Maga finds a new hero as Republicans lose faith in Trump

Chants of “USA” and “Christ is king!” went up from the young crowd as James Fishback, the upstart Republican running for Florida governor, railed against the folly of the Iran war. 

“I’m sorry, but we are done telling people we don’t have money for you and your family, we don’t have money to help you buy a home… but we have money to send $5bn to Israel or $300m to Ukraine to lose a war,” Fishback told cheering supporters packed into a German beer hall in Boca Raton last week.

With a shoestring budget and skeleton staff, the 31-year-old nationalist has built a viral campaign that has attracted nationwide attention and notoriety. His “edgelord” stunts have prompted allegations of dog-whistle racism and antisemitism, but his support has surged among young Republicans disillusioned with Donald Trump’s administration. 

As the Iran war sends petrol prices soaring and the president’s approval rating into freefall, the Maga movement is now convulsed by civil war as rival factions look to life after Trump.

“I think a rift is good,” Fishback told The Observer. “I want to see the Republican party get back to what it was when Trump took hold of it in 2015.” Back then, he said, Trump and Maga “were the vanguard. They were the radicals. They were the insurgents.”

Today, he believes, the administration has gone astray, with Trump pushed into the Middle East war almost against his will by Israel and its neoconservative allies on Capitol Hill. “I’m opposed to the war, but so is President Trump at heart, I think. He’s against foreign wars,” Fishback said. 

“If the US gives [almost] $4bn of military aid to Israel every single year, but they’re the ones leading us into conflict, and we can’t say no to them, that’s a real problem.”

That frustration is shared by Fishback’s supporters, who filled the bar in Boca Raton and a church in Naples, Florida, the following night. Many sported “America first” merchandise sold by the far-right activist Nick Fuentes. An avowed white nationalist and antisemite, Fuentes has endorsed Fishback to his army of young fans, who call themselves “Groypers”.

Fuentes’s growing influence, which has shaken the Maga establishment, made it inevitable that the Groypers would spawn their own political candidate. In Fishback, they believe they’ve found him. “I discovered him through Fuentes. He’s kind of my last hope in politics,” said one supporter in Naples, a 25-year-old personal trainer wearing an America first cap, who gave his name as James. 

A two-time Trump voter, he was dismayed by the president’s betrayal of his campaign promise to keep the US out of needless foreign wars and by the economic impact on young voters priced out of the American dream. With Trump poised to leave the stage, the future of the conservative movement is up for grabs.

“You look at Trump 2016 and he’s gone against everything he stands for. I think he was pushed into the war, but the president still has a say, right?” James said. “There’s a real split happening now – it’s boomers against gen Z and millennials, old Maga against America first.”

Since launching his campaign last year, Fishback has courted the Groypers with a string of incendiary stunts that nodded to antisemitic and racist tropes. He has hit out at the “Goyslop” served in US public schools and been vehement is his criticism of his Trump-endorsed rival, Florida congressman Byron Donalds, who is Black.  

If elected, Fishback has proposed a 50% “sin tax” on creators on the adult video platform OnlyFans. His explanation: “These hoes owe taxes.” He wants to tighten Florida’s already draconian abortion ban and loosen its permissive gun laws.

But attacks on Israel and its influence over US politics are the centrepiece of his campaign. Fishback has tapped into the growing discontent among young Republicans that Trump has failed to tackle the rising cost of living he was elected to fix.

“Certainly our campaign is the most viable, the most energetic in this America first movement that is emerging,” he said. “I don’t think we’re redefining Maga as something new. I think we’re redefining it for what it was intended to be – not just a return to the Trump 2016 and 2024 campaigns, but a return to what this country has long represented… We don’t want to get dragged into foreign conflicts. We need to put our own people first.”

Fishback’s attacks on Israel and its vast lobbying operation have won powerful allies in the rightwing media establishment that is now leading the revolt against Trump.

“Pretty soon, all winning Republicans will talk just like him,” the former Fox News host turned conservative media commentator Tucker Carlson said of Fishback after interviewing him in January. Opinion polls in Florida support Carlson’s view, to the alarm of Jewish groups and Israel’s allies in Washington.

Most surveys show Fishback polling at about 9%, a distant second to Donalds, who enjoys a massive financial advantage, including support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). But among young voters those numbers are reversed. A University of North Florida poll in February showed Fishback trouncing Donalds by 32% to 8% among Grand Old party voters aged 18 to 34. 

A recent tour of Florida university campuses drew huge crowds and stirred fresh controversy. Few observers expect him to win the August primary, but his campaign offers a glimpse of where the Republican party is headed.

“There’s real populist energy around the Fishback campaign. It’s like Trump 2016 all over again,” said Michael Fusella, president of the Young Republicans at the University of South Florida, which hosted Fishback last month. 

Fusella, who is Jewish, said the “vast majority of my club now are anti-Israel”. The America first nativism of Fuentes and Fishback resonated with young conservatives “disappointed” by Trump’s second term and struggling with the economic cost of the war, he added.

“This narrative that this is temporary suffering for a greater good – none of the young people are buying this,” Fusella said. “If you’re a political candidate and you’re not running on affordability, you’re going to lose.”

Outgunned by Donalds financially, Fishback has harnessed social media to wage a guerrilla campaign. He arrived at the bar in Boca Raton still mid-interview with an online streamer. Several supporters filmed  the event and Fishback waited patiently in the car park afterwards, answering scores of questions from influencers who posted videos on TikTok and X within minutes.

“Fishback has become known for his pretty outlandish rhetoric and that’s getting a lot of attention, especially from young guys like me,” said Christian Bushnell, who goes by the online name Coconut Chris and hosted an X Spaces event throughout the rally. “The extremism could just be an easy ploy to get noticed…[but] the other guys are just bland milquetoast.”

Donalds himself has accused his rival of being an opportunist and a fraud, and Fishback is now attempting to break out of his online echo chamber and convert internet notoriety into grassroots support. Despite the ideological gulf between them, he speaks admiringly of Zohran Mamdani, whose viral campaign propelled the young Democratic socialist from unknown assemblyman to New York mayor last year.

With more grey-haired retirees in the audience in Naples – at a forum for candidates that Donalds skipped – Fishback sanded down his extremist rhetoric. He made no mention of Israel, stressing his Christian faith instead and focusing on the affordability crisis. Speaking to The Observer, he dismissed the Goyslop remark as a “funny online term” pivoting to attack the “selective outrage” of the press.

The controversy thrown up by Fishback’s campaign and the debate around Israel on the US political right is all the more striking in Florida. The state is home to the nation’s second-largest Jewish population and has adopted strict laws to combat antisemitism, including the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, which outlaws some criticism of Israel.

“I would not enforce that definition of antisemitism [if elected],” Fishback said. “I condemn the hatred of Jews… but criticism of the Israeli government is protected by the first amendment… I reject the idea that what I’m saying is antisemitic.”

There is no doubt that a generational shift is under way, however, with support for Israel at historic lows in the US. Heading into November’s midterm elections, opposition to Israel is now a campaign platform among candidates across the political spectrum.

While Fishback courts Florida conservatives, James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Texas and rising young star of the Christian left, has also disavowed Aipac and accused Israel of “war crimes” in Gaza. 

“It’s incredible to think that James Talarico could become the next US senator of Texas in the same election cycle that I could become the next governor of Florida,” Fishback said.

“He and I would have a very different debate about abortion, but on the issue of affordability… on the issue of foreign interests, whether at the hands of Aipac or any other lobby group, he and I would agree on a lot.”

Photograph by Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP