The Left and Never Trumpers will attach a nefarious intent to absolutely anything that President Donald Trump does or says. We know this and have known it since Trump came down the golden escalator in Trump Tower. Orange man bad is such a horrible human being that now he is being accused of spreading MAGA Maoism. What the heckfire?

I am a MAGA girl. I pretty much have been MAGA since Trump and that escalator. I have been aware that the Left and the Never Trumpers consider Trump to be a boil on the nose of America’s beautiful complexion. No wonder we MAGAs fell for Trump’s spiel. We are uneducated and ignorant. We are nationalistic and hate science and intellectuals. Trump came along with his MAGA Maoism, and we all lined up to grab out copies of Trump’s Little Red Book.

What the heck is MAGA Maoism?

The phrase goes back a decade but according to Axios today in an article titled “Trump’s new nationalism”:

President Trump’s grand economic vision relies on a simple tradeoff: that Americans will accept short-term personal sacrifice — higher prices, fewer options, slimmer profits — in service of long-term national strength.

Why it matters: Trump is breaking sharply from free-market orthodoxy in his second term, blending bursts of anti-capitalism with a top-down, nationalist agenda for American dominance.

Critics on the left and right warn of an emerging “MAGA Maoism” — a movement that demands ideological purity, glorifies economic sacrifice, and embraces state power as a means to reshape society.

Trump’s strongman instincts — and his deep skepticism of cultural elites and bureaucrats — have only intensified the provocative comparisons to China’s revolutionary leader.

We ignorant, uneducated types (I jest) have watched in utter horror as both side of the aisle have printed money under Modern Monetary Theory to the tune of $35.8 trillion in debt and a deficit of $1.9 trillion. So yes, we understand that all of us may have to make short term personal sacrifices to ensure our future as a nation.

When writers speak of critics on the Left and Right, they mean the Angry Left and the Angrier Never Trumpers.

They keep trying to invent new terms to gatekeep speech and messaging on the right, and it always fails miserably.

The latest, "MAGA Maoism," is going to work about as well as "Woke Right." pic.twitter.com/piefuOzo2X

— Emergent Perspective (@_emergent_) May 6, 2025

Why MAGA Maoism?

More from Axios:

What they’re saying: “MAGA Maoism is spreading through the populist right,” former congressional speechwriter Rotimi Adeoye wrote for The Washington Post last month.

James Surowiecki, the first journalist to deduce that the White House used trade deficits to calculate its reciprocal tariffs, argued Monday that Trumpism is “becoming perversely, farcically Maoist.”
Drew Pavlou, an Australian anti-communism activist, wrote on Substack that “the entire world is now held hostage to Trump and his primitive, strangely Maoist worldview.”

Reality check: Trump’s worldview is driven not by Marxist theory, but by a deeply held belief that America has been getting ripped off for decades.

America has been ripped off not just by other countries but more so by our own leaders. That is, the weakness of our leaders.

For decades America has been the hard-working and selfless rich uncle who funded an extended family of selfish freeloaders, bailed them out when they got in trouble with the police, hired lawyers to protect them when they did bad things, and generally made all the nieces and…

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) April 3, 2025

He’s constrained by the rule of law, unlike China’s totalitarian state — and there’s no comparison to the mass death and violence committed by Mao Zedong’s communist regime.

More from Axios:

The intrigue: The MAGA movement sees industrial labor as the backbone of American identity, and is pursuing a vision steeped in nostalgia and nationalism.

“This is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life, and your kids work here and your grandkids work here,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in The Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Trump intends to usher in the most prosperous decade in American history — but not at the cost of the spiritual degradation of the working class,”

MAGA Maoism does love industrial labor, not for itself, but because we cannot outsource everything and be successful. This was one of the most painful lessons learned from COVID. Plus, we don’t have to worry about forced or slave labor here:

It’s not nostalgia or nationalism. It’s national security.

This MAGA Maoism is another empty phrase to try and scare people. MAGA has nothing in common with Maoism. These people need to at least try.

Featured Image: Grok/X/cropped/Public Domain