The tariffs, the treatment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the DOGE moves—they’re all fundamentally about the same thing.

Blame Hollywood’s “unwokening” and the extraordinary rise of right-wing podcasters on slop: intellectually bereft, emotionally sterile content that’s shaped by data and optimized for clicks.

As Trump’s use of the state to bully Harvard University takes an unnerving turn, a shrewd observer of MAGA helps decode the authoritarian right’s larger game plan—and what must be done to resist it.