Once mocked as unsophisticated, Donald Trump in his second term has put forward an ambitious vision to reshape America. Surrounding the president is a loose network of intellectuals who provide his policies with a philosophy. An important new book maps it out.

Review of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right by Laura K. Field (Princeton University Press, 2025)

At a Beyoncé concert last summer, I found myself thinking about the right-wing philosopher Harry V. Jaffa. As the singer performed “Ameriican Requiem,” the first song on her Cowboy Carter album, lyrics flashed on the huge screens behind her: “The big ideas are buried here.” This slogan seemed to suggest that black Americans should claim the United States’ founding values as their own. Incongruously, it reminded me of Jaffa

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