President Donald Trump with Sen. John Thune and First Lady Melania Trump on January 8, 2025

Ten months into his second term, critics say President Donald Trump appears weakened, and Republicans who once moved in lockstep are now splintering into competing MAGA factions.

Trump currently sits on the worst polling averages of his presidency, according to data from The New York Times. The president’s “dramatic U-turn” on the release of the Epstein files — the result, critics say, of a wave of House Republicans prepared to defy his wishes — is being seen as a watershed moment. His once loyal foot soldier, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), has marched away, or ahead, of him on key issues, including affordability and the Epstein files.

Some, including Greene, say he lost his way by focusing too much on foreign policy and not enough on the promises that put him back in the White House, namely, lowering the cost of living.

“Trump is without question still the titular head of the Republican Party and leader of the America First and MAGA movement,” Republican strategist Dennis Lennox told The Washington Post. “But after a decade, there are new faces giving voice to the element that wants Trump to focus more on domestic issues.”

“Lennox cited a ‘growing split’ among factions of the conservative movement ‘on a multitude of issues,'” added the Post, which noted that Trump is currently is a “weakened position.”

Meanwhile, The Hill sees current events as the “fight to define what the political right will stand for after President Trump leaves office.”

MAGA leaders like Greene are carving out a path, and are not afraid to criticize Trump, which comes at a cost. Trump has branded Greene a traitor, she said on Tuesday, before she lashed out.

Ten months into his second term, critics say President Donald Trump appears weakened, and Republicans who once moved in lockstep are now splintering into competing MAGA factions.

Trump currently sits on the worst polling averages of his presidency, according to data from The New York Times. The president’s “dramatic U-turn” on the release of the Epstein files — the result, critics say, of a wave of House Republicans prepared to defy his wishes — is being seen as a watershed moment. His once loyal foot soldier, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), has marched away, or ahead, of him on key issues, including affordability and the Epstein files.

Some, including Greene, say he lost his way by focusing too much on foreign policy and not enough on the promises that put him back in the White House, namely, lowering the cost of living.

“Trump is without question still the titular head of the Republican Party and leader of the America First and MAGA movement,” Republican strategist Dennis Lennox told The Washington Post. “But after a decade, there are new faces giving voice to the element that wants Trump to focus more on domestic issues.”

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“Lennox cited a ‘growing split’ among factions of the conservative movement ‘on a multitude of issues,'” added the Post, which noted that Trump is currently is a “weakened position.”

Meanwhile, The Hill sees current events as the “fight to define what the political right will stand for after President Trump leaves office.”

MAGA leaders like Greene are carving out a path, and are not afraid to criticize Trump, which comes at a cost. Trump has branded Greene a traitor, she said on Tuesday, before she lashed out.

“Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves, a patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me,” Greene said, according to BBC News.

Others, like U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), rumored to be considering another presidential run in 2028, are using the party’s battle with antisemitism as a tool to rebrand himself.

The weeks-old crisis at the Heritage Foundation — its president declared support for former Fox News host Tucker Carlson after he gave what some saw as a softball interview to far right extremist leader Nick Fuentes — has helped Republicans like Cruz take a stand against antisemitism. Fuentes is widely seen as promoting Christian nationalism, white supremacy, racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and Islamophobia.

On Sunday, President Trump took the opposing view, praising Carlson.

“I found him to be good,” Trump said of Carlson. “I mean, he said good things about me over the years. And he’s, I think he’s good.”

The off-year elections earlier this month, where Democrats sharply beat Republicans by margins more than some expected, were “a wake-up call to Republicans that without Trump on the ballot to motivate voters, they may have to figure out a new political coalition,” The Hill noted.

“There was sort of a vibe shift on the right where it became completely apparent to everybody that Trump, who’s a dominating figure on the right, was not going to be here forever,” Tim Chapman, president of the Advancing American Freedom think tank founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, told The Hill. “A lot of the policy objectives that we’re pursuing right now, many of them come from Trump personally. And so there’s a question as to what animates the next political coalition.”

Vice President JD Vance is seen as a likely heir to the Trump MAGA movement. But as Chapman told The Hill, “a lot of conservatives, who have very much for very good reasons, wanted to give the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt are now 10 months in and are very concerned about what they’re seeing, especially on the economic policy.”