I realize that things are so upside down in American politics that it’s easy to catastrophize the malfeasance that Republicans are joyously letting spread through the Trump administration.
The sheer volume of the current Republican miscalculation of the American people will ultimately be a gift to Democrats and to those of us who would rather not have a government so purposefully targeting and hurting Americans without making anything better.
You see, Republicans are too far down the MAGA rabbit hole to even see the mistake they’ve made. So I’ll tell you.
Trump and his GOP enablers are hurting the wrong people. His latest political mistake is an attempt to exsanguinate the U.S. Department of Education, which hurls money at Republican states.
Republican fear and hate of anything ‘different’ was a proud moment
On Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas, President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, watch the launch of a rocket test flight.
They started fine. Right out of the gate, they went after transgender people, diversity, equity and inclusion and words that were scary because of “wokeness.” These are political shots that MAGA loves to shoot. These are the people and ideas that Republicans are required to weaponize as a way to scare their base. These are the exact people Trump was supposed to be hurting, and none of it helped anybody do anything anywhere. But that doesn’t matter. The pain caused is joy gained.
Trump had achieved the perfect mix of useless political action and apparent political achievement.
So when he took office in January and immediately proceeded to dunk on all of those people and words, chances are Trump voters were living their best life. They were out here high-fiving and feeling supported as their prince of hate vanquished the unworthy.
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It was a good time for MAGA nation, right? The hate vibes were high, and everybody who was supposed to feel targeted felt targeted. It doesn’t even matter that the Trump administration has lost almost 50 court rulings on the way to all that winning.
Then, something changed.
Trump and Musk needed more sacrifices to their ego altar
President Donald Trump at the White House on March 13, 2025.
The hateful euphoria that came from transphobic, racist and misogynistic executive orders could only last for so long. So Trump and Elon Musk had to find something new to feed on.
That something new quickly and chaotically became the rest of us. Suddenly, the people cheering MAGA’s march to pointless culture war wins found themselves standing in front of the tanks that were recklessly redeployed.
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To save us some time, I’ll list some of the other people Republican ineptitude is targeting by way of letting Trump and Musk run around the federal government like a child you give five minutes to pick a toy:
Honestly, I could go on for a few more minutes, but you get the idea. We’ve reached the point of the Republican reign where there are fewer Americans not negatively impacted by MAGA animosity. They’ve gone from vilifying “woke” to aggressively hurting everybody, including their own voters.
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Voters are already starting to notice Trump has turned on them
Look at that list, which isn’t even comprehensive. Republicans have targeted veterans, educators, federal workers, judges and our economy, and they seem committed to adding Medicaid recipients to their hit list.
That’s a wide net of political malpractice bound to catch some MAGA minnows and voters who were tricked into thinking Trump was the one to fix everything.
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Is it any wonder that voters in congressional districts are overwhelmingly Republicans with complaints during town halls that were probably meant to be a group hug of making America hate again?
These voters aren’t yelling because of the Republican disdain for immigrants or people of color. They’re not up in arms over transphobia that has become the GOP platform.
No, they’re angry because Trump and Republicans have started hurting the wrong people.
Louie Villalobos is Gannett’s director of opinion. You can find him with his birth certificate for when ICE agents try to deport him. Not that it will matter.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump dismantling Education Department targets red states | Opinion
