A supporter wears an apron with Trump's picture before Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Rocky Mount Event Center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, U.S., October 30, 2024. REUTERS/Jay Paul

The MAGA movement that brought President Donald Trump back to the White House for a second term is "splintered on numerous fronts," as "an openly antisemitic, racist and misogynistic current is gaining ground around [neo-Nazi] Nick Fuentes," according to French newspaper Le Monde's Washington correspondent Piotr Smolar.

"The MAGA world is devouring itself," Smolar writes. "The euphoria of Donald Trump's return to power has faded, and internal divisions, both ideological and personal, are now threatening the coalition that made his success possible."

As the battle for the future of the movement Trump himself created begins, "those who know his authority is beginning to crack," he says, are looking to seize the reins.

"This battle does not concern the diehard Trumpist faithful, who repeat his words like liturgy. It is not unfolding within traditional political circles, such as Congress. Rather, it is taking place within the unique, primarily online ecosystem of this nationalist populism," he writes.

Trump's politics, he writes, are enormously unpopular with the MAGA base.

"Trump's closeness with tech billionaires, his support for visas for highly skilled foreign workers, his flirtation with military intervention in Venezuela, the massive aid pledged to Argentina ($40 billion, or about €35 billion), his frequent gestures toward Israel and his wavering approach to freedom of expression: All have become flashpoints for internal tension," he explains.

And at the "heart of the split," is the scandal involving Trump and dead sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, as seen in former loyalist turned foil Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) condemnation of the president earlier this week at a press conference with Epstein victims.

The scandal, Greene said, "has "ripped MAGA apart." "I fought for [Trump], for [his] policies and for America First, and he called me a traitor for standing with these women (...) Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American who serves the United States."

"To suggest that Trump is a traitor was something no one on the right had dared to do before. The billionaire now seems outmaneuvered on his favorite terrain: transgression. In the past decade, he has turned the extreme into the mainstream and transformed conspiracy theories into consensus," Smolar writes.

Noting that Trump invited Fuentes to dinner at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, Smolar says, "it is hard not to recall that symbolic moment, seeing the growing popularity of Fuentes, who blames Jews for wars and has called for the death penalty against them."

Fuentes's group, known as "groypers," are "forming a movement that is not only anti-elitist but also anti-democratic, antisemitic, racist, homophobic and steeped in conspiracy theories. All these toxic impulses spread online in a barrage of macho jokes, memes and doctored images," Smolar says.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University in Washington, tells Smolar that "We're seeing deep overlaps between white supremacists and misogyny. Their fantasy of a white ethno-state depends on submissive white women having children to reverse demographic change."

Fuentes' recent platform on former Fox News star Tucker Carlson's podcast has deeply divided MAGA, and "the transformation of this extremist fringe of the American right is accelerating," Smolar explains.

According to conservative author Rod Dreher, "between 30 percent and 40 percent of young people on Capitol Hill and in Republican circles – not lawmakers, but advisers and staffers – are fans of Fuentes."

"If you think being Christian is some kind of vaccination against antisemitism, you're wrong," Dreher writes. "Even young Christians – especially [traditional] Catholics, I learned – are neck-deep in antisemitism. They even use it as a litmus test of who can or can't join their informal social groups."

This, Smolar says, puts hopeful MAGA heir Vice President JD Vance in a very tough position.

"Vance has a personal vulnerability according to the racist wing of the MAGA base: His wife Usha is neither white nor Christian. This is one of Fuentes' obsessions. 'Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?' said Fuentes in July 2024," Smolar explains.

MAGA broadcaster Dave Rubin "has warned the right against the excesses embodied by Fuentes," arguing that rejecting "Team Hitler" should be a minimum requirement, Smolar notes.

"While I know you are trying to hold an increasingly fractured coalition together, you were elected to be a leader, not follow the whims of the trolls," Rubin posted to Vance on X.

"It is an optimistic view, which fails to account for the true extent of this phenomenon," Smolar notes.

"The GOP has a Nazi problem," wrote MAGA influencer Laura Loomer on X. "We are likely going to lose the midterms over this nihilistic Nazi love fest. I'll be here to say I told you so."