The Republican Party of 20 years ago? Pro-democracy, pro-international alliances, and definitely NOT an outlier among Western conservatives. Fast forward to today, and the MAGA movement is rewriting the script—big time.
A New Tribe: MAGA Republicans aren’t just breaking with the left—they’re breaking with the entire Western conservative tradition. Their mindset aligns closer to Russia’s Putin and Turkey’s Erdoğan than to Britain’s Tories or Germany’s CDU.
Goodbye Global Cooperation: The old GOP was about strong alliances (think Bush and Blair “shoulder to shoulder”). MAGA? Not so much. From pulling military support from allies to shrugging at international norms, Trump’s America plays by different rules.
Autocracy Over Democracy? The Republican Party once championed democracy. Now, MAGA’s values—authoritarian tendencies, distrust of institutions, and nationalism—are pulling them into a different ideological orbit.
Economics as a Weapon: Trade wars, economic self-harm, and an “America First” approach that even conservative economists are scratching their heads over—this isn’t Reaganomics.
Shock & Awe Politics: Trump, JD Vance, and their crew operate on a different frequency. What seems disastrous or erratic to traditional Western leaders is just another Tuesday in MAGA-world.
Bottom line? MAGA isn’t just a more extreme version of the old GOP—it’s something entirely different. If Western democracies don’t recognize this shift, they’ll keep getting blindsided.
Inspired by: Financial Times article by John Burn-Murdoch
Mike McCready 
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