Explaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.
It’s been a tumultuous 6 months with Donald Trump inhabiting the presidency, with a weakened federal government now incapable of addressing monumental problems like climate change, pandemics, education, basic security and safety, and even forecasting the weather.
As the United States reaches its 249th year of existence, it’s in a very precarious position. So how did we get here?
Elon Musk’s propaganda machine
The 2024 election made it clear why Elon Musk leveraged billions of dollars to purchase Twitter, which he has since rebranded as X. The wealthiest man in the world turned the site into a propaganda machine, amplifying conspiracy theories and bigotry.
When he threw his support behind Trump, the site went all in on amplifying his campaign while escalating lies and falsehoods about Democrats, particularly President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
After Trump won the election, liberals and progressives mounted a mass exodus to Bluesky. Conservatives responded with anger—because they vitally need to troll liberals, which they prefer over speaking with each other.
Attack on diversity
Trump is a racist and the biggest promoter of the “birther” conspiracy theory about President Barack Obama. In his first term, he praised Nazis as “very fine people.” And now in his second term, there’s just more of the same.
But instead of merely throwing around rhetoric where “woke” is a substitute for the N-word, Trump is using his power to roll back the very notion of diversity. He’s used executive action and internal government policy to purge diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and has even taken to simply erasing the achievement of Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ people.
At the same time, he’s fulfilled—in part, at least—his campaign pledges to the most virulent racists by affirming his support for the pro-slavery Confederacy. Trump and his lieutenants like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are relitigating the Civil War and coming down firmly on the side that viewed Black people as property.
Musk’s government sledgehammer
By empowering Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency to infiltrate multiple government agencies, Trump advanced the longstanding right-wing mission to undermine effective government. Musk and his team of destructive operatives—like “Big Balls”—have tried to take down government agencies that millions of people rely on.
There has been significant resistance and a string of courtroom losses for Trump. But thanks to DOGE, the government’s ability to do things like send out Social Security payments and monitor hurricanes has been compromised.
Trust in the government was already in trouble, but Trump and Musk made it worse—all in the name of “small” government, even if that means that people have to die.
Scared men and predators
At the Pentagon, former Fox News host Hegseth continues to be the living embodiment of the toxic masculinity that he represented on the right-wing network. The only problem is that it’s manifested in the mismanagement of the most powerful military in recorded history.
With Trump’s blessing, Hegseth pounds the table on so-called “warrior” ethos while gossiping on group chats about missile strikes and making a mess of international diplomacy.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration has continued its outreach to the toxic right-wing manosphere by reportedly advocating for the release of influencer Andrew Tate, a misogynist who has been accused of rape in multiple countries. In other words, he’s the perfect hero for the Trump administration.
Never stop pushing conspiracies
Trump is a conspiracy theorist. For decades, he’s offered up half-baked, debunked theories on a litany of topics—like when he said that climate change was a Chinese “hoax”. Even though he and the GOP are in charge, the Trump team still insists that the “deep state” is out to get them.
The conspiracies are even worse this time around because they’re being fueled by Musk. He and Trump bandied about the notion that gold at Fort Knox had been stolen, even though Trump’s last Treasury secretary did a weird photo shoot there just a few years ago.
There is no such thing as “white genocide,” but Trump spent days harping on it, throwing a rhetorical bone to white supremacists who have pushed the conspiracy.
They love abusing and bombing people
Conservatism has a long-standing love affair with abusive behavior. The line goes back to figures like President George W. Bush, who promoted torture as U.S. policy with the euphemism “enhanced interrogation” at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Now Trump has brought it back to the forefront by abducting and detaining immigrants, crowing about detention camps, and having his subordinates like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stage photo shoots in front of packed jail cells.
The Republican tradition of gleefully bombing people has resurfaced with Trump’s decision to inject the nation into the conflict between Iran and Israel. Like Bush, Trump is now complaining about the media accurately covering his questionable declarations of success in his bombings.
Killing the economy
Trump inherited an economy from Biden that was on the mend, following years of Trump’s mismanagement during COVID-19. Instead of just taking credit for it, like he did with Obama’s economic recovery in 2017, Trump has gone on the attack.
He unilaterally imposed tariffs that have already contributed to a fiscal slowdown and sticker shock. Businesses have had their hiring impacted while countries around the world are anticipating the shockwaves of an economic slowdown.
The last few Republican presidents—Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bush, and Trump—have all presided over economic pullbacks that were cleaned up by Democratic presidents.
Trump and his team, who spent years complaining about prices under Biden, have now said that cost increases are good for the economy, lest they offend Trump.
War on immigrants
Trump hates immigrants. He launched his initial bid for the presidency based on bald-faced lies about Mexican immigrants being rapists and has pursued a policy of cruelty ever since. In his first term, he separated immigrant families. Now, he’s abducting immigrants and even forcing military occupation on American cities.
The desire to demonize immigrants or people sympathetic to immigration—a tradition that has been forever intertwined with U.S. history—is evident in all of Trump’s actions.
But now that the public has seen that Trump and the GOP overstated the threat of “immigrant criminals,” he’s losing ground on what past polls found were his strongest issues.
The United States is in a bad place, but that didn’t happen overnight. The right plotted and planned for the Trump-powered onslaught, even though he pretended that he was not connected to initiatives like Project 2025.
If the country recovers, it will take a very long time. Trump has an entire system behind him, from the Republican Party to propaganda machines like X and Fox News.
They can be defeated, but the fight will have to be sustained.