How MAGA Ditched Unity for White Nationalist Propaganda

MAGA’s Purple Wave rose with promise and broke on the shores of decline.

The Otter examines how MAGA’s Purple Wave devolved into white nationalist dogwhistling, consigning America to deeper division and stagnation.

Politics encompasses many things: it is philosophy, social organization, and economics; but most importantly, it is mythology. Nations rely on myth-making to promote their agendas. The communists had their mythos of the worker breaking his chains, fascists developed diverse and often esoteric lore for their construction of a new state, and so too did liberal propagandists—despite the grand lie of radical individualism—intuitively understand the value of symbolism and myth-making to craft their message.

A myth that has driven American civilization is that of the “American Dream,” a promise of middle-class rewards for anyone willing to put in hard work in the “land of opportunity.” The American Dream increasingly lost its aura as economic opportunity dwindled after the 2008 Financial Crisis. MAGA effectively tapped into this disillusionment with its “America First” message that helped propel Trump to victory in 2016.

The 2024 election saw an evolution of MAGA propaganda beyond promises of returning economic prosperity. A message of unity emerged toward the closing of the election cycle, helping secure swing voters with a core message that Trump puts America over partisan politics, which is no small gesture in a fractured America. In the closing weeks of the election, MAGA emphasized its new Trump 2.0 coalition of former Democrats like Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr., a phenomenon that watchful commentators described as a Purple Wave.

The Purple Wave Coasts MAGA to Victory

At the time, it seemed MAGA was taking a turn toward the center. I pragmatically suggested that MAGA adopt a conservative-Rawlsian approach with closed borders and an emphasis on social mobility. The creation of the Space Force and Elon’s involvement with the Purple Wave evoked rose-tinted memories of a striding America, which firmly held its place as the zenith of science and innovation.

There was chatter online about Trump’s opportunities to restore job training programs and subvert the woke university complex and calls to reallocate funding for the sciences to tackle cutting-edge research once again. The Purple Wave promised to restore the virtues of American competitiveness that saw its triumph during the Space Race. It promised an independently minded reformer, Trump, and his Unity coalition to get the derailed Western world back on its track. The mainstream media, and even fringe conservative media, seemed to be magnanimous to this possibility even into the early days of this second Trump presidency.

Contrast this op-ed from The Gateway Pundit by Matt Kane and the current state of MAGA:

caption...

MAGA appealed to a growing cohort of minority voters who swung to the GOP for the first time in decades, with Trump drawing nearly even among Hispanic voters (losing by just 3 points) and making notable gains among Black voters. Many of these minorities come from families that are now several generations American, and have also felt that the government has put the concerns of industry and globalism ahead of the concerns of ordinary Americans. These massive electoral changes revealed that MAGA’s conservative vision for America was crossing entrenched racial boundaries in American electoral politics.

It was no surprise that Trump trounced his opponent, Kamala Harris, whose party has been unable to offer a unifying message after doubling down on divisive identity politics and the progressivism of the DNC’s fringe candidates like “The Squad.” For the first time since Reagan’s landslide win, we saw the possibility of settling the partisan divide and putting the country on a positive trajectory.

Red-Blooded Wigger Nationalism

MAGA has been unable to capitalize on the Purple Wave phenomenon, despite the positive approval with which Trump entered his second administration; instead, the MAGA message suddenly shifted staunchly to the far right to appeal to its most fringe elements, apparently taking a note from the DNC playbook.

Having achieved a few minor victories on immigration—ones that already appealed to minority swing voters’ shared concerns about the quality of recent immigrants—the Trump administration has taken the decision to dog-whistle toward the white nationalist element in American culture with its current social media posts, despite deportations continuing at a snail’s pace relative to the administration’s lofty promises. While officials boast of over 2 million removals or self-deportations in the first 250 days and more than 548,000 removals in 2025 —this still remains far from the “largest mass deportation in U.S. history” that Trump promised.

The MAGA peanut gallery champions these deportations as a symbolic victory for white nationalism, but in reality Trump’s approval is dropping and American optimism continues to fade. The incompetence of the tariff regime is now obvious to anyone who even occasionally reads the news, and Americans are becoming increasingly fed up with both parties. The Purple Wave recedes into the horizon, and so does the American Dream with it.

Trump 2.0 Propaganda

Americans have been historically mobilized with clever propaganda campaigns. The Purple Wave was an opportunity to launch a campaign appealing to a certain metaphysical character of the American spirit, which propels it forward.

The US government’s ambition to control all the land between the Pacific and Atlantic, branded as its “Manifest Destiny,” was helped along by propaganda like John Gast’s American Progress. Appeals to the pioneering spirit of Americans were effective at driving them to leave the relative comforts of Eastern American cities, and head westward to conquer dangerous and unknown lands, helping the United States fulfill its mission of extending from “sea to shining sea.”

The Trump administration’s social media shitposts are not limited to Xitter and are also shared on normie-friendly Instagram:

The Trump administration, in fact, reused this famous propaganda painting. MAGA has managed to strip this painting of its aspirational character, and instead recontextualize it as a defensive posture. America’s heritage is no longer progressing to conquer the unexplored parts of the nation, the skies above, or global markets; instead, it is something that needs to bunker down and protect itself.

Numerous examples of MAGA engaging with white nationalist dogwhistling have emerged across the Trump administration’s social media accounts. Tapping into the demographic anxieties of White Americans has emerged as a continuous theme. MAGA refuses to discuss the serious problems besieging America’s status in the world and rallies support around propagandist theater shows, which increasingly begin to look like a hall of mirrors to distract Americans from the arising multipolar reality—which Trump inadvertently contributed to with his tariff regime.

“Which way, American man?”—appearing to be a reference to the neo-Nazi William Gayley Simpson’s famous text Which Way Western Man?:

Historical American propaganda campaigns used explicit icons, like Uncle Sam pointing a finger, saying “I Want You,” to inspire action toward a grand vision. There is no higher vision being offered to these voters except the carrot on the stick of a slight reduction in the demographic decline of White America. The Trump administration’s social media posts utilize memes and formats that deniably nod to white nationalist content, while still being somewhat plausibly deniable.

Manifest Destiny and WWII propaganda promised growth—“from sea to shining sea” or “Arsenal of Democracy.” Trump’s administration signals a shrinking, besieged America, urging retrenchment. This is the managed decline of America, pandering to the grievances of working-class Whites while agitating their anxieties, promising to stymie the number of immigrants, while the demographic reality of America will not change substantially, no matter how much pre-Hart-Celler nostalgia the MAGA base is willing to gobble up.

These are the signs of an administration that has no coherent vision for the future of the United States. It offers no aspirational symbolism. Opportunities like praising the recent Space Force’s largest ever military exercise, Resolute Space 2025, an orbital warfare simulation involving over 700 Guardians, don’t seem to be on the agenda for the Trump administration.

“Managing the Decline”:

MAGA keeps dividing a country that is already painfully divided and losing an opportunity to capitalize on the Purple Wave phenomenon that could have given the American Empire a second wind. Instead, we get “Project Firewall,” promising to investigate H1B abuse, when H1Bs are statistically a drop in the bucket compared to the broader lack of economic opportunity.

The annual statutory cap for new H-1B visas is 85,000 (with additional slots for advanced degrees), and while labor condition applications reached over 231,000 in Q2 2025 alone, this pales in comparison to the U.S. labor market’s challenges, where millions face underemployment or job displacement amid an unemployment rate hovering around 4.5%—affecting roughly 7-8 million workers—and broader economic stagnation driven by factors like automation, offshoring, and wage suppression far beyond the scope of H-1B visas.

Imagine a Trump administration with a bold, ambitious plan to rally the American public to become innovators again. Using Space Force as an aspirational symbol—MAGA’s social media savvy interns could have a field day with Starship Troopers. Far more generative propaganda opportunities…

Some Considerations on Race

Pride in one’s race was not the primary factor that drove Americans to conquer their nation; rather, it was a potent blend of ideological fervor and economic promise that propelled westward expansion. American propagandists have long known how to sell aspirations to the people—visions of boundless opportunity, divine destiny, and personal prosperity in untamed lands—that tapped into the rugged character and unyielding grit of settlers who forged a remarkable chapter in the annals of civilization.

The Americans of yesteryears backed these myths with concrete plans, from government-backed land grants and infrastructure projects like the transcontinental railroad to the ideological scaffolding of Manifest Destiny, which framed expansion not as racial conquest, but as a providential mission to spread democracy and civilization across the continent.

Race has always been a factor in American political life, yet white nationalism as we encounter it today—resurgent, organized, and amplified through digital platforms—is largely a contemporary phenomenon, gaining traction in the post-Civil Rights era and exploding in visibility since the 2010s.

This demands our scrutiny: for what purpose is racism being weaponized now, and to what ends will it lead—a fractured society, eroded institutions, or mere electoral gains? We don’t see one coherent formulation of white nationalism on the right, either; instead, it splinters into variants like biological determinism that posits inherent racial hierarchies rooted in genetics and IQ pseudoscience, or the strain that views white identity primarily as a vehicle to stoke a monomaniacal obsession with Jews, framing them as puppet-masters behind global conspiracies.

Very few proponents offer a positive, forward-looking vision beyond defensive retrenchment, leaving the ideology mired in grievance rather than genuine renewal. White nationalism’s viability as a vehicle to re-energize the American spirit is dubious at best. White nationalism’s ability to achieve its demographic goals is incredibly unlikely in a nation like America. Its only realistic purpose is to further partisan divides, which is a questionable strategy with an incredibly weak Democratic Party polling below Republicans on a majority of issues.

Source: Real Clear Polling, accessed on 10/28/2025

It’s clear that Trump, at a time when America is at its most vulnerable—with its influence eroding as it struggles to accept a multipolar reality, marked by shifts in U.S. foreign policy cohesion, the rise of BRICS alliances, and challenges to unilateral dominance—is not aligning his country to be competitive in this forthcoming paradigm. MAGA instead foments further societal destabilization that began under the left, feeding its base’s aspirations for revenge and planting more seeds for social disorder in the nation.

Purple Mountains Majesty

The Purple Wave appeared as an opportunity that MAGA seized upon and instantly stepped back from—a profound betrayal of its potential to unify, reform, and propel America forward, instead consigning the nation to deeper division and stagnation. The big question is, will this strategy pay off at midterms? It clearly might when both parties lack a vision to carry America into the future and re-energize its population to believe in the “American Dream,” but it signals a bleak future ahead for the American people.

The true problem with Trump, though, is not that he won’t go far enough on immigration or beat the left into submission, as we hear from populist voices on the right, but that Trump won’t go far enough to rebuild American society in a bold, audacious way—like FDR achieved with the New Deal. Considering the story MAGA’s tactics reveal, it’s dubious that the American Right has the intellectual capital to achieve such a necessary revitalization of America.

The message of the right is one of continued decline, managing the decline, and if the GOP is earnest in their white nationalist auspices instead of a cynical ploy to divide the electorate, then they strive to create a reservation for the white man—a place where he can fade into civilizational obscurity without pesky minorities ruining his blissful march into the dustbin of history. Western civilization must do better than this, and look beyond MAGA’s vision for America as its future.