It’s been a rocky month for the GOP after losing big in last month’s elections, and the party knows it. Members of Congress are heading for the exit; the vibe couldn’t be further from Trump’s exultant return to power in January.

To understand what’s going on — and what it portends for the future of the right — I spoke with my colleague Andrew Prokop for Vox’s daily newsletter, Today, Explained. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below, and you can sign up for the newsletter here for more conversations like this.

Why does it feel like the right is in disarray right now?

In 2024, there was a lot of talk about the vibes shifting in favor of the right. There was a sense that public opinion was moving in their direction, history was on their side, elites had accepted they were right on some major questions. Nearly a year into the second Trump administration, the vibes appear to have shifted again. Various factions of the right are increasingly discussing and debating this question of, What has gone wrong? How did they go from MAGA triumphant to this increasing suspicion that things aren’t actually going well for them anymore?

How has that manifested?

The most interesting example is in the MAGA influencer sphere. Back in Trump’s first term, the way to get maximum virality and engagement from a right-wing audience was loyalty: Just back Donald Trump in whatever he did. We are increasingly seeing that it doesn’t........

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