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The Playbook Podcast

The MAGA maelstrom

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

Politics, Government, Daily News, News

3.9699 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The coalition that sent Donald Trump back to the White House appears fragile as Republicans search for a successor who can unite the party once Trump exits the stage. New results from The POLITICO Poll reveal ideological fault lines that could threaten to break up the base of voters who any potential Republican presidential candidate will rely on in 2028. Vice President JD Vance, who many believe could be up to the task, tried to quell a round of MAGA infighting at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest. Playbook’s Adam Wren and politics reporter Andrew Howard break down what the current state of the right says about the future of the Republican Party.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Today on the Playbook podcast, new results from a Politico poll show fissures between

0:10.1

MAGA and non-Maga Trump voters and divisions at Turning Point USA's America Fest and what that

0:16.2

means for the Republican Party. Hello, I'm Adam Wren. And I'm Andrew Howard.

0:29.3

The first story driving Washington's conversation today is a new political poll illuminating ideological fissures between MAGA and non-Maga Trump voters.

0:32.3

Conducted by Public First and Politico from December 5th to December 9th. We found out, Andrew, that non-Maga Trump

0:38.8

voters who back Trump have less positive views of Trump don't like his style, are more self-identified

0:44.7

moderate and less likely to support Republicans and VP Vance than MAGA Trump voters. Okay, so when it

0:51.7

comes to a positive view of Trump, 95% of MAGA Trump voters do have a positive view of Trump compared to 70% of non-Maga Trump voters.

1:00.7

And when it comes to support for Trump and his leadership, when asked about the statement, quote, I support what Trump stands for and the way he goes about leading.

1:08.5

And quote, 65% of MAGA Trump voters agreed versus 30% of non-maga

1:14.2

trump voters and when it comes to ideology 56% of maga trump are further right than right of center

1:20.9

but only 24% of non-maga Trump voters express that same ideological belief 61% of non-Maga position themselves either center or right of center.

1:33.5

And when it comes to their support for J.D. Vance,

1:35.8

56% of MAGA voters have a very positive perception of him, and 26% of non-Maga Trump voters do.

1:43.4

So there's a bit of a gap there. Andrew, you have spent the last

1:47.2

few days at Amfest, the Turning Point Action conference where Vice President Vance played a huge role.

1:54.1

He gave the closing speech yesterday, and he was endorsed by Erica Kirk, the widow of the late Charlie Kirk, who founded the organization a few days back as well.

2:05.2

How did you see the fissures in Maga play out over the weekend?

2:10.0

And how is Vance esteemed there?

2:13.4

Yeah, I think the vice president really worked hard on Sunday afternoon to sort of quell some of the issues that had gone on the previous, you know, three days. Ben Shapiro ripped into, you know, a number of speakers who were coming after him, including Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon. And he continued to, you know, those themes were, were everywhere at the

2:35.1

conference from that point on any time I was getting lunch or just chatting with an attendee.

2:39.8

Most of the time they were talking about Shapiro's speech or, you know, how Nick Fuentes fits into

...

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