Rage is mounting among allies of former President Donald Trump who say their leader is betraying their ambitions in pursuit of a Republican Party platform more palatable to mainstream America, a new analysis shows.
The feud spans from inside the walls of a federal prison to the recording studio of a notorious conspiracy theorist and the corners of the internet where a white supremacist rallies support for Trump, Salon columnist Amanda Marcotte wrote Thursday morning.
"Steve Bannon has been in prison just over a week, and already one can see the strain on MAGA world," writes Marcotte. "Bannon's absence from the scene may be the single best explanation for why some of the loudest trolls on the right are now griping at Donald Trump."
Marcotte's column comes amid Trump's repeated and less-than-successful efforts to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 — the platform crafted by dozens of his former White House staffers — of which he claims to know nothing.
As Democrats pile on about Project 2025, Infowars host Alex Jones is furiously "leading the charge to castigate Trump" for trying to wash his hands of the project, Marcotte writes.
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"Jones and his audience appear to understand that Trump was flat-out lying when he posted on Friday, 'I know nothing about Project 2025,'" Marcotte writes. "Jones suggests Trump wants to be out there, bragging about his plans for a fascist America, but is being constrained by those scaredy-cat scolds who foolishly believe Americans aren't thrilled at the idea of the United States Reich."
Jones has even gone so far to criticize Trump, telling viewers, "He doesn’t understand Republican machinery."
He's not the only Trump ally to do so.
Nick Fuentes, a dining companion of Trump's who openly praises Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, took to Twitter to share a "storm of complaints," Marcotte writes.
"I have been sounding the alarm about Trump’s assimilation into the establishment for some time now," Fuentes wrote last week. "Face the reality: Trump24 is controlled by billionaires and will be staffed by the worst personnel imaginable."
The result of this backlash could be "very bad for Trump' in November, Marcotte writes, for one simple reason.
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"[He] depends on the conspiracy theory dirtbags to help him win," Marcotte writes. "Which is why I like my theory that these folks are rudderless without Bannon giving out daily marching orders from his podcast 'The War Room.'"
Bannon submitted himself to a federal prison in Connecticut earlier this month to begin a four-month sentence of contempt of Congress charges that will likely leave him behind bars until Oct. 29, one week before the presidential election, Federal Bureau of Prisons records show.
"Bannon is good at making even the biggest morons in his audience feel like they're part of Trump's nefarious schemes," writes Marcotte. "I have no doubt he could convince them to play along with the strategy of pretending Project 2025 isn't Trump's real agenda."
But Marcotte doubts Trump can sell it on his own.
"Trump isn't successfully distancing himself from Project 2025. If anything, his denials are only drawing more public interest," she concludes. "Trump himself understands that most Americans, if they hear what's in Project 2025, will run away screaming."
