😭 MAGA and the 5 Stages of Grief

Peter Rothpletz on GOP despair over the election results, the Supreme Court likely taking an axe to Trump’s tariffs, and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s plan to run for president?

🗽 On this day, in 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman elected to the US House of Representatives. Little did we know back then that she would set off a progressive wave in New York politics, resulting in Zohran Mamdani’s victory years later.

Good morning! A sleep-deprived Peter here, still jittering with excitement after the Democrats’ sheer electoral domination on Tuesday. Or… maybe this is a byproduct of the three Dunkin’ cold brews, two Red Bulls, and one and a half Diet Cokes I downed over the course of the afternoon and evening. Who can say?! Let’s get to the news.

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ MAGA media personalities and GOP lawmakers grieve what they thought was political and cultural ascendancy, new data on the record-breaking turnout in Gotham City for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, yet another headache for Democrats in Maine, and continued fallout at the Heritage Foundation following Tucker Carlson’s decision to cozy up to white supremacist Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

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Cope and Seethe

Trump speaks to reporters on July 11, 2025. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

In the wake of yesterday’s historic but unexpected blue wave – or “bluenami,” as some are calling it – Republicans and pundits in conservative media are crashing out, as the kids say. Despite a great deal of polling that showed Democrats were indeed poised to do well, no one seems to have quite anticipated the absolutely monster margins liberals wracked up in marquee race after marquee race across the country. (Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the governor’s race in Virginia by 15 points!)

As we told you yesterday, Democrats of all stripes won everywhere in an utter repudiation of Donald Trump’s far-right second administration.

So how have Republicans been reacting to these results? Forget Ezra Klein punditry, we need some Elisabeth Kübler-Ross psychiatry.

Because for the past day and a half, MAGA has been grappling with the five stages of grief, devastated that they don’t have nearly the political, electoral, or cultural supremacy they’ve baselessly assumed.

First up: denial. President Donald Trump was early out of the gate Tuesday evening, insisting that the losses weren’t about him. “TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,” he wrote in Truth Social screed, blaming everything but his own failed economic policies and nascent fascism. GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson followed suit the next morning, arguing before the press, “There’s no surprises. What happened last night was blue states and blue cities voted blue. We all saw that coming. And no one should read too much into last night’s election results.”

Sure, Mike… Let’s set the record straight: Democrats didn’t just win in blue places; they broke the Republican supermajority in the Mississippi state legislature, they ousted two GOP incumbents on Georgia’s utility board, and they retained their majority on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

MAGA is high as hell on “copium.” One Fox chyron last night read “BY WINNING, DEMOCRATS ARE ACTUALLY LOSING.”

Next: anger (which, in fairness, is MAGA’s natural state). “In Virginia, it was a fucking nightmare, too. That’s three F-bombs in the first seven minutes,” MAGA podcaster Megyn Kelly raged to her audience. “Democrat Abigail Spanberger won. That was no surprise. Winsome Earle-Sears was losing. She came on here, spewed a bunch of bullshit about her internal polls. Bull! She got crushed by about 15 points. It wasn’t even close.”

The former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, Dana Loesch, got in on the circular firing squad action as well, tweeting, “Why are so many influencers focusing so much effort on elevating and defending the ideas of a self-proclaimed Nazi twink and policing the speech of people who disagree during an election? Really makes you wonder!” The “twink” in question clearly being Nick Fuentes – and the “influencers” clearly being Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens.

Third came bargaining, which is to say appeals to a higher power. CNN’s resident MAGA mouthpiece, Scott Jennings, took to Facebook to despair, “Pray for the people of New York City,” and Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted: “Join me for a moment of silence for NYC. Thoughts & prayers.” Guess what? Abbott posted that at 9:36 pm – the exact minute the AP called the race for Mamdani. You can’t make this shit up.

Then came depression, and believe me, there was a whole lot of that. In a post comprised of equal parts racism and sorrow, homophobic Daily Wire personality and former gay short film actor Michael Knowles cried, “The saddest part is he’d never have won were New York full of New Yorkers.” Meanwhile, a despondent Sean Hannity shared: “I honestly feel bad. I have friends of mine in New York. My phone is blowing up. They are officially depressed and scared… A full 9% of people say that they will leave if he, in fact, got elected.”

Last, of course, is the fifth stage of grief: acceptance. On Fox last night, Senator Ted Cruz accepted that Tuesday night’s results were “a disaster” for the GOP and “an electoral blowout.” But stage five was perhaps summed up best by, of all people, Vivek Ramaswamy. The Ohio gubernatorial candidate, perhaps worried about his own race, confessed bluntly: “We got our asses handed to us.”

I couldn’t agree more.

The problem for the GOP? President Donald ‘Denial’ Trump, their Dear Leader, the MAGA Decider, is still very much stuck in stage one.

🗞️ What You Need to Know

• More Maine madness: Three-term Pine Tree State Congressman Jared Golden announced he will not seek re-election, citing recent cases of political violence and the “broken” nature of Congress. Golden’s district is widely recognized as an extremely competitive swing district, leaving the door wide open for a Republican to fill his spot. This is the very district where embattled Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner lives…

• Ruh-roh Roberts: In a leaked video, Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative sewage tank known as the Heritage Foundation, expressed regret for not making clear that he did not endorse Nick Fuentes and his neo-Nazi views. He was willing to resign but said he wanted to stay on to fix the situation. Good luck with that, Kev!

• Mamdani monitor: The Zohran-obsessed Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is launching a ‘Mamdani Monitor’, to track any of the mayor-elect's “policies, appointments and actions” that might negatively impact Jewish New Yorkers. They say the reason for this is due to Mamdani’s promotion of “anti-semitic narratives,” but they can never actually cite any such narratives from him. Oh, and if that’s the case, where’s their tracker for antisemitic actions from Republican electeds, including, y’know, the Jew-bashing president of the United States? I’ll wait.

• Flyers beware: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he will order a 10% flight reduction at 40 major airports starting Friday, unless Congress reaches a deal to open the government. The shutdown has forced a whopping 63,000 TSA agents and air traffic controllers to work without pay.

• Another attack on TPS: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants from South Sudan. Officials from DHS justified the TPS termination by saying there was “renewed peace in South Sudan,” despite evidence pointing to an imminent war in the African country.

• President Greene? Word is getting around that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is considering a run for president, telling one source she thinks she’s the “real MAGA,” per NOTUS. Zeteo can confirm this. Can you picture the 2028 GOP primary debate between Greene and Vance and Rubio? On second thoughts, I’d just rather not.

🧠 Pop Quiz!

What percent of NYC voters disapprove of Trump’s performance as president?

Keep your eyes out for the answer below!

⚖️ ‘Tariffs are Taxes’

Trump holds up a chart while speaking during a “Make America Wealthy Again” trade announcement event at the White House on April 2, 2025. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“Tariffs are Taxes”

That was how Neal Katyal, who has argued over 50 cases before the Supreme Court, opened his remarks yesterday during the oral arguments for one of the biggest cases of the term.

Before the justices is the question of whether Trump can rely on a 1977 law to impose sweeping trade tariffs without authorization from Congress. Can it really be considered a national emergency when the president is clearly making up the case for different tariffs on different countries as he goes along? Multiple members of the court’s conservative majority, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, posed sharp, skeptical questions to the Trump administration’s lawyer.

But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the hearing was who showed up to watch the whole affair. Spotted in the audience were Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, Senators Amy Klobuchar, Ed Markey, and Mike Lee, and… comedian John Mulaney?? If you’ve never seen his “horse in the hospital” stand-up riff, do yourself a favor and give it a watch.

🇵🇸 Don’t Forget Gaza

• Ceasefire violations continue: Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in central Gaza yesterday, despite the ceasefire. Israel claimed the two men crossed the “yellow line,” referring to the first withdrawal line of initial phase of the ceasefire deal. Israel has killed more than 240 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire began less than a month ago.

• Almost every Palestinian displaced: The UN said that nearly the entire population of Gaza is displaced, with 81% of all structures reported as being damaged.

• And in the occupied West Bank… Israeli forces and settlers carried out 2,350 attacks across the West Bank just in October, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

🚨 Don’t Miss It!

Join Zeteo contributor John Harwood and Senator Chris Van Hollen LIVE for a Q&A TODAY at 10:45 pm ET (7:45 am PT). They’ll discuss Trump’s lawless presidency, Tuesday night’s blue wave, and take viewer questions. It’s free for all to join on YouTube and the Zeteo website.

🌏 Anywhere But America

• 🇸🇸 South Sudan famine risk: The UN-backed global hunger monitor estimates that 28,000 people in Nasir and Fangak counties of South Sudan face “catastrophic food insecurity.” UN experts warned that the region is at risk of famine if localized conflict persists and food doesn’t reach the areas soon.

• 🇧🇴 Bolivia overturns conviction: Bolivia’s Supreme Court overturned former interim President Jeanine Áñez’s 10-year prison sentence. The conservative leader was convicted in 2022 over an alleged plot to oust her left-wing predecessor.

• 🇵🇭🌀 Deadly Typhoon in the Philippines: The death toll from Typhoon Kalmaegi, which hit the Philippines earlier this week, climbed to 114 people, including six people who died when their helicopter crashed during a search and rescue mission. Officials said 127 more remain missing.

• 🇹🇿 ‘Ballot stuffing’ in Tanzania: The African Union determined that last week’s Tanzanian presidential election, which saw President Samia Suluhu Hassan re-elected with 98% of the vote, did not comply with its standards for democratic elections. The AU found evidence of ballot stuffing and military force, among other tactics, compromising “election integrity.” The opposition Chadema party has claimed that hundreds have died in the unrest over the results.

📊 Chart of the Day

In New York, it was as much a young wave as a blue wave - voters aged 18-29 broke for Mamdani over Cuomo by a whopping 60 percentage points, according to AP. Shouldn’t other Dems be learning lessons from NYC’s mayor-elect on turning out the youth vote??

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🧠 Trivia answer: 69%. Trump is deeply disliked in his home city!

🦊 Fox Watch

Wannabe dictator and Snowflake-in-Chief goes on State TV and demands his opponents be “nice” to him.

ICYMI From Zeteo

When Mehdi Hasan Met Hasan Piker, Cynthia Nixon, and Zohran’s Mom

How to Build on Zohran Mamdani’s Win in Congress

Zohran Mamdani Wins, Brings Fight to Trump: ‘Turn the Volume Up’

Zeteo’s Melanie Riehl, Akshay Gokul, and Minnah Arshad contributed to this newsletter.

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