Trumpist communists: The anti-imperialist MAGA movement

You may laugh, but it is not a joke. The MAGA Communists exist, even if they are full of histrionic contradictions. They support Trump, who paradoxically wants to ban Marxists from entering the country. They admire Putin yet excoriate imperialism. They support Palestine, but not Ukraine or Taiwan. They pursue a communist future — one that subsidizes state services — but they also champion tax cuts. They are a minority movement, relegated to the far reaches of the internet, but with their incendiary, anti-imperialist rhetoric adapted to the Gaza war, they are making themselves heard.

The story of Jackson Hinkle — one of the most visible figures of the MAGA Communists — illustrates the origins of this movement. As a teenager, Hinkle wore a Bernie Sanders t-shirt and took a stand against nuclear power plants and firearms. He even appeared in a video for a famous environmental organization.

But then something went wrong. Last year Hinkle defined himself on Twitter as: “American patriot, God-fearing, pro-family, Marxist-Leninist, pro-Palestine, pro-Russia and China, anti-deep state, anti-imperialist, anti-woke, pro-growth, anti-monopoly, pro-gun, pro-fossil fuel.” His radicalization crystallized with the defeat of Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primaries, when some of Sanders’ followers, rather than supporting the official Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, opted for populist and anti-institutional positions. This is how Marcos Reguera, a researcher on the American far right, tells it.

Alexander Reid Ross, author of Against the Fascist Creep, explains that Hinkle gradually became integrated into the anti-imperialist movement in the United States: “It is infested by the far right and disinformation campaigns, and advocates for overthrowing military commitments. They are against anything the U.S. does to support Ukraine or Taiwan.” In 2022, Hinkle was interviewed by the controversial commentator Tucker Carlson on Fox, where “he talked about supporting Trump to end the war and for the woke left to cease to exist,” notes Jaime Caro, an Alt-Right researcher. However, it was with the Gaza war and the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk (who powers the algorithms of the far right) that Hinkle’s fame grew.

In reality, MAGA Communists say they don’t fully agree with Trump’s political vision. But addressing the working class through him, they explain, is the only way to channel working-class militancy away from capitalism and towards a communist future. The result is a strange and marginal alliance that includes people who hate feminism, environmentalism and the LGBTQI+ movements. An underworld of anti-system agitators where portraits of Putin and Kim Jong-un are accompanied by memes and jokes that come from the anti-feminist depths of the internet and that call for the salvation of “the honor of men.”

Ultimately, MAGA Communism, Reid Ross notes, is “a far-right agenda placed in an anti-imperialist environment.” But even its anti-imperialism is showing its true colors. Hinkle recently posted a photo on X with Aleksandr Dugin — Putin’s go-to thinker — praising his anti-imperialism. Two days later, Dugin appeared on Russian television and said his people are the most imperialist in the world.

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