logo
Columnist who calls herself a 'MAGA leftist' shares why Trump's support goes beyond conservatives

Columnist who calls herself a 'MAGA leftist' shares why Trump's support goes beyond conservatives

Yahoo21-03-2025
President Donald Trump's historic comeback in the 2024 election has left many political pundits dumbfounded, but one writer believes Trump's support among one sizable but little-discussed group carried him over the finish line. And she was one of those voters.
Batya Ungar-Sargon, a columnist for The Free Press and author of "Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women," had a viral exchange with Bill Maher, who challenged her on her support for Trump on last Friday's installment of his HBO program "Real Time."
He mistakenly referred to her as a "conservative Republican."
"I was never a Republican or a conservative," Ungar-Sargon told Maher. "I was a leftist, and I'm still a leftist. I'm just a MAGA leftist now because-"
"That makes no sense," a perplexed Maher reacted.
Opinion Editor Explains How Political, Media Elites Are 'Deplatforming' Working Class In New Book
Read On The Fox News App
While her label did not ring true to Maher, it did to many others.
"Since I was on Bill Maher, I have gotten thousands, and I mean thousands, of messages from people saying, 'I am just like you. Thank you so much. That's who I am. That's what I am.' And these are the people who gave President Trump his victory," Ungar-Sargon told Fox News Digital. "Because he wouldn't have won if he only got people who had voted Republican in 2020, in 2016. He won because he convinced millions of people in swing states and across the country that he had their best interests at heart, many of them who had been Democrats. And I guess that's who I speak for."
Ungar-Sargon defines "MAGA leftist" as someone who identifies with "the labor left" in believing that the working class "is the backbone of any society, and their ability to achieve a middle-class standard of living is the defining feature of whether we will have a stable democracy or not."
Maher Asks 'Why Do We Want To Bring Back Manufacturing' As Trump Makes Jobs Argument In Tariff War
"To me, that's sort of what 'left' means, along with all the other stuff being anti-war, being pro-free speech, you know, this was all, like, left stuff, and now it's MAGA stuff," Ungar-Sargon said.
The independent journalist, who also wrote "Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy," pushed back at the notion that she underwent a "political evolution" since she says her views haven't changed much. She did, however, concede that she was once a "woke leftist" with severe "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
"In 2015, I hated him. In 2016, when he won, I stopped going to my favorite bar, Wheeler's, the local cop bar in Sheepshead Bay [in Brooklyn, New York], because everybody there had voted for him, and I felt that it was a personal betrayal," Ungar-Sargon admitted, laughing at herself. "Like I was one of those lefties. I really had the derangement bad, ok? I'm embarrassed to say. Of course, now I'm back at Wheeler's more often than I should be, probably."
What triggered her tectonic shift away from TDS didn't exactly involve Trump himself (though her pro-Trump Orthodox rabbi certainly helped). It was a 2018 Yale University study that showed White liberals were more likely to dumb down their language when speaking to people of color compared to White conservatives.
"I remember when I read that I was so shook because I instantly recognized that it was true," Ungar-Sargon recalled. "And it was an indictment of not just my milieu, but my entire worldview, which I immediately could recognize was built on the same thing that makes White liberals behave in such a racist way, which was this idea that Blacks and Hispanics are beneath us and need our help. Like, it's disgusting. But the entire progressive movement is really based on that idea."
"So I remember looking at that study and feeling like I'm about to lose all my friends because this is true, and it's undeniable, and it's an indictment of everything I think," she continued. "And so I remember I put it in a desk drawer in my office. I closed the door and I said, 'I'm not ready to deal with the fallout here. I'm not ready to acknowledge this. I'll be back in three months.' And three months later, I came back, and I was like, 'Okay, what does this mean, Batya? Like, what does it mean you're wrong about?'
"And that sort of slowly started to change my perception of President Trump because this was such orthodoxy. Everything I thought was like, you know, the fundamentals of what I believed were so clearly wrong. And again, you have this feeling of like, 'Well, if I'm wrong about this, what else might I be wrong about?'"
James Carville Offers Lover Advice To Young Progressives Following 'Love Is Blind' Political Blow-up
She described the 2020 election as being a "toss up" with her vote ultimately being for Joe Biden.
What the country underwent during the COVID pandemic, between how everyone was "lied to" about the virus and the harm lockdowns and vaccine mandates had on the working class, all done by the elites, was a deterrent for her to continue supporting the Democratic Party that she says has rejected her. Meanwhile, Trump was reshaping the Republican Party.
And in doing so, she said, he built a coalition that included pro-life, pro-traditional marriage conservatives and pro-choice, pro-gay marriage leftists like herself.
"That is his genius, right? He looked at the party. He looked at the Reagan party, which was socially conservative, free trade and foreign interventions and foreign wars. And he had the confidence to say, 'That is not where the American people are at. They're not socially conservative, they're socially moderate. They support gay marriage, and they want there to be exceptions for abortion,'" Ungar-Sargon said.
"Can you imagine the confidence to not only take on the Democrats, but to destroy and rebuild the GOP? People say [it's rebuilt] in his image, but it's not in his image. It's in the image of the American working class. On every issue. You look at the polling and President Trump is where 65 to 90% of Americans are at. And he just had the confidence to say, like, 'This is where the electorate is at. I love the American people, and I'm going to represent them.' And that is exactly what he did," she added.
Ungar-Sargon learned this first-hand while interviewing working-class Americans for her book "Second Class," with many of them praising Trump's policies from his first term in office.
"People would make a very persuasive case to me about how his protectionist economic policies, specifically around trade and the border, had put money in their pockets and helped them become people who could aspire to the American dream once again after they had thought that that was really off the table for them," the author said. "And I started to see the president as somebody who was a polarizing character only for the elites. But when you got out of the elites, he was actually a very unifying person who had a very unifying agenda when it came to kind of normies."
"And I really came to respect what he had done in terms of seeing through the interests of the elites that had been pushed for 50 years by both parties and saying, 'Actually, I'm going to take on the elites on both sides on behalf of the forgotten men and women of this great country,'" she continued. "And I think that I just could no longer deny that that was the real story, despite what all of us were told all the time about President Trump."
Throughout her political journey, Ungar-Sargon felt welcomed by the MAGA movement, saying people would reach out and tell her, "I don't agree with you about everything, but you are so welcome in this movement."
"And it's the exact opposite of the left. The left- if you agree with them on 99.9% of the issues, and you have a 0.1% disagreement on some issue, like, 'Yeah, maybe we shouldn't defund the police, how about reforming the police?' You are dead to them. You are out. They will do anything to destroy your life," she told Fox News Digital.
Bill Maher Rips Left's 'Exclusionary Attitude' As 'Hamilton' Cancels Shows At Trump-backed Kennedy Center
"And there's clearly an appetite within MAGA not just to be part of a multi-racial coalition, which I think a lot of people in the movement are very proud of, and not just to have people from all walks of life and all religions represented, but even to have people from all ideological walks of life. It is a very welcoming movement for people who come at the abortion question, let's say, from a slightly different point of view. I mean, President Trump and JD Vance come at the abortion question from different points of view, and there's no reason that the GOP shouldn't be a big tent around this kind of beautiful diversity."
In the 2024 election, for the very first time, she voted for Trump, a decision she expressed zero regret for on "Real Time."
"I mean, you must have a feeling in your gut- look me in the eye and tell me you don't- that this is really going badly, and I shouldn't have thrown my lot in with this team," Maher said to Ungar-Sargon, to which she replied, "Oh, no, I feel the opposite."
She gave Maher credit for inviting her back on his show in what she called a "genuine attempt" at understanding why she and others continue to support Trump. She suspected the ideological disconnect may come down to pure economics.
"The argument that I made in both of my books was that for the leftist progressive elites, a lot of this is economic. And I'm not saying this about Bill [Maher] specifically, but I think as a class, their economic interests are very much at odds with those of the people that Trump represents," Ungar-Sargon said. "They've made trillions of dollars collectively out of the open border, and they've been able to dress up the economic benefits of their progressivism as virtue while actually it's wage theft of their working-class neighbors, right? Because they can hire illegals instead of having to hire working-class people, which puts money back in their pockets. A lot of money."
The columnist went on to say that instead of strengthening the lower and middle classes, the liberal elite would rather "raise the bar on what counts as poor and pay people off not to work."
"It's kind of like a plane, you know, and the knowledge industry, leftist elites, the over-credentialed, you know, multi-credentialed top 10% who now control 60% of the GDP, they're in first class," Ungar-Sargon said. "And what they're basically saying to the American people is 'We're happy to pay your ticket, and you can fly on this plane for free as long as you stay in coach,' you know. 'Don't you dare use our bathrooms. And there's no upgrades. And you don't get to say where the plane is going. But as long as you're happy to sit in economy, you can sit there for free, and we'll pay your ticket.' That's really, like, the best metaphor for the Democratic Party right now."
In contrast, she said Trump understands his supporters don't want a free ride and want an economy that delivers a "modest version of the American dream."Original article source: Columnist who calls herself a 'MAGA leftist' shares why Trump's support goes beyond conservatives
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

US-EU trade deal wards off further escalation but will raise costs for companies, consumers
US-EU trade deal wards off further escalation but will raise costs for companies, consumers

Yahoo

time11 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

US-EU trade deal wards off further escalation but will raise costs for companies, consumers

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have announced a sweeping trade deal that imposes 15% tariffs on most European goods, warding off Trump's threat of a 30% rate if no deal had been reached by Aug. 1. The tariffs, or import taxes, paid when Americans buy European products could raise prices for U.S. consumers and dent profits for European companies and their partners who bring goods into the country. Here are some things to know about the trade deal between the United States and the European Union: What's in the agreement? Trump and von der Leyen's announcement, made during Trump's visit to one of his golf courses in Scotland, leaves many details to be filled in. The headline figure is a 15% tariff rate on 'the vast majority' of European goods brought into the U.S., including cars, computer chips and pharmaceuticals. It's lower than the 20% Trump initially proposed, and lower than his threats of 50% and then 30%. Von der Leyen said the two sides agreed on zero tariffs on both sides for a range of 'strategic' goods: Aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products, and some natural resources and critical raw materials. Specifics were lacking. She said the two sides 'would keep working' to add more products to the list. Additionally, the EU side would purchase what Trump said was $750 billion (638 billion euros) worth of natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel to replace Russian energy supplies, and Europeans would invest an additional $600 billion (511 billion euros) in the U.S. What's not in the deal? Trump said the 50% U.S. tariff on imported steel would remain; von der Leyen said the two sides agreed to further negotiations to fight a global steel glut, reduce tariffs and establish import quotas — that is, set amounts that can be imported, often at a lower rate. Trump said pharmaceuticals were not included in the deal. Von der Leyen said the pharmaceuticals issue was 'on a separate sheet of paper' from Sunday's deal. Where the $600 billion for additional investment would come from was not specified. And von der Leyen said that when it came to farm products, the EU side made clear that 'there were tariffs that could not be lowered,' without specifying which products. What's the impact? The 15% rate removes Trump's threat of a 30% tariff. It's still much higher than the average tariff before Trump came into office of around 1%, and higher than Trump's minimum 10% baseline tariff. Higher tariffs, or import taxes, on European goods mean sellers in the U.S. would have to either increase prices for consumers — risking loss of market share — or swallow the added cost in terms of lower profits. The higher tariffs are expected to hurt export earnings for European firms and slow the economy. The 10% baseline applied while the deal was negotiated was already sufficiently high to make the European Union's executive commission cut its growth forecast for this year from 1.3% to 0.9%. Von der Leyen said the 15% rate was 'the best we could do' and credited the deal with maintaining access to the U.S. market and providing 'stability and predictability for companies on both sides.' What is some of the reaction to the deal? German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal which avoided 'an unnecessary escalation in transatlantic trade relations" and said that 'we were able to preserve our core interests,' while adding that 'I would have very much wished for further relief in transatlantic trade.' The Federation of German Industries was blunter. "Even a 15% tariff rate will have immense negative effects on export-oriented German industry," said Wolfgang Niedermark, a member of the federation's leadership. While the rate is lower than threatened, "the big caveat to today's deal is that there is nothing on paper, yet," said Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro at ING bank. 'With this disclaimer in mind and at face value, today's agreement would clearly bring an end to the uncertainty of recent months. An escalation of the US-EU trade tensions would have been a severe risk for the global economy," Brzeski said. 'This risk seems to have been avoided.' What about car companies? Asked if European carmakers could still sell cars at 15%, von der Leyen said the rate was much lower than the current 27.5%. That has been the rate under Trump's 25% tariff on cars from all countries, plus the preexisting U.S. car tariff of 2.5%. The impact is likely to be substantial on some companies, given that automaker Volkswagen said it suffered a 1.3 billion euro ($1.5 billion) hit to profit in the first half of the year from the higher tariffs. Mercedes-Benz dealers in the U.S. have said they are holding the line on 2025 model year prices 'until further notice.' The German automaker has a partial tariff shield because it makes 35% of the Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the U.S. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but the company said it expects prices to undergo 'significant increases' in coming years. What were the issues dividing the two sides? Before Trump returned to office, the U.S. and the EU maintained generally low tariff levels in what is the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world, with some 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in annual trade. Together the U.S. and the EU have 44% of the global economy. The U.S. rate averaged 1.47% for European goods, while the EU's averaged 1.35% for American products, according to the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. Trump has complained about the EU's 198 billion-euro trade surplus in goods, which shows Americans buy more from European businesses than the other way around, and has said the European market is not open enough for U.S.-made cars. However, American companies fill some of the trade gap by outselling the EU when it comes to services such as cloud computing, travel bookings, and legal and financial services. And some 30% of European imports are from American-owned companies, according to the European Central Bank. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Donald Trump Repeats False Claim Beyoncé Was Paid $11 Million To Endorse Kamala Harris; Calls To Prosecute Singer, Oprah & Al Sharpton
Donald Trump Repeats False Claim Beyoncé Was Paid $11 Million To Endorse Kamala Harris; Calls To Prosecute Singer, Oprah & Al Sharpton

Yahoo

time11 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Donald Trump Repeats False Claim Beyoncé Was Paid $11 Million To Endorse Kamala Harris; Calls To Prosecute Singer, Oprah & Al Sharpton

On Saturday, Donald Trump repeated false claims that Beyoncé was paid $11 million to endorse Kamala Harris on the campaign trail in October of last year. The Truth Social post comes as the president faces scrutiny from his own base over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Taking to his social media platform yesterday, the GOP leader wrote, 'I'm looking at the large amount of money owed by the Democrats, after the Presidential Election, and the fact that they admit to paying, probably illegally, Eleven Million Dollars to singer Beyoncé for an ENDORSEMENT (she never sang, not one note, and left the stage to a booing and angry audience!), Three Million Dollars for 'expenses,' to Oprah, Six Hundred Thousand Dollars to very low rated TV 'anchor,' Al Sharpton (a total lightweight!), and others to be named for doing, absolutely NOTHING! These ridiculous fees were incorrectly stated in the books and records. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PAY FOR AN ENDORSEMENT. IT IS TOTALLY ILLEGAL TO DO SO. Can you imagine what would happen if politicians started paying for people to endorse them. All hell would break out! Kamala, and all of those that received Endorsement money, BROKE THE LAW. They should all be prosecuted! Thank you for your attention to this matter.' More from Deadline Beyoncé Reunites Destiny's Child For Final 'Cowboy Carter' Tour Stop In Vegas Stephen Colbert Praises 'South Park's Naked AI Trump PSA: "An Important Message Of Hope" Donald Trump Denies Being Briefed That His Name Appeared In Jeffrey Epstein Files, Despite Wall Street Journal Report That He Was Informed Trump is referring to the 35-time Grammy-winning artist's appearance at a rally in Houston, where the singer took to the stage to endorse the vice president and call for unity. 'It's time to sing a new song, a song that began 248 years ago. The old notes of downfall, discord, despair no longer resonate. Our generations of loved ones before us are whispering a prophecy, a quest, a calling, an anthem. Our moment right now — it's time for America to sing a new song. Our voices sing a chorus of unity. They sing a song of dignity and opportunity,' she said to the crowd. Federal campaign spending records show a $165,000 payment made from the Democratic presidential candidate's organization to Beyoncé's production company, per CNN, with 'campaign event production' listed as the reasoning for the expenditure. Last year, senior spokesperson for the Harris campaign Adrienne Elrod told Deadline that the campaign did not pay any celebrity endorsers but was required by campaign finance law to cover costs associated with holding such events, per Federal Election Commission rules. This accounts for the $1 million the Harris campaign spent on Oprah's Harpo Productions, as the famed TV personality endorsed her at a Michigan-held 'Unite for America' event in September 2024. The baseless allegation was fact-checked by websites and PolitiFact last year, though Trump repeated his sentiments about Beyoncé, Oprah and Al Sharpton back in February. Trump has also previously harped on the matter in a post made back in May, where he named other influential Harris endorsers like Bruce Springsteen and Bono, calling for a 'major investigation.' There's also no evidence to suggest such expenses were incorrectly categorized, and though Trump maintained payment for endorsement is illegal, there's actually no FEC law that prohibits such campaigns for paying for endorsements, though they must disclose such expenditures. Best of Deadline Celebs Supporting Zohran Mamdani In New York's Mayoral Race: From Ramy Youssef To Cynthia Nixon The Fox News To White House Pipeline: TV Personalities Who Joined The Trump Administration Celebrities Voting And Encouraging Voting In The 2024 Election

NYC's ‘We're With Colbert' rally for late-night host is a bust with just 20 protesters
NYC's ‘We're With Colbert' rally for late-night host is a bust with just 20 protesters

New York Post

time12 minutes ago

  • New York Post

NYC's ‘We're With Colbert' rally for late-night host is a bust with just 20 protesters

What a joke. A Big Apple rally in support of on-his-way-out 'Late Show' host Stephen Colbert drew fewer than two dozen people Sunday — with even the NYPD cops on scene quickly calling it a day since most of the demonstrators left after just a few minutes. Organizers said the 'We're With Colbert' gathering outside the CBS Broadcast Center on Manhattan's West Side said it was meant to be part of a nationwide call for 'integrity.' Advertisement 4 Demonstrators gather outside CBS' offices in Manhattan on Sunday to protest the end of the 'Late Show' with Stephen Colbert. REUTERS 4 Colbert was told this was his last season on CBS, sparking controversy on both sides. CBS 'Our country is not perfect, never has been,' said the event's organizer, who would only identify himself as Matt and said his nickname is 'Slim.' Advertisement 'But we've always had the First Amendment, and now Mango Mussolini is trying to take that from us,' he said, referring to a derogatory nickname for President Trump. CBS said declining viewership and diminishing profits led to its decision to end the show in May 2026, effectively firing the 61-year-old talk-show host Colbert — but critics claim the network bowed to pressure from Trump. 4 CBS officials said the decision to fire Colbert was the result of growing costs and diminishing viewership. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post 4 The number of protesters at Sunday's 'We're With Colbert' rally topped off at about 20 at its peak. REUTERS Advertisement CBS's parent company finalized an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media shortly after Colbert was told he was on his last season. The merger required federal approval. Colbert has also been among the top talk-show hosts who routinely roast Trump. 'This is a First Amendment attack,' a protester who refused to give her name said of the closing-down of the show. 'We can't stand for that.' Advertisement Still, Colbert has also come under fire for featuring predominantly lefty-leaning guests. According to the right-leaning group MRC NewsBusters, Colbert has had 176 liberal guests and only one Republican on his show since 2022.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store