The Dark Side of Trump’s Moon |
Photograph Source: Kches16414 – CC0
People are familiar with the Molotov-cocktail throwers of Trump’s MAGA, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Laura Loomer, and Steve Bannon. They see on television every day the ugly public personality of the Trump administration in the faces of Kristi Noem of the Department of Homeland Security, Pam Bondi of the Justice Department, and Vice President JD Vance.
What they don’t see are the shadowy networks that are responsible for formulating the ideological foundations of the administration’s agenda. In Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, Laura Field throws light on the dark side of Donald Trump’s moon. And she brings to this task impeccable credentials. She went to college and graduate school with some of the key figures of these networks, personally knows quite a number of them, and has studied them for years. Indeed, many on the far right probably think she knows too much about them, which may account for her being refused entry into the National Conservatism Conference 4 in Washington, DC, in July 2024.
MAGA’s ideological apparatus consists of networks, organizations, and movements such as the Post-Liberals, National Conservatives, Catholic Integralists, Christian Nationalists, and “Claremonters” or intellectual satellites orbiting the ultra-conservative Claremont College in southern California. These groups and individuals are not in the public eye, but they probably prefer it that way since they have power and influence, which is more important than publicity. They are very well educated, with PhDs and other postgraduate degrees, and quite a few are tenured professors at leading universities, like Adrian Vermeule, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School. Other key figures on the intellectual far right are Michael Anton, Patrick Deneen, Costin Alamariu, and Christopher Rufo, all of whom are profiled in detail in the book.
These networks and individuals are well funded, being in close contact with folks like Peter Thiel, the multibillionaire founder........