MAGA is making America dizzy again.

By J. Basil Dannebohm

In 2015, a military training exercise called Jade Helm became the basis for a right-wing conspiracy theory which claimed that under Barack Obama, the federal government planned to impose martial law. Conservatives went crackers over an unfounded prospect that the President might invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807. It was around this time that so-called “Tea Party Patriots” assumed the Gadsden flag as their banner. Its famous “don’t tread on me” slogan became their battle cry.

Accusations waged by the far-right are often confessions. Take, for example, conservative pastors, averaging one per day for 100 straight days in 2025, who have been arrested for sexual misconduct.

According to an analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) of Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts from January 1st, 2023, to April 1st, 2024, he vowed at least nineteen times to weaponize law enforcement against civilians. Since returning to office, Mr. Trump has regularly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.

Now, instead of “Don’t tread on me,” so-called patriots are applauding the possibility Martial Law, saying, “Tread on everyone except for me.”

On August 26th, 2024, Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, Mike Waltz, and Byron Donalds joined a group of Congressional conservative signatories in sending a letter to the Nobel Committee nominating Maria Corina Machado for the revered Peace Prize. Yet, in October 2025, when Machado was awarded the prize, several of the signatories lamented that it should have gone to the “Peace President,” Donald Trump -- a man who has threatened to invade Greenland, says he “hates” his opponents, and is stoking the flames of civil unrest.

On July 13th, 2025, MAGA “influencer” Laura Loomer wrote, “I don’t ever want to hear Charlie Kirk claim he is pro-Trump ever again … I’d say he has revealed himself as [a] political opportunist ... Lately, Charlie has decided to behave like a charlatan, claiming to be pro-Trump one day while he stabs Trump in the back the next.”

In the days following Kirk’s assassination, Loomer encouraged her followers to dox those who opposed his legacy.

She was not alone.

Others who had publicly championed free speech, including FCC Chairman Brendan Carr who once wrote on X, “We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,” were now weaponizing the federal government against those who dared to express their opinions, much less quote Kirk’s own words.

Even Trump who, on his first day back in office, signed Executive Order 14149, “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” said, “we have to beat the hell” out of “radical left lunatics” who were simply embracing their constitutional right – a right he claimed to restore.

JD Vance, Pam Bondi, and Stephen Miller called for the punishment of “radical left lunatics” who would “dox” or “incite violence.” The trio conveniently ignored the fact that Loomer had called for doxxing, and the “Peace President” was inciting violence.

Last month, an assemblage of conservatives blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s assassination, declaring a civil war on Democrats. Now, MAGA is divided over who bears responsibility for Kirk’s death, with provocateurs like Candace Owens blaming Israel for his untimely demise, a conspiracy theory that rivals Jade Helm on the absurdity scale.

When the state of Oregon asked a federal appeals court to rule on whether the Trump administration could legally send National Guard troops to Portland, officials sought the release of White House records. The Trump administration objected to the discovery request as an "improper intrusion on separation of powers."

Surely they do not mean the same "improper intrusion" that led to the National Guard deployment in the first place?

In 2020, the far-right claimed COVID-19 was a hoax. Today many of them oppose vaccines, yet Trump received a Covid booster and a flu vaccine during a recent check-up.

Conservatives claim to abhor “cancel culture,” yet in April 2023, they called for a boycott of Bud Light when Anheuser-Busch sent a six-pack bearing his image to Tik-Tok personality Dylan Mulvaney. Now, they are losing their minds over the NFL’s choice of Bad Bunny to headline the Super Bowl LX halftime show.

MAGA routinely fails its own litmus test through infighting, emotional fragility, chaos, deflection, distraction, gaslighting, paranoia, contradictions, and inconsistency. Mr. Trump and his ilk need to make up their minds: Do they seek reality or conspiracy, freedom or restriction, peace or war, government or anarchy?

In the ten exhausting months since their return to power, MAGA has only succeeded in making America dizzy again.