Donald Trump’s political tactics for nearly ten years have been about distraction and provoking culture wars to keep his loyal followers fired up. Randomly renaming landmarks to provoke battles, this culture war slop diverts attention from the issues that drove voters to him, such as the unemployment crisis, rising grocery prices, and broken promises in foreign policy. But as the tactic becomes repetitive, how long will his supporters continue to feed into this irrelevant slop?
Distractions
Trump’s fascination with renaming, such as proposing the Gulf of Mexico become the “Gulf of America,” reverting Mount Denali to Mount McKinley, or suggesting “NATOME” for NATO, serves as a distraction to the ignorant right. These moves somehow always seem to occur while news breaks that could be damaging to his character, such as the promise of releasing Jeffrey Epstein documents being pushed away by the administration after promising their release during the 2024 campaign. By shifting focus to cultural buzzwords, such as renaming sports teams or declaring “Christian Visibility Day,” Trump pushes aside potential criticism from both the right and left. This tactic mirrors classic propaganda techniques like “name-calling” and the “dead cat” strategy, where unrelated issues interrupt meaningful discussion of what actually matters, nearly identical to the infamous Edward Bernays’ use of a manufactured spectacle and symbolic language to shape the public’s opinion.
However, occasionally, these distractions don’t always last. The Epstein files, with an ongoing investigation into Epstein’s financing, seem to have resisted being overshadowed by useless propaganda. This raises the question: are MAGA supporters starting to see through the fog?
The Weakening Job Market
While Trump pushes his agenda, the U.S. economy is headed completely in the wrong direction. In August 2025, the economy added 22,000 jobs, far below the expectations set by Trump, with the unemployment rate rising to 4.3%, the highest since 2021, according to Labor Department data. Even worse, the number of unemployed Americans has officially surpassed the number of job openings for the first time in years. For a campaign running on middle-class interests, this seems highly contradictory in every form. This imbalance displays everything the Trump campaign stood against: longer job searches and the exact same wages he complained about during the Biden administration. Yet, Trump’s agenda leans on cultural battles such as banning “woke” curricula or renaming landmarks, leaving the MAGA base distracted and fed with slop.
What Happened to Low Grocery Prices?
Grocery costs are another hugely ignored point. Considering MAGA ran in 2024 on the idea of affordable groceries, they seem quite silent on the issue now. As it turns out, Trump has not yet lived up to his promises, despite cutting federal taxes for corporations. Food prices are still extremely high, with a yearly food inflation rate of 2.9% in July 2025, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Proposed tariffs and trade policies could inflate prices even more, but that is a Pandora’s Box I’m hoping I will not have to open down the line.
“America First”
Trump’s “America First” motto contrasts with his administration’s foreign policy, especially its support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, which critics have labeled as enabling a “genocide.” The U.S. has continued giving $3.8 billion annually of military aid to Israel, with additional funding proposed in 2025, while Trump’s campaign promised that his priorities were putting domestic endeavors before anything else. This contradiction goes largely unaddressed as the conservatives tend to have a blind support for Israel, or anything Trump does, for that matter. X posts continue hyping anti-immigrant rhetoric while Trump is on pace to deport fewer illegal immigrants than Obama.
This immigration stance was a cornerstone of his “America First” agenda. Despite pledges for “the largest deportation program in American history,” his administration’s numbers lag behind Barack Obama’s. In 2013, Obama’s administration deported 438,421 people, earning him the nickname “Deporter-in-Chief,” per ICE data. Meanwhile, Trump’s second term has averaged 14,700 deportations per month in 2025, with ICE reporting 18,000 deportations in June, which is well below Obama’s peak and even Biden’s 2024 average of 12,660 per month, according to NBC News. The aggressive rhetoric, amplified by social media posts and cultural battles such as targeting “sanctuary cities,” hides his broken promise, keeping the MAGA base focused on the grand spectacle rather than his failures for both the left and the right.
Silicon Valley Alliances
While less-informed Americans are distracted by this noise, Trump has been building alliances with Silicon Valley billionaires who really couldn’t care less about the majority of Trump supporters. In September 2025, he hosted tech leaders such as Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Sam Altman at a White House dinner, where they announced billions in investments in our federal government, according to Fortune. Zuckerberg himself agreed to invest $600 billion into the United States through 2028, aligning with Trump’s push to boost AI and tech infrastructure. The administration’s AI action plan, unveiled in July 2025, scales back regulations to favor Silicon Valley, with people like David Sacks, Trump’s crypto guy, controlling policies to benefit his fellow tech giants. These deals, which include contracts like the $200 million Defense Department award to xAI, Google, and others, concern people like me, knowing the heir-apparent to the Trump administration is in favor of a techno-authoritarian oligarchy-esque state. Yet, as the GOP worries about “woke AI” or school curricula, these partnerships are potentially reshaping the economy, national security, and government system.
For MAGA supporters, culture war issues are like comfort food: emotionally charged, easy to rally behind, and unifying against threats from the opposition. Trump’s nicknames like “Crooked Hillary,” “Sleepy Joe,” and renaming sprees tap into the power of naming to reshape perceptions. When you have Charlie Kirk going to college campuses, debating college students on topics that don’t have a ton of substance and leverage on our day-to-day lives, the MAGA base eats that up. However, even though I may be optimistic, the support appears to be (slowly) dwindling. Recent polls suggest a shift where 70% of Trump supporters prioritize issues like immigration, 25% now emphasize jobs and infrastructure, per a 2025 Rasmussen Reports survey. It is no secret that emotion and flashy politics have a negative return when these real-world problems continue. Think back to Herbert Hoover’s “Rugged Individualism” campaign following an economic collapse, leading to a landslide election defeat.
Can the Movement Pivot?
Trump’s branding will always keep the loyal, ignorant MAGA fire burning. The constant broken promises, lies, and propaganda make you wonder, when is enough enough? Will Americans wake up and see through his poorly put-together propaganda campaign by 2028? One can dream. If Trump and his successors can’t blend the obnoxious spectacle with solutions, the base might start craving substance over distraction. For now, the culture wars remain, but even the most loyal supporters may grow tired of a diet that leaves them hungry as the administration moves forward into important issues in the coming years.