When President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement regained control of America’s government in early 2025, there were multiple reports of them having fun as they laid off thousands of government workers and implemented the Project 2025 agenda. Yet between Trump’s underwhelming Great American State Fair, his desperate attempts to preemptively claim the midterm elections were stolen, his unpopular war against Iran and America’s ongoing economic problems, that sense of fun has now seemed to have mostly disappeared.
“The worst part about living in Donald Trump’s Washington has been seeing just how much fun he and all the MAGA vandals he brought to power have been having sacking and pillaging the place,” The New York Times’ Sally Quinn wrote on Sunday. “This while the rest of us longtime Washingtonians who abided by norms, shared values and even bipartisanship were filled first with shock, then a feeling of helplessness, and hopelessness. It could border on passivity. What could be done?”
Quinn referred back to an essay she wrote for the Times’ last year regarding the Trump administration’s attitude upon taking over Washington DC again.
“Nobody feels safe,” Quinn wrote at the time. “Nobody feels protected. This is a city where people seek and, if it all goes well for them, wield power. But today in Washington, those who hold — or once held — the most power are often the most scared. It is not something they are used to feeling.”
Reflecting back on those words in July 2026, Quinn argued that “sometimes it felt as if the Trumpists could smell our fear, and seemed to be enjoying it.” Yet because of the president’s multiple policy controversies and overall loss of popularity, she observed that this once-optimism has waned.
“Now they’re the ones in despair, fearful and losing hope,” Quinn wrote. “Even the true believers are questioning the MAGA theology. Why are we at war with Iran still? Our military is humbled, our reputation in tatters, and now gas prices are going up again.”
The columnist also pointed out that various Trump efforts to revive his approval ratings — including hosting a UFC fight on the White House lawn, leading the Great American State Fair and delivering a speech falsely claiming the 2020 presidential election as stolen — have failed to take off. As a result, even groups that normally stood by his side resolutely are now keeping their distance.
“Many Republican lawmakers are beginning to quiet-quit,” Quinn wrote. “The Wall Street Journal called it the G.O.P. ‘zombie Congress’ — not in open revolt, exactly, but not ready to take a bullet for the president and his self-serving crusades as the midterms approach.”
She added, “Then there’s Mr. Trump’s estrangement from some of his biggest allies: Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Alex Jones and Ann Coulter, not to mention former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Even onetime Trump-skeptical Republican senators who had joined the bandwagon, like Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn, have, after being primaried by Trump-endorsed challengers, been more vocally critical. And even Joe Rogan has had his altercations with the president.”
With the cage fights serving as a “tipping point” in terms of Trump’s ability to be taken seriously even by his erstwhile allies, Quinn described how in advance of the fights one of Washington’s “hottest restaurants” hosted many Trump-world major players — but they could not successfully hide their ongoing concerns.
But the mood felt off,” Quinn said. “Less jubilant. As if they knew that the U.F.C. fights were really going to be the moment when MAGA jumped the shark.”
Leon Wieseltier, editor of Liberties magazine, told Quinn that “people are genuinely disgusted and they’re now combative. Like Popeye, they’re essentially saying, ‘That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more.’ Before he eats his spinach to fortify himself.”