On May 23, I attended former President Donald Trump’s rally in the Bronx. It was my first time at a Trump event, and it felt historic – his first New York City event since 2016. It also enabled Trump to show off how the MAGA movement is drawing in demographics that GOP leaders have long written off.
New York’s youthful, diverse character was reflected in the crowd, a fact that some media outlets reluctantly acknowledged. “There were a lot of people here that were actually from the Bronx,” CNN correspondent Kristen Holmes noted with surprise. (These cases of rare honesty did not prevent rallygoers from frequently booing the assembled media and leading chants of “CNN Sucks.”)
The turnout was massive. Ushers and organizers strained to keep people moving slowly to prevent a stampede. Ultimately, the crowd that streamed into Crotona Park more than doubled the campaign’s turnout expectations.
Attendees had not chosen to stand in line for hours simply to hear political speeches. They were preparing themselves for a life-altering experience. Small influencers showed off their rap skills and posted selfies to their social media stories; other rally-goers excitedly FaceTimed their family members. Brawny middle-aged men cracked jokes and got into verbal scuffles. All seemed energized for what was coming.
Each time an introductory speaker was announced, the assembly swelled with expectation, like a massive engine cranking to a false start. But when the loudspeaker introduced “the next president of the United States,” the crowd roared to life at last. Absurdly, the platform was placed uphill from the crowd, which only added to the gravitas of the scene. I strained to view above a sea of heads toward the stage, where, beaming in the sunlight, stood the man who remade the GOP in his image.
All the abstract arguments about Trump’s success evaporate like phantoms in his physical presence. Trump seems invincible or divine – or so a naive viewer from pagan antiquity might have believed. The “starstruck” effect captured the whole crowd. Trump radiates an unmistakable aura, a kind of psychotropic haze that confounds the senses.
Despite his magnetism, Trump did not inspire reverential silence. The crowd remained as boisterous as before, and indeed became a near-equal participant in the rally in its own right. Trump took his supporters’ cues, asking permission to go off-script and pausing to gauge reactions. He led the dance, though he was not independent in his motions. It is easy to see why this display of alchemy consistently draws throngs of devotees.
The political energy behind the MAGA movement is unparalleled. Many in the media-tech-DNC establishment who oppose Trump’s political ambitions have sensed this fact, and as a result, they fear him like nothing else. The weapons they wield against him, blunt and dirty, reflect their desperation: hoaxes (the Steele dossier), dishonest investigations (Russiagate), cover-ups (Hunter Biden laptop story), and even criminal prosecutions (three of which are still pending). Yet these tools are only suited to taking down an ordinary politician. Hence the Left’s continual dismay when, like a magician, Trump swiftly flips his enemies’ force against them.
Years after the Trump movement’s debut, centrists and ‘establishmentarians’ on Left and Right alike still refuse to reckon with its potency. Perhaps that was the true significance of bringing the campaign to a deep-blue neighborhood. It was not really to “win New York” or to turn the Bronx into “Trump country,” as was insisted over the loudspeakers numerous times. The point was to bring the feelings that animate the MAGA movement right to the heart of the coastal city that spurns Trump – to shake the sense of complacency and steadiness that still dominates political life. The new, populist way does not just attract Midwesterners; even New York urbanites see a future in it. Can the diehard anti-Trumper accept that his very own neighbor, perhaps even a part of himself, desires what Trump is offering?
The phenomenon of the Trump rally points to a major shift in our political order. A new social psychology is at work within the Right: that of total, hypnotic dependency on one personality.
Trump has unflinching, unitary control over the Republican Party and its fate. Several changes in official priorities should illustrate this. “I will never let anyone touch your Medicare or your Social Security,” Trump told the Bronx crowd. After a prolonged struggle over Obamacare, Trump abandoned the cause, and now the topic is simply dead in public discourse. Similarly, abortion was once central to the GOP agenda – but knowing it, too, could prove a political liability, Trump has tried to drop it as a campaign issue. (It never made much sense for a playboy businessman to defend that hill, anyway.)
A divided Congress must seek Trump’s license to act. When Democrats were ready to concede immigration restrictions to the Right, Trump chose to block the bill. Its stalwart Republican sponsors were dubbed traitors. Congressional Republicans favored Trump’s electoral interest – letting the Democrats bleed from a self-inflicted gash – over acting in the national interest and closing the wound on our southern border. Trump’s interest is the Party’s, and right now it is more important for him to play the hero than to achieve results.
The last and most fickle element of Trump’s control is the party base. As during his speeches, Trump must monitor and gently guide them while attempting to hold their trust. This he has so far managed skillfully.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party limps along, devoid of any organizing logic. A jumble of philanthropists, activists, and students pushes leftist dogma to its natural conclusions. Academics then convert these bullet points into the language of philosophy, policy, and law. Whatever these organs spout on matters of principle or social justice is accepted by the party ex cathedra, without protest. Hence, Democratic officials vote monolithically on most social issues.
Political control within the Democratic Party, however, is slack. The ‘moderates’ cannot rein in their most extreme leftist colleagues on technical policy matters such as the environment and foreign affairs. And despite the apparent centralization in the DNC that secured Hillary Clinton’s nomination in 2016, since then the party has been unable to unite enough to convince its aged President to let younger hands take the reins.
For conservatives like me, there is something to celebrate in this. Whereas the Democrats lurch predictably leftward against the prudent but ultimately fruitless warnings of its leaders, the Right has finally found a unifying principle of its own. And even if Trump has molded the form of politics to his purposes, their substance remains much the same. “Magadonians” simply demand louder what most Republicans have long wanted: a strong economy, safe and clean cities, the enforcement of immigration law.
The GOP is no longer the unwieldy, contradictory juggernaut it once was. The buckling Buckleyite stool of libertarianism, religious conservatism, and neoconservatism has not stood the test of time. The Right’s factions, constantly stepping on each other’s feet, could not advance – only lock arms against the ever-encroaching Left.
Trump has pared down the Republican promise to a few core issues, spearheaded by an electorally viable coalition. Rather than just agreeing to slash taxes (yet again), the Trump GOP shows the will and focus to deliver on some other key promises – especially those on which the Left has gained ground by exploiting division within the Right.
What’s lost in the bargain, however, is clear: Trump has become the GOP. No force in the party is willing to buck his dictates. Even Nikki Haley has fallen in line. But a political coalition cannot remain healthy if it imposes silence upon dissenters who wish to call attention to the movement’s blindspots.
Even those who believe Trump to be an effective leader must admit that the long-term outlook for the party is not good. Trump is the only pole holding up the GOP tent. Over the past eight years, we have come to take for granted his lone Atlantean strength. But we must be ready for his eventual absence, lest the party cave in and consume itself.
During his Bronx speech, Trump recounted the story of William Levitt, the father of the American suburb. Levitt had taken a long break from business, but when he got back into the game, he found no success. Trump recalled meeting him as a broken man who had “lost his momentum.” This was why, Trump told the crowd, he had to insist that 2020 was an electoral victory. “You have to always keep moving forward,” he declared. The question for the Republican Party is: can it move on its own at all – or will it remain fixed in its Trumpian trance forever?
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