Why “Make America Great Again?” Don’t get my question wrong. I put “MAGA” and “Make America Great Again” in quotation marks because by them I refer to the movement, not the general hope of most Americans. Why the specific contemporary movement with Donald Trump at is head? Why are so many Americans passionate about it and so invested in it?
I have read and watched/listened to many attempted explanations. Most of them have part of the truth. Few capture all of it.
Of course, intelligent, reasonable MAGA partners, people associated with the movement, would say the reason for it is the general left-leaning drive of Democrats and others to make America weak, vulnerable, too inclusive, morally relative, and “woke.”
I think there is more to it than that.
As I study the MAGA mentality and movement I see people who are afraid of losing their status. What status? Privileged status in society. They hark back to a time when white men and women (mostly men) enjoyed a special privileged status in America. They fear they are losing that status; it is being taken away from them. Is that fear justified? Well, yes, to a certain extent. What I question is whether that fear justifies the reactions of MAGA and Trumpism. What reactions? Well, for one, hatred of “Mexicans,” especially Spanish-speaking undocumented immigrants from south of the border, especially Central America and Venezuela. Much MAGA fear and hate is focused on them. Not so much because disposing of them is believed to restore white, male (and female) privilege and status but because MAGA people are just angry and fed up and need a scapegoat. Drawing any kind of line from illegal immigrants to loss of status and privilege by white, lower and middle class men (and women) is extremely difficult.
Another reason for MAGA rage, however, is the sense of loss of American supremacy in the world. I believe it stems all the way back/from the dismal end of the Vietnam War. Up through the failure of America’s occupation and combination of Afghanistan. And our seeming helplessness to stop North Korea and other countries who call themselves our enemies and acquire or almost acquire weapons of mass destruction. America’s role as the world’s policeman and its role as the leader of a Pax Americana deeply discourages MAGA people. Who is to blame for it? Who stabbed America in the back? Liberals, of course.
MAGA has one more cause, IMHO. People’s dismay at the seemingly unstoppable rush toward moral depravity, moral “anything-goes-ness.” Abortion, homosexuality, indecency in entertainment, leniency toward crime, etc. MAGA people see America as having become degenerate. It’s not that they think Trump is an exception; it’s that they think their “in” with Trump (e.g., conservative Christian leaders) will influence him to turn back the tide. Or at least appoint people, judges and others, who will contribute to that.
I would not be so much against MAGA, the movement, the mentality, were it not for the cruelty I see many MAGA people either engaging in or supporting. What cruelty? Well, holding immigrant children indefinitely in what are basically concentration camp-style institutions, with little caring adult supervision. Separating immigrant, migrant families (as was seen on NBC Nightly News in California July 11, 2025). Deporting a whole family because the husband/father is a terrorist, with no evidence or reason to believe any of the family’s members knew of his plans. Wanting children, young people, who were born in the US and grew up here and are being educated here deported only because their parents are undocumented. (In a recent notorious case a citizen child was given a choice to either leave with his/her mother or be separated with no supporting family left here.) Applauding the deportation to a mass prison in El Salvador of a man who had been given no-deportation protection by the government, leaving his pregnant wife here alone. Sending undocumented migrants to South Sudan even though their homes are somewhere in Latin America. I could go on.
Cruelty is never justified. Reasonable, compassionate return to home countries is one thing; what is happening now is something entirely different. MAGA has some legitimate concerns, but it is a movement deeply infected with cruelty, unreasonable fear, hatred and even idolatrous nationalism. Christians ought to speak out against it. Too few are doing that.
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