On The 11th Hour, Angelo Carusone discusses the influences of MAHA and groyperism on right-wing politics
Published
Citation
From the March 30, 2026, edition of MS NOW's The 11th Hour
ALICIA MENENDEZ (HOST): The Make America Healthy Again MAHA movement helped put Trump in the White House, but will they help Republicans hold on to Congress? New polling from Politico shows nearly half of MAHA voters say this administration has not done enough to advance the movement's goals, like concerns over vaccines, pesticides, and food quality. Politico also says there could be an opening for Democrats. Quote, “The issues self-identified MAHA supporters rank as most important are the ones Democrats have championed more often than Republicans, such as halting the spread of infectious diseases, stricter regulation of ‘forever chemicals,’ and expanding access to reproductive health care.” That said, the MAHA founder, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. remains a popular figure on the right, getting a rousing welcome at CPAC over the weekend.
Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, joins me now. You have made the argument to me for a while now that MAHA could be the most enduring part of the of the MAGA coalition.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS): Yeah. Without a doubt. I mean, I really do believe that. You know, it is in many ways, it is sort of like, if you go back to 2015, how Trump was starting to piece together, you know, at the time when people thought, you know, the like, Gamergate, some of these — the men's rights movement. It's a similar thing.
They are going to be the real bellwether for 2028. I don't know how much of an effect they'll have in ’26 because the headwinds are so much against the administration, but they are the one thing that is going to endure beyond MAGA. MAGA is mostly dead, or dying at least, as it existed because MAGA, again, was a coalition of coalitions. And so it's not going to exist beyond Trump. Assume there is a beyond Trump. But MAHA will. It will.
MENENDEZ: And when you hear Politico's analysis say that Democrats have an opening there, do you buy that?
CARUSONE: It's factually true in that the policies do align more with Democratic policies. But as you noted at the end, there is a sentiment attached to it that they haven't been able to capture, and that's the energizing thing, which is that they are willing to push back against these — against, you know, Big Pharma and some of these big corporate interests. Democrats are still deeply viewed as tied into corporate interests in these communities, and that they haven't been both willing push back against it, but more importantly, that they haven't been willing to do things that would otherwise be considered destabilizing. And that's where — so there is an opening.
I mean, this glyphosate thing — which sounds so, you know, for most people, that's not a day-to-day thing for me. It is like a massive betrayal in MAHA movement right now. I mean, Trump literally didn't just say let's have more of it. He used the Defense Production Act to require more of a chemical that is a galvanizing thing for the MAHA movement. And yet, they still don't fully blame Kennedy for this. You know, they'll be a little mad at Trump, but they give him more credit. Say, well, he's trying to find a way around it.
And Democrats could seize it. Like, why are Democratic governors not issuing executive orders, you know, even if they're unlikely to be upheld, because there is performance here and a theater that's missing, and that's kind of what I'm getting to with respect to the sentiment.
MENENDEZ: Help me understand why Secretary Kennedy remains so popular.
CARUSONE: He is able to main — one, he — there's a lot in being a first mover. Two, personal relationships. There are some real people that help sort of explain that these things are not his failings, but others around him failing. And then the third thing, and this is the core part of the narrative, they believe — and to a degree, it's probably true, that these interests are so deeply entrenched, kind of like Trump and the deep state and all of the typical Fox viewers — that these interests are so deeply entrenched and powerful that he's doing his best. But you have to push harder. That it is even for Kennedy insurmountable.
And then the third thing — you know, the fourth thing I would just say is that he's very smart about responding and savvy, which goes under the radar. You know, when there was a lot of movement about the glyphosate thing, I do think it's really significant that he went on Joe Rogan's show and said, hey, guess what, everybody? We're going to start making peptides more available. Because that is a huge part of that constituency. They really care about that.
And so while they might have been mad about Roundup, they started to — he was out there talking about something that deeply mattered to them. And while that might not have made national news, it did have a lot of traction within that audience. And I think, you know, he's good about dipping his toes in there to say, I'm still with you, but we're fighting a real bear here.
MENENDEZ: You said something earlier. You said that MAGA is dead. I want to sort of pull that apart because part of it is what we're watching unfold, the president's war of choice in Iran. There's especially such discontent among younger voters, which makes sense in part because they will be the ones to to pay the price here, but you are seeing a generational fissure that does not benefit them.
CARUSONE: That's right. And I think that what, you know, one of the questions we asked before, which is that, you know, is this an actual opening for Democrats? It isn't just about winning some of these short-term battles. This is going to really determine the trajectory of the culture.
Are they going to get worse? Meaning, are they going to get more red-pilled and more extreme? Because that's what they're being offered. As they fracture, they're going to go somewhere. And one of these schisms is around Iran, but it gets into a bigger issue, which is who's really pulling the strings? So part of the MAGA movement that's there, that's breaking off, the young people, is that they're getting what's called j-pilled now, which you can guess is Jewish-pilled, and so they believe that that they are really in charge. I mean, they're going full mask-off here.
MENENDEZ: Full antisemitism.
CARUSONE: That's right. And so — and that is it. They are just going in that direction. That is groyperism.
MENENDEZ: And who is pushing them in that direction?
CARUSONE: That is obviously a — Nick Fuentes is really this, he's sort of, I think, a key part of that sort of incubation. And JD Vance, when he had the opportunity to weigh in last October, didn't say, well, this is not for us. He said, we have to let all voices come to the table, which I think was a bellwether for the types of power that's there.
But then there is a part that says, wait. I don't want to go to war. I'm not a violent racist. I'm not an antisemite. I was a video game guy, and I, you know, my favorite video game streamer said that Vice President Harris was a warmonger, and that's what motivated me to vote for Trump — is that I didn't want to get caught up in endless wars because I saw how much that's destroyed the country already. They're a part of this too, and I think normally, so, you know, Democrats beyond just winning sort of short-term elections, they actually need to move these people because the alternative is a lot worse.
And so the fracture is real. It is dying. That is true. But there is a segment of them that is going to get more extreme. The Tuckers, the Fuentes, and they are actively moving them. And there isn't anything yet on the other side that is galvanizing and pulling off the others that said I don't need to go in that direction. I don't need this grand conspiracy to help me explain why it feels like we are being pulled into these endless wars.
MENENDEZ: Angelo Carusone, no one better to talk with us about. Thank you so much for being with us. We'll be right back.