Weekend Report: MAGA is imploding big time

Trump is flailing, as he loses in Iran, faces MAGA critics and lashes out. Hungary’s Victor Orban may be toast this weekend. Artemis II reminded us of a time before all the madness.

Donald Trump went on an almost 500-word rant against Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Alex Jones, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and other MAGA critics of the war in Iran, clearly petrified about the MAGA crack-up. Who’d have imagined this one year ago? True, the tariffs bugged MAGA, but the war in Iran has completely exploded everything—and Trump is still losing, as Iran has gained the upper hand. And the attacks on Trump are coming from his own followers on Truth Social too, enraged by the war.

Victor Orban, a MAGA symbol of authoritarianism, also looks like he could be going down this weekend in the Hungarian election, as polls show him tanking—barring his using the levers of power to steal the election. Putin-backed Orban has been held up as “Trump before Trump” by Steve Bannon. Orban spoke at CPAC many times, and the conservative far-right conference has been held in Budapest five times. JD Vance went to Budapest to campaign for Orban this week, while Trump called into the rally. Russia apparently was about to stage a fake assassination attempt on Orban to bring him sympathy and support. But none of it seems to be working.

At the end of another dizzying week in which the president of the United States threatened to “wipe out” a whole civilization, we saw the splashdown of Artemis II on Friday night, with a crew that included a Canadian citizen and the first Black man and first woman to go into deep space. It was perhaps an unexpectedly calming event that reminded us of when the country did great things in collaboration with others and championed science.

A Weekend Report for you all to read up on the news and join the discussion if you like.