation of several key members of the foundation, while Roberts was forced to apologize for using terms associated with anti-Semitic stereotypes. However, he continued to defend Carlson, finding himself caught between two fires: on the one hand accused of a lack of courage by Fuentes' supporters, and on the other criticized by Trump's closest associates, who see him as a "hostage of the digital far right."
The debate spread beyond the organization's borders, with other far-right figures such as actress and commentator Brett Cooper coming to Carlson's defense and accusing moderate Republicans of using "Democrat rhetoric" to attack their own.
Meanwhile, Trump has chosen to remain silent. His vice president, JD Vance, although he himself has previously fallen victim to Fuentes' racist comments towards his wife of Indian origin, has called for the two camps within MAGA not to be divided, asking them to focus on common causes such as the fight against illegal immigration. According to him, "all the rest, Nazism, racism, sexism, are just details."