The MAGA Fealty Spiral: When Women and Minorities Forget They’re Not Allowed to Think

In Trump’s movement, women and minorities can have a microphone, but never a mind of their own.

I was at home, half-watching the news while piecing together my fall syllabi, when a chyron flashed across the screen about Marjorie Taylor Greene and Laura Loomer going nuclear on each other. Two of MAGA’s loudest hype-women clawing at each other like rival contestants on a reality show where the grand prize is Trump’s approval. I looked up from my laptop and just started laughing — not because the feud itself was funny (although, my God, it was) — but because I was watching one of my favorite recurring political phenomena in action.

I call it The MAGA Fealty Spiral — because once you break orbit and dare to have an independent thought, the gravitational pull of Trumpworld drags you right back in. It’s never a straight line back to obedience; it’s a dizzy, looping descent. You start with a criticism, then get hit with backlash, then couch it in praise, then overcompensate until you’re publicly worshipping harder than before. By the time you’ve landed, you’re even deeper in the devotion hole than when you started.

And the spiral isn’t just about policy disagreements — it’s about identity. If you’re a woman in MAGA and a man says something sexist about you, you can’t push back. You can’t call it out. You have to smile through it, maybe even laugh, because anything else would look “woke.” You might even have to offer to bake him some Rice Krispies treats, fetch him a fresh sweet tea, or nod politely while he explains why women are “naturally too emotional” to lead. If you’re Black in MAGA and another MAGA figure claims that Black people are “genetically prone to commit more crimes than whites,” you can’t challenge it. You can’t even hint that maybe that’s untrue. Your only acceptable response is silence, or worse, a nod that says, “I hear you, brother.” The MAGA Fealty Spiral demands not just obedience to Trump, but complicity with every toxic thing that keeps the movement’s ecosystem intact.

I’ve seen the MAGA Fealty Spiral enough times to map out its life cycle in plain English. It always starts with Stage One — the Initial Divergence, where somebody dares to express mild disagreement, usually wrapped in politeness so it doesn’t sound like open rebellion. Then comes Stage Two — the Immediate Backlash, when the MAGA ecosystem pounces with accusations of disloyalty, betrayal, or “going woke.” That leads to Stage Three — Loyalty Reaffirmation, where the offender delivers some grand pledge of devotion to Trump to offset the criticism, like Loomer’s “I’d take a bullet for him.” But the spiral doesn’t stop there. Stage Four is Overcompensation, when they start performing their loyalty louder than ever—booking more fawning interviews, dropping merch, and picking fights with mutual enemies. By the time they reach Stage Five, Deeper Submission, they’re even more dependent on MAGA approval than they were before they slipped, and any hint of their original criticism is gone like it never happened.

Don’t get me wrong—there are women in MAGA who give the appearance of autonomy. Take Kellyanne Conway. On paper, she’s a powerhouse: first woman to run a winning presidential campaign, political strategist, pollster, and the person you could easily argue is the reason Trump actually won in 2016. But look at what that fealty cost her. It cost her her marriage to George Conway, who went from conservative legal heavyweight to one of Trump’s most relentless critics. It cost her a relationship with her own teenage daughter, who was making viral TikToks begging for emancipation. It cost her credibility outside the MAGA bubble — forever branded as the queen of “alternative facts.”

And what really sucks about Conway? I’m not even sure if Trump ever thanked her —publicly or otherwise — for winning him the presidency. I’ve scoured interviews, speeches, even his grubby Truth Social feed. Hearing him, he barely paused to celebrate anyone but himself. He never said, “Kellyanne, thanks for the win.” Nothing. If he ever did, there’s no documented proof. It’s almost as if, in MAGA world, you can pull off a historic victory — but if you don’t worship loud enough, you might as well not have done it. She proved that in MAGA, you can be the brains behind the operation, but you’ll still be treated like just another accessory in the throne room.

And speaking of accessories, let’s get back to this August 2025 Laura Loomer–Marjorie Taylor Greene feud. Loomer accused Greene of funneling over $113,000 in campaign funds to her daughter for “staff payroll” despite the daughter living out of state. Greene clapped back by suggesting Loomer is on the payroll of Israeli intelligence. From there it descended into a mud-wrestling match of insults: Loomer calling Greene a “fake Christian whore” and a “rabid dog,” Greene defending a Medal of Honor recipient Loomer had trashed. This wasn’t just political disagreement — it was the MAGA loyalty police in action.

But this feud wasn’t Loomer’s first case of MFS. Back in May 2025, she dared to criticize Trump for accepting a $400 million “gift” jet from Qatar. And to be clear, she had every reason to be concerned. This isn’t like getting a fruit basket from the neighbor — this is taking a luxury plane from a foreign government with its own agenda, deep regional entanglements, and a history of using money to buy influence. A gift like that comes with a to-do list, whether it’s whispered or written down. The optics alone should have had Trumpworld breaking out in hives: a man who already flirts with foreign entanglements accepting what’s basically the Air Force One of quid pro quo. It’s a geopolitical Trojan horse with leather seats.

But because she’s in MAGA, Loomer knew she couldn’t just say that. No, before she voiced her little sliver of concern, she had to preface it with the most absurd loyalty pledge imaginable: “I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him. But … I’m so disappointed.” You know how messed up that is? You’re not even allowed to criticize his choice of jet without first promising to catch a sniper round on his behalf. And it’s not like she was facing live fire here — this was about a plane. In this case, she didn’t have to take a bullet; she just had to come up with something clever to soften the blow. Something more inventive than “eat shit” but less weird than “please assassinate me instead of him.”

That’s how the spiral works: You say something mildly critical, you get blasted, and your only way back is to debase yourself more than you were before you spoke.

Then there’s Vivek Ramaswamy. Back in May 2024, on his own TRUTH Podcast, Ann Coulter told him on-air that she wouldn’t vote for him “because you’re an Indian.” Vivek, bless his heart, smiled and said he “respected” her honesty. That’s the MAGA Fealty Spiral again — you think your ideas are what’s being valued, but what’s really being judged is whether you know your place.

Tim Scott’s case is almost a two-for-one. At a rally in January 2024, he jumped into Trump’s speech to gush, “I just love you!” Reverend Al Sharpton said watching it was “humiliating.” And yet, for all that love, Scott still had to go out and get married because GOP voters were starting to whisper about his sexuality. He’d been single his whole career, but suddenly, in August 2024, there was Mindy Noce — white, churchy, mother of three, and so plain she could blend into a Restoration Hardware catalog. She looked straight out of central casting, the perfect MAGA-approved spouse. Under normal circumstances, a Black Republican parading a white wife might raise eyebrows, but in MAGA world it’s treated like a political upgrade — because to them, anything is better than being single and suspected of being gay. Better, apparently, to marry a white woman who looks like she has to be plugged into the wall to charge overnight than to risk the base thinking you might be attracted to men.

Even Marjorie Taylor Greene herself got caught in the Spiral just last month, July 15, 2025, when she criticized Trump’s plan to send more weapons to Ukraine in a rare moment of deviation. Within weeks, she was back to full-throated devotion, her mini-rebellion erased like it never happened.

And then there’s Candace Owens, who thought she could wander completely off the reservation and still keep her MAGA membership card. This is the same woman who’s been a known liar for years, actively positioning herself as a hater of Black movements, spreading lies about George Floyd, and thriving on bad-faith outrage. But when she started criticizing Trump and spinning conspiracy theories about France’s First Lady being secretly male, the movement dropped her. Just last month — July 23, 2025 — Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron filed a 218-page defamation lawsuit against her in Delaware, complete with a private investigation into her ties to Russian media. Owens isn’t coming back inside the tent anytime soon — but let’s be honest, I was never taking her seriously to begin with.

The MAGA Fealty Spiral isn’t new, but watching it in real time—especially with women and minorities in MAGA — is a masterclass in how authoritarian movements maintain control. You can be the face of the campaign, the hero of CPAC, or the token “proof” that MAGA isn’t racist or sexist. But the second you think you’ve earned the right to steer the ship, you’re reminded that you’re just cargo.

And in MAGA, the cargo always ends up right back in the hold.

Kristoffer Ealy is a political science professor who teaches at California State University Fullerton. He is the author of the upcoming book Political Illiteracy: Learning the Wrong Lessons. Read the original column here.

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