'Army of MAGA enforcers': Trump recruits outsiders to strong-arm GOP

Many Never Trump conservatives have argued that the Republican Party's Ronald Reagan era officially ended when Donald Trump won the 2016 GOP nomination and went on to defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election.

Since then, the GOP has only grown more and more Trumpified. Many conservative Trump critics are no longer in Congress, including former Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and ex-Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ). Outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) decided against seeking reelection.

Trump's defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election only tightens his stranglehold on the GOP. The Dispatch's David M. Drucker, in an article published Monday, stresses that when he returns to the White House on January 20, 2025, he will be "flanked by an army of outside enforcers prepared to squeeze any Republican who resists his agenda."

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"Once Trump is inaugurated," Drucker reported, "this MAGA-aligned network will shift to strong-arming obstinate House and Senate Republicans to support the president-elect's agenda, be it executive orders or legislative proposals. Critically, MAGA insiders tell The Dispatch, they won't be sitting around waiting for direction from Trump to join a particular fight."

One of those MAGA insiders is "War Room" host Steve Bannon, who told The Dispatch, "The ecosystem on the right is going to be a force multiplier. … What I think you're seeing now is the institutionalization of what had been a self-organizing effort."

Bannon, according to Drucker, is "describing" what "amounts to the rise of a new Republican establishment, complete with well-funded activist groups and influential media figures."

Bannon, now 71, has been involved in far-right politics for decades. But Trump's MAGA loyalists aren't necessarily Baby Boomers or members of Generation X.

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In a New York Times article published on Dec. 16, reporter Shawn McCreesh describes a New York Young Republican Club gathering that took place Sunday.

Bannon was the keynote speaker, but many of the "true believers" in attendance were much younger. And according to McCreesh, they are fine with "retribution" against Trump's detractors — if unclear about the form it should take.

"This club's members are, by and large, a terminally online, trollish, far-right collective who would consider any sort of tack toward the center by Mr. Trump or those guiding him to be an act of betrayal," McCreesh reports. "They are the prime audience for retribution rattling. And yet, on Sunday, many seemed at odds about just how much retribution they could expect, or who precisely should be targeted, or how.

Preston Parra, a 22-year-old MAGA Republican at the gathering, said of Trump's foes, "We want to throw the book at them because they deserve it. They're godless demoniacs…. The leftist, elitist cabal, whatever you want to call it. Nancy Pelosi. Mitch McConnell."

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