☹️“MAGA Disillusionment” Edition

MAGA is experiencing something unfamiliar and deeply unsettling: disappointment. After years of chanting “fight, fight, fight,” parts of Trump’s base are now asking an awkward follow-up question: fight whom, exactly? And why does it keep looking like the fight is against Venezuela, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Epstein files, affordable groceries, and their own expectations?

Trump’s advisers say the faithful are restless. The swamp, apparently, has not been drained so much as redecorated, with more billionaires, more golf outings, and with price increases at the supermarket. Inflation is still running hot, housing is still unaffordable, Epstein files remain stubbornly unreleased, and somehow the president’s idea of populism now involves mocking the word “affordability” while building gilded ballrooms and flying to fundraisers with tech moguls. Is this what “America First” was supposed to look like?

MAGA leaders—some of whom recently resigned, defected, or rage-posted their way out of Congress—are warning that the base is “jaded,” “checking out,” and flirting with the unthinkable: staying home on Election Day. Their diagnosis is blunt. Trump promised to smash the oligarchy, not become it. He promised economic pain relief, not cashing in on crypto grift.

The White House response is classic Trumpian damage control: more rallies. Near-weekly rallies. Rallies as relationship therapy. The plan appears to be reintroducing Trump to his base like a couple trying to rekindle the spark by revisiting their first date, except the base wants lower grocery bills, and Trump wants to talk about golf.

Will he listen? History suggests he will listen perfunctorily, nod vacantly, likely drift off for a momentary nap, then pivot to whatever he finds more interesting at the moment. The base may be souring, but Trump remains confident that time—three full years of “Trump time”—will fix everything.

But not unlike Trump’s first courtship with the MAGA faithful in 2015—descending the infamous golden escalator—the trajectory was down.

Joel Pett - Tribune Content Agency

KAL - Substack and Andrews McMeel

Bill Bramhall - Tribune Content Agency

Mike Luckovich - Creators

Pedro Molina - Tinyview and Tribune Content Agency

Michael de Adder - cagle.com/de-adder

Ted Rall - Andrews McMeel

Peter Kuper - cagle.com/kuper

Nick Anderson - Substack and Tribune Content Agency

In a decisive move to restore American greatness one formatting choice at a time, the Trump administration has identified the real source of institutional decay: Calibri. Not corruption, not extremism, not climate or conflict—just a slightly rounded sans-serif font quietly doing its job inside Microsoft Word.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the rollback of Calibri in favor of Times New Roman, explaining—implicitly, if not grammatically—that America cannot project strength abroad while its memos look too friendly and approachable. Serious nations, after all, negotiate treaties in fonts that evoke law school finals and overdue term papers.

The 2023 switch to Calibri had been made for accessibility, a fact that immediately raised suspicions. Accessibility, like diversity, apparently falls into the category of “wokeism”—the kind where people with low vision or dyslexia can read government documents without suffering. That problem has now been corrected.

Government experts noted that Calibri improves legibility. The administration responded by eliminating the office responsible for noticing such things. Efficiency achieved.

This font reversal fits neatly into a broader governing philosophy: remove barriers for corporations, add barriers for people, and then blame the formatting. Medicaid cuts, disability rollbacks, and new bureaucratic hurdles all pair nicely with a return to a typeface last seen loaded into a fax machine.

Diplomats will now cable the world in Times New Roman, signaling that America is back: older, stiffer, and less readable than ever. The message is clear: inclusion was a phase, empathy was optional, and legibility was a step too far.

Arial is reportedly keeping its head down. Helvetica has lawyered up.