In the space of a few hours this week, two apparently unrelated spectacles unfolded in American politics. First, Donald Trump welcomed New York City’s democratic-socialist mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, to the Oval Office with effusive praise and promises of federal cooperation. Second, Marjorie Taylor Greene, until recently one of Trump’s most visible congressional enforcers, resigned in a blaze of recrimination, accusing the president of protecting elite pedophiles and betraying the “America First” base.  

Taken together, these events are not the random eruptions of a chaotic administration. They represent a calculated Machiavellian manoeuvre designed to conceal – and, if possible, to suffocate – a growing revolt inside the MAGA coalition itself.

The revolt is developing and measurable. Internal surveys circulating among Republican consultants show that between 62% and 69% of 2024 Trump voters now demand immediate, unredacted release of all remaining Jeffrey Epstein files, even if the documents implicate figures close to the president. A separate YouGov panel conducted November 18-20 found 57% of self-described MAGA Republicans agreeing that “some in Trump’s inner circle are blocking transparency to protect powerful friends”. These are not marginal dissidents; they are the same demographic cohorts that delivered Trump his 2024 victory.

Epstein controversy merging with broader MAGA crisis

The substantive grievance is no longer confined to the Epstein case. It has metastasised into a broader indictment: that the second Trump administration, not yet one year old, is immersed in the imperial priorities of its predecessors—perpetual military commitments abroad, omnibus spending bills larded with foreign aid, and, above all, the preservation of elite impunity at home. Greene’s resignation video, viewed millions of times, articulated this indictment with a clarity that few establishment commentators have managed. She spoke of “American girls raped at fourteen” while “billionaires fly free”, then pivoted without pause to grocery prices and the latest Ukraine appropriation. 

The linkage is crude, but politically potent.

Trump’s response has been textbook Machiavellian diversion. Rather than confront the revolt head-on – a risky proposition when the dissidents are one’s own voters – he has staged two theatrical gestures of conciliation toward the opposition. The first, and most startling, is the courtship of Zohran Mamdani.

A few weeks ago Trump was threatening to withhold all federal funds from New York if its voters elected the “100 % Communist lunatic”, with some calling for his deportation. Mamdani, for his part, had described Trump as a “despot” and “fascist”. Yet there they were on November 21, smiling for the cameras, with the president declaring that “Zohran and I are going to make New York great again – together”. The about-face is less evidence of ideological flexibility than a deliberate distraction. By extending an olive branch to a progressive bogeyman, Trump shifts the media frame from internal haemorrhage to bipartisan deal-making. 

More importantly, it buys Mamdani’s temporary silence on national issues (including Epstein transparency) in exchange for the federal dollars New York desperately needs. The mayor’s post-meeting statement –“pragmatic collaboration on housing and infrastructure” – is the sound of a potential critic being neutralised.

MTG, excommunicated

The second diversionary gesture was the ritual humiliation and expulsion of Greene herself, amid threats of violence and rhetoric (directed at Democrat lawmakers) calling for the execution of opponents. By stripping her of his endorsement, encouraging coordinated online vilification, and then dismissing her resignation as “great news for America”, Trump attempts to transform a dangerous internal critic into a mere “wacky” sideshow. The base is invited to direct its anger at a scapegoat rather than at the administration’s refusal to honour its transparency pledge.

This is not the first time a populist insurgency has been neutralised by its own leader once in power. What distinguishes the present moment is the speed of the reversal and the transparency of the manoeuvre. The Epstein files have created a crisis of legitimacy that cannot be resolved by policy concessions alone; they demand either full disclosure (unacceptable to transatlantic elite networks) or a sustained campaign of distraction and repression.

Thus far, the campaign is working. Cable-news cycles that should have been dominated by MAGA’s internal crisis are instead debating whether Trump has “gone socialist” by embracing Mamdani, or whether Greene’s resignation marks the end of “QAnon influence” in Congress. The underlying demand – for a genuine reckoning with elite impunity – has been temporarily buried beneath these manufactured spectacles.

Yet the revolt has not been extinguished; it has merely been driven underground. Mid-tier influencer accounts report a sharpening mood. Figures previously loyal to the president – podcasters, county chairs, even junior House members – are beginning to ask whether “America First” can survive its leader’s apparent decision to place personal loyalty and elite protection above the movement’s founding grievances.

Machiavelli warned that when a prince must choose between being loved and being feared, he should choose fear – but only if he can avoid being hated. Trump may soon be reminded that hatred is the one sentiment his base still has in reserve. For now, the courtship of Mamdani and the exile of Greene have purchased time. Whether that time will be used to address real grievances or merely to consolidate control is the central political question of the second Trump administration.

Inderjeet Parmar is a professor of international politics and associate dean of research in the School of Policy and Global Affairs at City St George’s, University of London, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and writes the American Imperium column at The Wire. He is an International Fellow at the ROADS Initiative think tank, Islamabad, on the board of the Miami Institute for the Social Sciences, USA, and on the advisory board of INCT-INEU, Brazil, its leading association for study of the United States. Author of several books including Foundations of the American Century, he is currently writing a book on the history, politics, and crises of the US foreign policy establishment.

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