Trump at odds with MAGA movement on multiple fronts

USA Today

11-07-2025

On Friday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY Chief Political Correspondent Phillip M. Bailey discusses some of the latest friction between President Donald Trump and parts of the MAGA movement. Texas flood victims are being remembered by families and communities. The Secret Service has suspended six staff members after the Trump assassination attempt, amid policy changes. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers breaks down the current relationship between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin after Trump ripped Putin this week. Former President Joe Biden's doctor wouldn't testify in a Congressional investigation into his mental fitness.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson. And today is Friday, July 11th, 2025. This is USA TODAY's The Excerpt. Today, how Trump and MAGA are fighting on a number of fronts. Plus, what's the status of Trump and Putin's relations. And we remember some of those lost in Texas floods.
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President Donald Trump has found himself at odds with the MAGA movement on multiple fronts. I caught up with USA TODAY chief political correspondent Phillip M. Bailey to help us break it all down.
Phillip, thanks for joining me, sir.
Phillip M. Bailey:
Taylor, how's it going?
Taylor Wilson:
Good, good. Thanks for wrapping on. So let's start with immigration in this context. This issue helped President Trump win the White House. And as you write, Phillip, he continues to receive his highest approval marks among conservatives on aspects of this issue. Is that still the case for the MAGA wing of the party?
Phillip M. Bailey:
The administration's approach, the controversial approach that they're waging against undocumented immigrants, and we're seeing the images across the country of ICE agents going into different parts of the country really trying to weed out as many undocumented migrants as possible, this is where Donald Trump is at his best. And depending on what poll you look at, most Americans I think are in support of the idea of removing undocumented immigrants.
But even though he gets some negative reviews from independents and Democrats, it's really with Republicans where this is fueled the most. A Pew Research Center survey in June, for example, found that 78% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters give Donald Trump a thumbs up on immigration, what he's doing with that, compared to just 12% who give him a thumbs down. And that's why I think some of these more recent U-turns have disturbed folks in the MAGA movement. When the president says that folks who work in the farm and hospitality industry are "very good workers" but just they're not citizens, that raises alarm bells on the political right and in the MAGA universe as amnesty. And that's exactly the type of blowback you saw the president, his administration, receiving after those comments.
Taylor Wilson:
How about overseas, Phillip? We've seen some potentially, I would say, legacy-influencing decisions from Trump on foreign policy from Iran, to Ukraine recently. How have some of these moves landed with MAGA folks?
Phillip M. Bailey:
Its core, the MAGA movement. One of the key issues that they care about the most, and you get really MAGA people animated, was when they talk about foreign wars, a repudiation of both parties. Not just the Democratic Party, but the old Republican party led by George W. Bush, this skepticism of interventionist policies and even a skepticism of foreign alliances and allies. And you saw that with some of these Oval Office meetings with foreign leaders, the one with Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, who are really combative. And a lot of the reporting during the campaign in the early stages of Trump 2.0 is Trump sort of rejecting the old school alliances with Western Europe. And that's something that gets MAGA really energized.
A lot of Democrats will point out that, "Hey, look, Donald Trump's a little too cozy with Russia." Well, despite the fact that all that isolationist ideals in the MAGA universe, Trump's contradictory moves also include foreign policy where he's now sending Ukraine more defensive weapons. And this is after Pentagon leaders and Chiefs declared that they were going to halt some of these shipments.
And I think if you want to know the crossover of this, no one is probably a better example when you have Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican from Kentucky, the former senate leader, who came out and immediately praised Donald Trump for sending the weapons to Ukraine. And no one's a bigger sort of foreign policy hawk and who believes in those old alliances than Mitch McConnell. So his endorsement, I think, is a clear indication that MAGA people are not very happy with the president and its about face with Ukraine as many of them see it. And that includes also the support of Israel and its conflict in the Middle East, including with Iran.
So on all of these things, Taylor, I think we're seeing perhaps the president wanting to carve out his own legacy, talking to different experts and Republican strategists, and they're like, "Look, the president's in charge of this agenda, not the MAGA movement."
Taylor Wilson:
Well, Phillip, we have to talk about Elon Musk for a second. Some of the big news this month in US political circles centers on his plans for a new political party. We know he and Trump had this big falling out. What do you take away from Musk's aims here and what does it tell us more broadly?
Phillip M. Bailey:
Just about every relationship, Donald Trump has collapses in some sort of very public way, right? Think of all the foreign administration officials may think of, his former Vice President Mike Pence. So now Elon Musk, who went on a tirade against the president a month ago, is now saying after the Big Beautiful Bill has passed, which Musk was actively lobbying on social media, tagging members of Congress to not vote for this debt ballooning bill, now he's saying, "You know what? Republicans are just as bad as Democrats when it comes to spending. I'm starting a new party, the American party."
And Donald Trump, I think, in some ways has to kind of smirk at this because he himself for years was always flirting with running on a third party for president until he just said, "You know, I'm just going to take over the Republican Party." So Musk is already saying now that he's going to be pointing out and be laser-focused on two or three Senate races next year, maybe up to 10 house races. And he's going to have an impact if he's maybe not necessarily creating a national political party or rival the Democrats and the Republicans immediately, but he can cause some mischief for Republicans in the 2026 midterms.
When we talk to Trump supporters about this, many of them look at some of these MAGA faces. And Musk came to the MAGA movement very late. Grassroots MAGA people who we talk to, many of them, while they might have misgivings and they see the contradictions, they still, like we reported earlier in the year, have a trust in Trump mantra. They really believe that the president has delivered on a lot of his promises. And I think some of them just don't understand what the beef is. So the question is, will the White House be able to smother this before the 2026 midterm narrative really takes hold because if Elon Musk and MAGA folks are depressed at these contradictions and Democrats finally get their act together even a little bit, Donald Trump could be a lame duck president before he knows it.
Taylor Wilson:
Phillip M. Bailey is USA TODAY's chief political correspondent. Thank you, Phillip.
Phillip M. Bailey:
Thank you, Taylor, as always.
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Taylor Wilson:
With at least 120 people dead in Texas flooding, rescue teams continue the grueling task of recovering the remains of missing victims. More than 160 people remain missing as of this morning. We're learning more about some of the victims of the flood.
Jane Ragsdale was the heart and soul of Heart of the Hills, the summer camp for girls in Kerr County according to the program's website. Two children, Blair and Brooke Harbor, were staying in Hill country over the 4th of July holiday. Blair was a rising 8th grader while Brooke was entering the 6th grade according to their school. And among the dozens killed at Camp Mystic, Sarah Marsh, an eight-year-old from suburban Birmingham, Alabama. These are just a few of those lost in last week's devastation. You can read more of their stories with a link in today's show notes.
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The Secret Service has disciplined six staffers with suspensions, ranging from 10 days to six weeks without pay according to the agency and a report issued for the first anniversary of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump. Among 46 Congressional recommendations to avoid a repeat tragedy, the agency reported yesterday it had implemented 21, that 16 are in progress, and another nine were addressed to Congress. Changes include improving communications with local law enforcement officials, creating an aviation division dedicated to monitoring locations and officials visiting and ensuring that resources are better deployed.
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President Trump criticized Russian president Vladimir Putin during a cabinet meeting this week.
Donald Trump:
We're not happy with Putin. I'm not happy with Putin, I can tell you that much right now because he's killing a lot of people. And a lot of them are his soldiers, his soldiers and their soldiers mostly.
Taylor Wilson:
The comments came after his frustrations during a phone call with the Russian leader last week. I spoke with USA TODAY White House correspondent Francesca Chambers for more.
Thanks as always for joining me, Francesca.
Francesca Chambers:
Thanks so much.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, so let's go back about a week to President Trump's call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. What happened during that phone call?
Francesca Chambers:
Taylor, so you'll remember that they also spoke in June on President Trump's birthday as well. So this was the second call that they'd had in recent weeks, and it came after President Donald Trump returned from a NATO summit where he had met with Ukrainian president. So he comes out of this call, he says that there was basically no progress that was made in the war between Russia and Ukraine. And he suddenly was disappointed and actually that he was upset with Vladimir Putin. Then his rhetoric continued to escalate after that, Taylor, and then that cabinet meeting where he was very upset with Putin.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, let's talk through that. I mean, he clearly has amped up these criticisms of the Russian leader. What did we hear from him in that cabinet meeting, and I guess what other comments has he made this week?
Francesca Chambers:
In that cabinet meeting, he used his most forceful and colorful language about Vladimir Putin to date. He said that he's nice to him, but oftentimes the conversations end up being meaningless. The evening before, I will note, Taylor, I was with the president in his meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. And while reporters were asking the president questions, he started talking about weapons to Ukraine. You may recall that the Defense Department during a review had paused some weapons shipments to Ukraine. The president in that meeting with Netanyahu says that he wanted to restart those weapons. So the next day when he used this language with Putin, it was seen as an amp up in his frustration with the Russians but maybe also a softening of his stance towards the Ukrainians.
Taylor Wilson:
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Asia this week and he told reporters yesterday about a new concept out of Moscow that it might chart a course toward peace. What can we tell listeners about this, Francesca?
Francesca Chambers:
We don't know much about that yet so far. That was basically what the Secretary of State said. He said that he would then take that information back to President Trump. You correctly know, Taylor, that it's not a peace plan. It was just a process or this new idea that could lead to peace, he said. So we're still waiting for more details on what that looks like and if it's something the president would accept. He also noted though that the president had been making these comments all week about Russia, about the progress that the president wanted to see in the war. And he seemed to suggest that he didn't know how President Trump would react to what the Russians proposed in this meeting.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, Francesca, as for Putin, is he reciprocating remarks like these from Trump?
Francesca Chambers:
Taylor, the most recent comments we've seen from the Russian government were after the Marco Rubio meeting, in which they said that both sides agreed that they needed to continue to talk about negotiating an end to the war and bringing peace. But they also talked about resuming flights between the United States and Russia.
Another thing that the Russians brought up was that they wanted to have bilateral relations resume between the United States and Russia. But I will note that when the Secretary of State was asked about a potential summit between Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump, he said that nothing is on the book so far.
Taylor Wilson:
As for how this is all landing stateside, how are lawmakers meeting this moment? I know some are preparing new sanctions. Is that correct, Francesca?
Francesca Chambers:
There's a sanctions package that's bipartisan that now has 84 co-sponsors attached to it that senators have been looking to bring to the floor for some time now. But it's been a negotiation between senators and the White House.
Another thing that we heard changed this week, Taylor, was that you heard Senate Majority Leader John Thune say that they could bring this to the floor by the end of this month. That matters because Congress goes into recess in August and they're often gone for four to six weeks. So it could be a long time if they don't get it done before then, before the Senate would take a look at this again.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, what does all this mean, Francesca, for Trump's relationship with Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy? We've seen them have this tense relationship.
Francesca Chambers:
In more recent weeks, Taylor, they've had more positive interactions. We didn't see what happened in the meeting between President Trump and Zelenskyy at the NATO summit. That took place entirely behind closed doors. But we did hear from the President immediately afterwards in a news conference in which he said that he would think about allowing Ukraine to buy air defenses from the United States.
We then heard after the Pentagon paused some weapons shipments, in their review, the president say that he wanted to send weapons to Ukraine. He has said multiple times over the last couple of weeks that he's upset with the fact that Russia has been hammering Ukraine right now with drone assaults. So that, Taylor, plus the language that he's used about Vladimir Putin in recent days are seen as a shift in tone, at the very least, from President Donald Trump towards Ukraine. And Democratic senators were telling me on Capitol Hill this week that they're hopeful that this means that the United States will arm Ukraine at a higher rate moving forward.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, lots to keep an eye on in the coming days. Francesca Chambers covers the White House for USA TODAY. Thanks, Francesca.
Francesca Chambers:
Thanks, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Former President Joe Biden's White House physician has invoked his Fifth Amendment right as he refused to answer questions during a closed-door deposition in the Republican-led House Oversight Committee's investigation into the former president's mental acuity.
Appearing on Capitol Hill this week, Dr. Kevin O'Connor told the committee in response to its questions, "I must respectfully decline to answer based on physician-patient privilege and the reliance of my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution." Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election last July after he struggled to articulate coherent thoughts during a debate with Trump that accelerated concerns about his mental fitness. Six months after Biden left the White House, his mental acuity has been revisited in books about his presidency and various Republican investigations. Biden, now 82, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in May.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan, and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And as always, you can email us at [e-mail]. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.