Cesspool

Dispatches from the MAGA Civil War

Cesspool — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:06:55 GMT

Since last week…

Candace Owens and Laura Loomer clash with extremely vitriolic rhetoric
The Carlson Brothers apologize for misleading people about Donald Trump

Mentioned: Candace Owens…Laura Loomer…Erika Kirk…JD Vance…Brigitte Macron…Milo Yiannaopolous…Tucker Carlson…Buckley Carlson…Donald Trump…Marjorie Taylor Greene…Stew Peters…Tim Pool…Brandon Tatum

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The Gals Are Fighting, the Gloves are Off

Candace Owens and Laura Loomer are locked in a furious, sexually explicit, profanity-laced public feud. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Erika Kirk provided the match that lit this blaze. But, with Loomer and Owens trading fiery barbs, it has grown into a conflagration of epic proportions.

While the bad blood between Loomer and Owens has been stewing for months, tensions erupted when Owens claimed that Erika Kirk lied about threats to Kirk’s life, which Kirk alleges forced her to cancel her attendance at an April 14 Turning Point USA event with VP JD Vance at the University of Georgia:

“Erika Kirk pulled out of her event last minute with Vice President Vance, citing ‘threats.’ This is PR horseshit, obviously. He is now doing the event alone at the University of Georgia. What do we think is the real reason she pulled out?”

A day later, Loomer fired back claiming that Candace seeks to inspire her audience to murder Erika:

“Candace Owen’s fans are insane and they should be monitored by the police. It really feels like @RealCandaceO is trying to incite someone to murder @MrsErikaKirk because Charlie chose Erika over Candace. It’s time for a restraining order and @FBI action against Cancer Owens.”

Over the course of the ensuing week, attacks from both sides grew much more intense and personal. The subjects ranged from the Loomer’s mental health battle and personal appearance, to Owens’ spouse and children:

Loomer: “You know who has the worst destiny? Candace Owens’ children. @RealCandaceO Imagine having that evil bitch as your mom. Poor kids. They will probably need serious therapy to deal with the long term social ramifications of having Candace as a mother. I wonder if she’s as cruel to her children as she is to Erika and her kids.”
Loomer: “You know who has the worst destiny? Candace Owens’ children. @RealCandaceO Imagine having that evil bitch as your mom. Poor kids. They will probably need serious therapy to deal with the long term social ramifications of having Candace as a mother. I wonder if she’s as cruel to her children as she is to Erika and her kids.”
Owens: “How many children have you fathered, Larry?” (Addressing Loomer as a man.)
Loomer: “Zero, because I’m a woman. But my husband will likely father more children than your allegedly homosexual husband. Did you use a turkey baster? Who squeezed it?”
Owens:“A turkey baster? Larry, I really think your dad should put you on one more psych5150 hold. You just seem like you’re on the edge again lately. Maybe once more before the nuptials. How’s the wedding planning going w. Andrew Simpson, btw? Does he know you’re not actually Jewish?”

Loomer then went a step further, dropping research about a trust that she alleges Owens is using to conceal her family’s assets amid a defamation suit brought by the French First Lady, Brigitte Macron. Macron brought the suit after Owens repeatedly claimed without factual basis that Macron was, in fact, a man. Loomer wrote:

“Hey @RealCandaceO Can you tell me more about ‘Battery Lane Trust?’ Have you disclosed this trust in your lawsuit with the Macrons? Are you using this trust to hide assets so you can continue smearing people with your lies? I’m going to make sure the Macrons know about this Trust…”

After about a week of back and forth on X, they took their beef to their YouTube streams where the accusations turned especially venomous:

Loomer: “She actually had a tramp stamp on her…This is a girl that used to talk about how she would walk into clubs and bars and steal the white athletic guy from the white blonde girl…’I can take your man, bitch.’ Very ghetto behavior.”
Owens: “Laura Loomer has a real mental disorder… Her former campaign manager, Milo Yiannopoulos… wrote ‘Laura Loomer has been diagnosed at various times and by various doctors as suffering from bipolar disorder, histrionic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.’”
Loomer: “Candace all of a sudden is like talking about how, ‘Oh, Milo [Yiannopoulos is] a credible source,’ and ‘oh, Milo says this about Laura.’ Milo says that he allegedly had sex with Candace’s husband…Candace has never denied that her husband’s gay. She just blocks people.”
Owens: “Laura Loomer is also a malignant sexual predator and has been repeatedly accused since the beginning of her career of raping and sexually assaulting men.”
Loomer: “Candace Owens recently had Milo Yiannopoulos on her show as a guest. What kind of mother are you that you would allow a man who endorsed pedophilia to come into your house and be around your four children? Somebody needs to call Child Protective Services.”

In her latest stream, Loomer reflected on how close she once was with Owens, sharing sleepovers, dinners and rides home from the dentist. Reconciliation, at this point, seems out of the question.

Tucking Tail and Bucking MAGA

It’s obvious that Tucker Carlson played a major role in Donald Trump’s re-election. He campaigned for the president both online with the Tucker Carlson show, as well as on the trail at rallies and events like CPAC and the Republican National Convention. Tucker’s younger brother, Buckley Carlson — a communications professional and Republican political operative — also claimed extensive involvement in Trump’s presidential campaigns as a speechwriter.

Tucker has recently come under fire from the president for criticizing Trump on several fronts, namely his support for Israel, the war in Iran and for “mocking” the Christian Messiah after Trump posted a doctored image super-imposing his face on Jesus Christ.

The rift between Tucker and Trump has seemingly reached the point of no return, and Buckley is taking his brother’s side. Tucker invited Buckley onto the Tucker Carlson Show so the two could discuss the reasons why they’ve decided to retract their support for Trump, which include the war in Iran, the Covid-19 vaccine, the Epstein files and a litany of other grievances:

Buckley: “He had the biggest microphone in the country, and he never once utilized that for the benefit of the Americans who’d supported him…He didn’t exercise that power on behalf of anyone else. It was all about Donald Trump.”
Tucker: “Everything about [the Covid vaccine] was a bio-weapon aimed at us. And Trump didn’t apologize for that.”
Buckley: “[Trump], to this day, will still talk about the success of Operation Warp speed, which allowed the [Covid vaccine] to come to market.”
Buckley: “The Epstein files, the JFK files, the 9/11 files… Trump had committed to [releasing] all three of those things. He’s done none of them. But beyond just abdicating his power, he was disdainful of those.”
Buckley: “They used to say the president’s most valuable commodity was his time… [Trump is] focusing on the new Arc de Triomphe that he is putting up at the end of Memorial Bridge, he’s focusing on the ballroom. Are you serious? Get serious about your responsibilities.”
Buckley: “Then of course he turned on Marjorie Taylor Green… She texted Trump and she said, my son is getting threats because I’ve disagreed with you on the Epstein files. And Trump responded to her by text message and said, ‘he deserves it. It’s your fault.’”

Tucker capped off the episode of his show by saying that he and Buckley and millions of others are “implicated” in Trump’s ascendency, and that the pair will be “tormented” by their role in it for a long time. He also apologized for misleading people, and said that it was not intentional.

Right-wing figures had mixed reactions to Tucker’s admission:

Stew Peters: “This is a very humble and honest statement. Big respect to Tucker.”
Tim Pool:“I do not see anything Tucker is saying as sincere in this. What grown man says ‘I will be tormented for this?’…Is Tucker, does he have amnesia? Did he just one day wake up forgetting everything that had been discussed during the campaign about Trump’s intentions? How about in Trump’s first term? He wanted to move the embassy to Jerusalem. He killed Soleimani. He hired John Bolton. Everybody acting surprised by what Trump is doing is lying.”
Brandon Tatum: “PATHETIC…If not Trump, then who exactly was the better option, Kamala Harris?!!”
Laura Loomer: “Essentially, Tucker is saying he wishes @KamalaHarris was President…Tucker needs to be isolated, ostracized and condemned daily for what he has become.”

Tucker’s withdrawal from Trump is a big break. For a movement built on loyalty, a public reversal from one of its most influential voices is no small thing — and Buckley Carlson’s co-signing makes it harder to dismiss as a one-man grievance. Whether it inspires others to follow suit remains to be seen.

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Trump Wages War Against the Pope and the MAGA Base

Cesspool — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:40:11 GMT

Since last week…

Trump called out four of the most popular right-wing podcasters for breaking with him on Iran.
Trump squared off with the pope and posted a meme of himself as Jesus.

Mentioned: Donald Trump…Tucker Carlson…Megyn Kelly…Candace Owens…Alex Jones…Ben Shapiro…Dave Rubin…Laura Loomer…Owen Shroyer…Dave Smith…Nick Fuentes…Benny Johnson…Michael Knowles…Patrick Bet-David…Marjorie Taylor Greene…Riley Gaines…Steven Crowder

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Et Tu, Tucker?

The MAGA civil war over military operations in Iran just went nuclear. After weeks of defections, President Donald Trump authored a Truth Social post targeting four of the loudest voices in the America First movement criticizing the war: Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and Alex Jones. Trump called them “nut jobs” and “troublemakers” with “low IQs,” in addition to more personalized insults:

“Hand Flailing Fools like Tucker Carlson, who couldn’t even finish College, he was a broken man when he got fired from Fox, and he’s never been the same — Perhaps he should see a good psychiatrist!”
“‘Crazy’ Candace Owens, who accuses the Highly Respected First Lady of France of being a man, when she is not, and will hopefully win lots of money in the ongoing lawsuit. Actually, to me, the First Lady of France is a far more beautiful woman than Candace, in fact, it’s not even close!”
“Megyn Kelly, who nastily asked me the now famous, ‘Only Rosie O’Donnell,’ question” (referring to the first 2015 Republican primary debate when Kelly asked about the derogatory names that Trump has called women he does not like, to which he replied that he only called Rosie O’Donnell these names).
“Bankrupt Alex Jones, who says some of the dumbest things, and lost his entire fortune, as he should have, for his horrendous attack on the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, ridiculously claiming it was a hoax.”

The named influencers, with the exception of Megyn Kelly, responded to the president’s attacks with a mixture of levelheaded lamentations and antagonistic clapbacks:

Tucker Carlson: “I feel sorry for him as I do for all slaves. He is not free…I don’t think it’s as simple as he’s under the control of Benjamin Netanyahu. But you could summarize it that way and you wouldn’t be totally inaccurate.”
Candace Owens: “Only a fool or someone under the express direction of one could have thought to hit send on what you published on Truth Social last night…You’re the leader of the free world and you’re tweeting about us…Trump, MAGA is no longer commanded by you and you know it. You belong to the Epstein class. That is your legacy.”
Alex Jones: “Listen, I’m not mad at him. He’s mad that he’s wrong and he’s mad he got set up by Israel. Once the man, twice the child — this is dementia. It doesn’t matter. We’re gonna keep intervening. He knows he was wrong about Iran, he’s throwing a fit, and it’s okay. We’re going to continue to be adults and just respond to this.”

On the sidelines, internet personalities who backed the president’s military intervention in Iran remained steadfast in their support of the war and trashed their fellow right-wing influencers on their shows:

Ben Shapiro: “Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones — the reason he is going after these people is because these people have revealed themselves for who they are: people who do not want to make America great again, they believe America is weak and ought to remain weak.”
Dave Rubin: “Now [Megyn Kelly has] turned on him, and she’s done it in the most cynical way because she’s doing it purely for clicks…I don’t think anyone really thinks Megyn’s saying anything that she believes anymore…If you look into reality over narrative in this case, Trump is doing quite well. And Tucker and these other guys are not.”

For her part, Laura Loomer reveled in her role making Tucker’s opposition to the war known to the president: “I want that motherfucker, Tucker Carlson, to know that I’m the one who knifed him from the front… I’m the one that sent the president all your shit, Tucker, because he deserves to see the fact that you are lying about him and you are smearing him.”

Meanwhile, other notable opponents of the Iran war also jumped in:

Owen Shroyer: “This is exposing how weak Trump is…what an idiot. Trump, you want to say that they’re low IQ? You just attacked four of the biggest names in right wing politics…You’re cooked. You have the low IQ.”
Dave Smith: “I’ve never seen anything like this before where a president is trashing all of the people who got him elected and it’s so naked. It’s like, look, here’s the rules, okay? Donald Trump requires 100% loyalty and he offers absolutely none. That’s the deal.”

Perhaps the most impassioned criticism came from Nick Fuentes, who used the opportunity to spell out his view of Trump’s loyalty as far as the MAGA influencer class is concerned: “Trump is a treacherous person and always has been… How many of these people got involved with Trump, lost everything, sacrificed everything on his behalf, were destroyed only to be discarded, only to be backstabbed, thrown under the bus…It’s in his nature.”

As Trump purportedly works toward a ceasefire in Iran, it remains to be seen whether a comparable ceasefire can be reached in the raging MAGA civil war.

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The Immaculate Misconception

President Trump ran afoul of the papacy after Pope Leo XIV condemned the war in Iran. The pontiff first slammed Trump’s April 7 threat that Iranian civilization would die, calling it “truly unacceptable.” Then, during a peace vigil on Saturday, April 11, the pope continued to call for an end to hostilities: “Enough with the idolatry of self and money! Enough with the display of force! Enough with war! True strength is manifested in serving life.”

In response, Trump took to Truth Social on April 12 to call the pope “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” He also declared that he liked the pope’s brother, Louis, better because he is “all MAGA.”

Topping it all off, the president credited himself with Leo’s ascension to the papacy: “He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”

Later that same day, Trump posted an AI-generated meme on Truth Social of his face superimposed on Jesus Christ’s body. The move drew widespread backlash from figures across the right:

Megyn Kelly: “What we didn’t know was coming was this absolutely absurd offensive meme, AI-generated version of a picture showing Donald Trump as Jesus…It is obviously him purporting to be God. That is what he’s doing and it is blasphemous. By any definition of that word.”
Benny Johnson: “[Y]ou are not Jesus, you are not God. Don’t post yourself as God. You shouldn’t. You know, you just shouldn’t. No one’s gonna drag you out and stone you, but it’s bad for your mortal soul.”
Michael Knowles: “The post is sacrilegious. It just is. It’s just inescapable. It’s just a sacrilegious post. To put oneself in the position of Christ is just sacrilegious.”
Patrick Bet-David: “There’s one thing you don’t play with. You just don’t, you don’t play with God. It’s the only thing.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene: “On Orthodox Easter, President Trump attacked the pope because the pope is rightly against Trump’s war in Iran and then he posted this picture of himself as if he is replacing Jesus. This comes after last week’s post of his evil tirade on Easter and then threatening to kill an entire civilization. I completely denounce this and I’m praying against it!!!”
Alex Jones: “I’m not giving him an out. He needs to be clear and say there’s only one king. That’s King Jesus. He’s the Lord and Savior…No one can defend him. No one can defend whoever is saying he’s Jesus. And that’s what this is. So don’t deny, don’t try to gaslight.”
Riley Gaines: “Why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he’d post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this? Either way, two things are true: 1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked”
Steven Crowder: “It’s never good to compare yourself to Jesus.”
Tucker Carlson: “Here’s a leader who’s mocking the gods of his ancestors, mocking the God of Gods, and exalting himself above them. Could this be the antichrist? Well, who knows? At least that’s my conclusion. Who knows?”

Trump went on to delete the post from Truth Social. When asked about it during a press gaggle on April 13, Trump replied that he didn’t know it was depicting him as Jesus: “I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor, and it had to do with the Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker there, which we support. And only the fake news could come up with that one.”

It’s unclear which doctors the president has been seeing, but whoever designed their uniforms has taken some creative liberties.

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F-Bombs on Easter, Pipe Bombs on J6 and Truth Bombs from Patrick Bet-David

Cesspool — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:29:46 GMT

Since last week…

Trump’s Easter weekend threats against Iran draw ire among the right for profanity and derangement.
Dan Bongino squares up with Rep. Thomas Massie over bots and whistleblowers.
The feud between podcasters Dave Smith and Adam Sosnick elicits constructive criticism from Sosnick’s mentor and co-host.

Mentioned: Donald Trump…Nick Fuentes…Tucker Carlson…Ben Shapiro…Candace Owens…Alex Jones…Marjorie Taylor Greene…Sneako…Megyn Kelly…Piers Morgan…Dan Bongino…Thomas Massie…Ed Gallrein…Dave Smith…Adam Sosnick…Coleman Hughes…Patrick Bet-David.

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From Easter Sunday to Power Plant Tuesday

Early on Easter morning, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social threatening to destroy Iran’s civil infrastructure if the country refuses to open the Strait of Hormuz:

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Some of the internet right’s most prolific Christian nationalists weighed in on what they deemed a sacrilegious display by the president:

Nick Fuentes: “It’s literally the holiest day of the year, and this is what you post? Not Happy Easter, Christ has risen, nothing. You threaten to bomb Iran, which is bad enough by itself, but then it’s the profanity…Mocking God in the middle of it as well…This is when you realize Trump is evil… He is a completely hollow and wicked person.”
Tucker Carlson: “To send out a tweet with the F-word on Easter morning promising the murder of civilians, then saying ‘Praise be to Allah.’ You are mocking me and every other Christian because we’re Christians. We can’t support that. Under no circumstances can we support that…You are not God, and only if you think you are, do you talk this way.”

Ben Shapiro shot back at Carlson for taking issue with Trump mocking Islam, essentially calling him a hypocrite: “This is the same person who has said the Christian Zionists are the people he hates most on planet Earth, who spent pretty much every episode of his show attacking ‘dispensationalist’ and mainline Evangelical Protestants. ‘Don’t mock religion, as long as that religion is Islam,’ says Tucker Carlson.”

Nick Fuentes also weighed in on Tucker’s criticism of Trump, saying “I read the post and said, you definitely shouldn’t be threatening to kill civilians, dropping F-bombs and mocking God on Easter. But this whole, like, ‘Don’t you dare mock Islam,’ it’s like, okay, so is he getting money from Qatar?”

Roughly 12 hours before his imposed deadline for the Iranians to reach a ceasefire agreement, Trump elevated his threats against the Iranian people, issuing a genocidal ultimatum, writing, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

Trump added that he hoped the wholesale destruction of Iran could be avoided if “different, smarter, and less radicalized” leaders of Iran “prevail,” and closed with: “WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”

Several influencers, many of whom supported and campaigned for the president, expressed outrage and even called for his removal via the 25th Amendment:

Candace Owens: “The 25th Amendment needs to be invoked. He is a genocidal lunatic. Our Congress and military need to intervene. We are beyond madness.”
Alex Jones: “How do we 25th Amendment his ass?”
Marjorie Taylor Greene: “25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness.”
Sneako: “The total and complete normalization of genocide has happened in front of our eyes. Without Gaza, Trump would never have been able to get away with his rhetoric. But now he is publicly threatening to wipe an entire civilization and nobody is doing anything about it.”
Megyn Kelly: “I don’t know about you, but I am sick of this shit. I’m just sick of it. Can’t he just behave like a normal human? I mean, honestly, like the president, ‘3D chess’ — just shut up. Fucking shut up about that shit. You don’t threaten to wipe out an entire civilization.”
Piers Morgan: “This is a brazen pre-admission of genocide against the Iranian people, which would obviously be a war crime. Madness.”

However, the president was not without his own loyal champions. Standing in Trump’s corner? None other than the former deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, and Ben Shapiro.

Ben Shapiro: “Now, of course he doesn’t mean that Persian civilization will die. The reality is that Persian civilization will flourish and survive if the Iranian government dies.”
Dan Bongino: “For the pearl clutchers and the people getting their drawers in a bunch, pulling an ‘oh my gosh’ — Donald Trump does this over and over and you guys keep with the clutching the pearls ‘oh my gosh, I can’t believe he said that’…He takes a maximalist position…He’s doing what he always does.”

It remains to be seen whether Trump’s supporters in the media will come back around to support him and his war in Iran, or if, in fact, threatening genocide is a bridge too far for even his most loyal backers.

War of the Receipts

Dan Bongino stepped into the ring yet again last week to square off with Trump’s most vocal critic in the Republican congressional caucus: Rep. Thomas Massie.

The pair previously clashed in November 2025 over Massie’s promotion of a whistleblower’s claims that a U.S. Capitol Police officer matched the description of the January 6 pipe bomber. More recently, tensions between the two had been simmering amid Massie’s Epstein files crusade, his opposition to the war in Iran and Trump’s endorsement of his primary challenger Ed Gallrein, before reaching a boiling point last week.

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Last Tuesday, Bongino erupted against Massie, calling him a “zero” who “supports Third World tyranny” in a lengthy X post that concluded that Massie denied Bongino’s offer for briefings on multiple open investigations to instead “litigate [them] on X for clicks.” Bongino added “receipts” of phone records between himself and Massie to demonstrate that he made good-faith efforts to inform the congressman. The images showed one 10 minute-long call and two missed follow-ups. Massie shot back with his own account of how the call actually went:

“You seemed upset that I had received and had released FBI whistleblower information about the pipe bomb investigation.”
“I informed you that your staff had threatened to criminally investigate my staff as retribution against me (for pipe bomb or Epstein activity?)”
“You threatened to personally finance a defamation suit against reporters on behalf of a suspect…In any case, the Deputy FBI Director shouldn’t be financing civil lawsuits against reporters covering cases the FBI is working on.”
“You said you were going to call every agent in and get to the bottom of the whistleblower issue.”
“You offered me a briefing but I was going to be tied up until at least 6pm…So I asked how late I could get the briefing and you said you were going to leave the office at 5pm.“
“I asked you a few questions on the call and your answers indicated to me that you were perhaps less informed than me on some of the issues, or you were going to be less than forthcoming.”

Massie also alleged the FBI tried to “out” its own whistleblowers while simultaneously pressuring his staff via late-night Signal calls to “back off” the Epstein case. Bongino responded, claiming “none of what [Massie] just vomited out is even remotely close to what happened,” and calling Massie a “grifter and a fraud.”

“Careful,” Massie warned, “there are receipts for this.”

A day later, Bongino shredded Massie again on “The Bongino Show.” Before interviewing Massie’s primary challenger, Bongino continued calling Massie a “fraud” and claiming that his popularity on social media is inflated by bots:

“I have never been as disappointed in a human being in politics as I am in Tom Massie… I could not believe what a fraud this guy was. I mean like, an epic level fraud.”
“Go on your X feed and post ‘I love Tom Massie.’ Then later go post ‘Tom Massie’s a fraud’…Just test that out and you tell me who’s got a bot army and who doesn’t.”

Clickbait of the Mouth

The feud between comedian Dave Smith, host of “Part of the Problem,” and Adam Sosnick, co-host of the “PBD Podcast,” took some unexpected turns. The pair began their beef on X the same day the Iran war started, when Smith called it “an illegal war of aggression.” Sosnick urged Smith to read the room. Smith responded by taking a jab at Sosnick’s literacy.

On March 24, they appeared together on Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored” to discuss the Iran war. The interaction devolved into a tense and personal shouting match:

Adam Sosnick: “I realized who Dave Smith is…Dave Smith is a radical libertarian…What’s another word for radical? Extremist… This is why you call the U.S. military the greatest terrorist organization on Earth, right?…Something tells me you have what is known as clickbait of the mouth.”

Dave Smith: “I would also consider it when our politicians lie us into wars that slaughter millions of innocent people, and in many cases, target those innocent people. I consider that terrorism as well. There’s the answer, Adam. If you wanna keep doing this, buddy, you could tell me to check the scoreboard. I’ll run circles around you on this… Check your scoreboard, Adam. How’s it looking for you?…Substantively respond to any of that.”

Adam Sosnick: “You’re saying the United States is a terrorist organization. You’ve already lost the debate. You live in America, tough guy. You have the luxury of sitting in your little studio, in your hooded sweater, like you’re 17 years old.”
Dave Smith: “I’m 17 years old… I have a wife and children. Who depends on you, Adam, your mom?…Substantively respond to one thing, Adam… you don’t know anything, so move on. Stop picking a fight with me, dude.”

Sosnick fired back by comparing Smith to a schoolyard bully and telling a long-winded, seemingly directionless story about Smith’s experience on Coleman Hughes’s podcast. Even Morgan briefly chimed in, asking: “Adam, I’m not quite sure — what is the point you’re making?” Morgan continued, pressing Sosnick about his approach, noting that “It’s an unusual debating strategy to spend 10 minutes of this debate talking about another debate that most viewers may not have seen.”

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Sosnick’s ultimate argument was that Smith “already lost the debate” for saying that America is a terrorist organization, that Smith’s views are unpopular because libertarians make up less than 1% of Americans and that Smith is perpetually in a “body bag” after losing an argument with Coleman Hughes about Israel and U.S. foreign policy.

Roughly a week later, Patrick Bet-David — who hosts the “PBD Podcast” with Sosnick — expressed deep discontent with Sosnick’s debate performance. Bet-David, who is considered Sosnick’s mentor, leveled criticisms at his mentee during a live show:

Patrick Bet-David: “I didn’t see you making arguments on Dave Smith…There’s an element of also representing where you’re coming from, where the expectation is, ‘hey, where are you going?’ Be professionals. That’s not how I handle debates. I don’t handle debates that way. That’s not my MO. So if you are close to me and you’re handling it that way, that is not my style.”

Shortly after Bet-David’s dressing-down, Piers Morgan called for a rematch between Smith and Sosnick, but Sosnick declined.

Dorks at Disney

Cesspool — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:28:13 GMT

It’s been a month since President Donald Trump launched a war with Iran and sparked a MAGA civil war. With Trump indicating that he has no plans to stop the war in Iran, the civil war is only growing more expansive and destructive.

Since last week…

Joe Rogan claims MAGA is filled with dorks, and the VP responds.
Lindsey Graham’s trip to Disney World draws scrutiny from across the internet.
Candace Owens’ theories about Charlie Kirk’s assassination find renewed popular support — and scrutiny.
Dan Bongino and Ivan Raiklin feud online over a Joe Kent-related confrontation in person.

Mentioned: Dave Smith, Joe Rogan, Tulsi Gabbard, Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, Benny Johnson, Lindsey Graham, Megyn Kelly, Alex Jones, Candace Owens, Sneako, Nick Fuentes, Stew Peters, Brett Cooper, WallStreetMav, Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, Jimmy Dore, Brandon Tatum, Laura Loomer, Joe Kent, Dan Bongino, Ivan Raiklin, Joseph Philip Daniel, Nate Tuck, Owen Shroyer, Stewart Rhodes.

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Dark MAGA or Dork MAGA?

Comedian, self-proclaimed libertarian and host of the “Part of the Problem” podcast Dave Smith went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to air his many grievances about the second Trump administration, skewering it along with its donors and neocon allies over the Iran war, the Epstein files and ICE:

“I think [Tulsi Gabbard is] lying us into a war, which is the war that she was always opposed to…She sold ‘no war with Iran’ t-shirts.”
“Donald Trump has openly talked about, many times, how the Adelsons give him all this money, and they come by every day and all they have is another demand on behalf of Israel.”
“I’ve seen a ton of videos where there were masked ICE agents not even identifying themselves, going up to people, telling them, ‘you have to answer my questions, you don’t have an option to walk away,’ which is not true at all.”

Smith concluded: “So many of the Never Trumpers have come to define his presidency… Ben Shapiro was a Never Trumper… Mark Levin was a never-Trumper… Now they are the biggest Trump supporters ever. He’s blown up the coalition that got him elected,” and “If not supporting covering up the Epstein files, or not supporting a stupid war of choice, a war of aggression on behalf of Israel means I’m not MAGA, then okay.”

This prompted Rogan to proclaim that the phrase “Make America Great Again” “sucks.” He continued: “America is already great. Make America greater? I’m down. But Make America Great Again and then it becomes a movement of a bunch of fucking dorks? ‘Cause a lot of them are dorks. These really weird, fucking uninteresting, unintelligent people.”

A day later, Vice President JD Vance appeared on Benny Johnson’s podcast to clarify not that MAGA was void of dorks, but that MAGA “loves” their dorks: “I think we have many, many fewer dorks than the far left, but everybody’s got some dorks. We love our dorks, we love our cool kids, we love anybody who wants to save the country.”

Very cool!

We’re at war with Iran. What are you going to do next?

Both the America First faction and Trump loyalists set their sights on Senator Lindsey Graham after TMZ released photos of him at Disney World amid the ongoing war with Iran and partial government shutdown. Their commentary ranged from criticizing his hawkishness and making comparisons to his allegedly bloodthirsty tirades about Iran on the evening news, to cracking gay jokes and concerns about pedophilia:

Megyn Kelly: “There he is in the middle of Disney with a bubble wand. Like this seems like some sort of weird fever dream I’m in. Is this real?…I’m just angry about [Graham’s] influence over President Trump, and I’m angry that I have to look at pictures of him with his bubble wand. And I’m angry I have to pretend he’s not gay when it’s very clear he is... In my humble opinion, he’s an insult to the gays. Gays tend to be fabulous. Why isn’t he more fabulous?”
Alex Jones: “Lindsey Graham is walking around by himself with a baby blue and pink Princess scepter… talking to Mickey Mouse and people looking completely insane. On TV, he constantly talks about killing people.”
Benny Johnson: “When people talk about the creepy, compromised deep state, like this is what they’re talking about. They’re thinking exactly about Lindsey Graham. No wife, no kids. Why are you at Disney?”
Candace Owens: “I just want nothing to do with Lindsey Graham at Disney World. I don’t want Lindsey Graham having access to kids. In fact, typically when we hear about Lindsey Graham and children, he wants them blown up in various countries around the world…Look at him holding like, a bubble toy. He’s just a creep. Everything about this man gives me the ick.”
Sneako: “Lindsey Graham spotted at Disney World…This doesn’t look like a TMZ photo. It looks like a private investigator catching a pedophile…What is he doing at Disney World right now? In the middle of telling people in South Carolina to go die in Israel, he’s here.”
Nick Fuentes: “That’s kind of funny, Lindsey Graham gets a war with Iran, and what does he do? Go to Disney World. It’s true. He won the Super Bowl…It’s beyond parody…He’s in Disney World eating a Mickey Mouse ice cream while you are crying about oil prices.”

In a clear effort to hit back against attacks on his masculinity, Senator Graham responded on X later that day with a photo of him holding a shotgun: “Spent some time breaking clays in Edgefield County today. Doesn’t get much better than that.” However, this attempt largely backfired as it garnered less-than-kind responses from several right-wing media personalities:

Stew Peters: “LINDSEY GRAHAM’S CAMPAIGN: ‘We gotta find a way to make Lindsey seem less gay. Skeet shooting!’”
Brett Cooper: “This is like when Tim Walz pretended to work on his car.”
Candace Owens: “‘grok darling what should i post to not look gay.’”
WallStreetMav: “Lindsey Graham just posted this trying to appear masculine after he was photographed alone at Disney World with a bubble wand.”

Disney World may be the “happiest place on Earth” to most people, but it’s hard to imagine Senator Graham embracing that sentiment after this onslaught of criticism.

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If the bullet does not fit…

Defense counsel for Charlie Kirk’s assassin, Tyler Robinson, filed a motion in court on Monday, citing an ATF report that failed to conclusively match the bullet that killed Charlie Kirk to the rifle found at the scene. Candace Owens and her allies expressed vindication concerning her extensive theories about Kirk’s murder, or even doubled down on them:

Candace Owens: “I was told that there was no way the prosecution was going to be able to connect the bullet to that gun. I think the feds then realized that…then they quickly pivoted. ‘There’s no bullet, it’s just a small fragment. Problem solved.’ Now [they] can have ATF say that it’s inconclusive later down the line… They cannot even prove that the gun was fired.”
Jimmy Dore: “Hey, here’s a crazy development. The bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did not match the rifle allegedly used by the suspect, Tyler Robinson, new court filing claims. What? Huh? No kidding.”
Sneako: “Now the ATF says that they’re unable to match the bullet in the Charlie Kirk case to the rifle linked to his suspect Tyler Robinson. I said this the day it happened. I said Charlie Kirk was allegedly killed by Israel.”
Alex Jones: “The ATF says it’s not the same caliber!”

Critics of these theories shot back and expressed disgust directly at Owens and her supporters:

Benny Johnson: “The result of the comparison was inconclusive. It doesn’t say it doesn’t match. It says it’s literally inconclusive…”
Brandon Tatum: “The headline is deceptive and everybody that wants the killer of Charlie Kirk to get off, they’re salivating at the opportunity for that to happen…There is a difference between a bullet being identified and matching a gun that’s different than the suspect weapon…[and] the bullet is so fragmented that it was inconclusive, which makes it impossible to identify with any gun, including the suspect weapon.”
Laura Loomer: “Candace Owens is now calling for Tyler Robinson, the man who killed Charlie Kirk, to be acquitted. She is completely insane and she truly wants to see Charlie’s killer walk free because he chose Erika over her. This is pure evil.”

Needless to say, it’s going to be a long trial with lots more fuel added to the fire of conspiracy theories around the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

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MAGA’s Civil War of Incivility

Joe Kent and the war in Iran remain at the center of the ongoing MAGA civil war between Trump loyalists and the America First crowd. This past week, the war escalated at a local GOP event in South Florida.

Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Trump’s self-proclaimed “Secretary of Retribution” Ivan Raiklin traded blows online this week after a brief confrontation at the Lincoln Day Dinner in Martin County, Florida. Footage shows Raiklin; Christian minister and activist Joseph Philip Daniel; and former Florida cop, member of the Proud Boys and Jan. 6 defendant Nate Tuck calling Bongino a “pedophile protector” and a “f*ggot,” while Bongino yells back at them to “go volunteer and do something.”

A day later, Raiklin went on Stewart Rhodes’ Infowars show to explain the incident. He insisted that his attendance at the event was unplanned and last-minute, and that he intended to calmly ask Bongino about Joe Kent and inquire as to why he blocked him on X. He also pinned the profanity and aggressiveness on Nate Tuck, who he claimed to have just met that day:

“And then Nate, I just met literally minutes before and he’s like, I’d like to go too… Same thing with Nate when he called him a pedophile protector. Well, that’s not my style.”
“My first question [for Bongino], I should have just asked it there. Why’d you block me?… And then the second thing is, why are you calling Joe Kent a coward? Please provide a substantive supporting argument on how you come to [this] conclusion…considering his experience fighting Iranian proxies.”

Back in the podcast game after resigning from the Trump administration in January, a disgruntled Bongino dedicated nearly half of an episode titled “Enemies to the Right” to eviscerating the trio. He likened them to “goofballs” seeking to undermine MAGA, questioned their contributions to the movement and called Raiklin and Daniel “Igor” and “Ogre” in an attempt to attack their appearance:

“Igor, do your parents tell everyone they have no living children, looking like you? Really? I mean, listen man, I get it. I don’t claim to have a face for podcasts. That’s why I enjoyed radio. But my gosh, if [I] had that Uncle Fester look, I would go hide.”
“These guys, they popped up on the scene, some of them in the last three, four years, never done a damn thing, put their name on a ballot, never agreed to serve… This is an asymmetric, unilateral war by a group of people who secreted themselves into this content creation ecosystem and pretended to be part of our unit while they’re trying to destroy it.”

Raiklin then went on Owen Report with Owen Shroyer a day later to reiterate much of the same talking points he laid out on Stewart Rhodes’ show and call on President Trump to return to the America First platform: “So Don, we welcome you back into our movement, and to be our president that we can actually respect again.”

As the MAGA civil war rages on, Dan Bongino has emerged as one of Trump’s strongest, most steadfast champions — and he’s not leaving the ring anytime soon.

War Abroad, MAGA Civil War at Home

Cesspool — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 20:53:27 GMT

Nearly a month after Donald Trump launched Operation Epic Fury, war still rages in the Middle East. Perhaps just as existential for the administration is the civil war that rages on among MAGA media figures over whether the Iran war is justified.

This week…

Megyn Kelly and Mark Levin’s feud goes below the belt.
The fallout from Joe Kent’s resignation reverberates throughout MAGA.
Ben Shapiro and Piers Morgan have a new, common enemy.

Mentioned: Megyn Kelly…Mark Levin…Ryan Grim…Dave Rubin…Laura Loomer…Dan Bongino…Donald Trump…Marjorie Taylor Greene…Nick Fuentes…Alex Jones…Joe Kent…Shannon Kent…Candace Owens…Saagar Enjeti…Sneako…Tim Pool…Dave Smith…Glenn Greenwald…Myron Gaines…Michael Flynn Jr.…Shawn Ryan…Buckley Carlson…JP Sears…The Hodgetwins…Grace Chong…Jimmy Dore…Theo Von…Ben Shapiro…Cenk Uygur…Ana Kasparian…Tucker Carlson…Mark Dubowitz…Charlie Kirk…Tyler Robinson…Louis Theroux…HSTikkyTokky…Justin Waller…Piers Morgan…Benny Johnson…Hasan Piker…Ilhan Omar…Isra Hirsi…Kneecap…Jack Abramoff…Marcus Andrade…Brian Darling…Rand Paul.

WHEN THEY GO LOW…

Divisions within MAGA media over the war in Iran have ignited significant infighting — complete with a number of low blows. Nowhere has the infighting been more visceral than in the fiery debate between Megyn Kelly and Mark Levin. Former colleagues at Fox News, the warring podcasters have taken their dispute over American foreign policy to personal, even anatomical, grounds.

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Levin and Kelly have been at each other’s throats for several months now, primarily over the Epstein files and the war in Iran. Their feud escalated further when Kelly reposted allegations made by Ryan Grim, co-founder of Drop Site News, that the man who launched a terrorist attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, had family members who “were killed in a recent Israeli attack” in Lebanon. Levin called Kelly “evil. Diabolical. Gone,” to which Kelly responded, “I’m sorry you have a micro penis @marklevinshow, but don’t drag the rest of us into your drama.”

The next morning, Levin returned the favor, calling Kelly “an emotionally unhinged, lewd, and petulant wreck” without “an intelligent, thoughtful, or substantive comment. Utterly toxic.”

Kelly replied:

“Micropenis Mark @marklevinshow thinks he has the monopoly on lewd. He tweets about me obsessively in the crudest, nastiest terms possible. Literally more than some stalkers I’ve had arrested. He doesn’t like it when women like me fight back. Bc of his micropenis.”

Levin shot back on his radio show:

“Who are these people, these podcasters? What do you know about them?… Megyn Kelly is just a disaster, a walking disaster…They haven’t contributed anything to anybody, any community, any state…She’s gone from loving me and stalking me to her claim that I’m stalking her. And now she wants to talk about body parts.”

Rather than retreating, Kelly simply doubled down on her phallic attack, saying on her podcast, “When they go low, we go micropenis.”

Those aligned with Levin in support of the war hit back at Kelly. Dave Rubin lamented, “When they go low, we go lower now…How would she know about Mark Levin’s penis? Like, it’s just all so freaking ridiculous.”

Laura Loomer quote-posted Kelly’s post with an old clip of her on Dan Bongino’s show in May 2023 in which Kelly said, “I have this like, crush from afar on Mark Levin…I secretly from afar am like a Mark Levin stalker.” Loomer additionally called Kelly’s stalker comment “more projection from Grandma Groyper.”

As the situation escalated, President Donald Trump himself waded into the so-called “podcast wars.” He posted to Truth Social defending Levin as a “truly Great American Patriot” who “is somewhat under siege by other people with far less Intellect, Capability, and Love for our Country.” The kicker? “Those that speak ill of Mark will quickly fall by the wayside, as do people whose ideas, policies, and footings are not sound. THEY ARE NOT MAGA, I AM.”

Unsurprisingly, a number of America First media personalities did not take kindly to the president picking sides in this battle of the MAGA civil war:

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted, “I wholeheartedly support Megyn Kelly telling the world that Mark Levin has a micropenis. It’s the most deserved insult and I don’t care if it’s vulgar. And Trump’s gigantic defense of Levin only enraged the base more. People are DONE. MAGA destroyed by micropenis Mark Levin.”
Nick Fuentes said, “If you are MAGA, Mark Levin, Laura Loomer, Randy Fine, Miriam Adelson, Larry Fink, Ronald Lauder — they are not your peers… They are your boss… You have to defer to them. And if you don’t, you will be fired. You will be ostracized.”
Alex Jones said, “What Trump’s really doing here is attacking his critics. He doesn’t wanna say ‘don’t attack me on the Iran War.’ He wants to say ‘leave Mark Levin alone, he’s the litmus test’… Now [Mark Levin] called on daddy Trump to come and say, ‘woo…you won’t be able to sit at the cool table at lunch.’”

What began as a disagreement over U.S. foreign policy has devolved into a full-blown, extremely personal war over who controls the soul of the MAGA movement — and it seems unlikely a ceasefire will be brokered anytime soon.

JOE KENT WAGES HIS OWN WAR

The schisms within MAGA continued to intensify when Joe Kent, a former Army Green Beret and CIA paramilitary officer, resigned from his role as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center on March 17, penning a scathing resignation letter posted to X. In it, he wrote that he “cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” asserting that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation” and that the U.S. “started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.” The letter continued:

“Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined [Trump’s] America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.”

In his resignation letter Kent also insinuated that Israel forced the U.S. to invade Iraq in 2003, claiming that his late wife, Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, who was killed in a 2019 ISIS suicide bombing in Syria, had died “in a war manufactured by Israel.”

The statement immediately went viral, garnering more than 100 million views on X. Numerous America First influencers — including Candace Owens, Saagar Enjeti, Sneako, Tim Pool, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Dave Smith, Glenn Greenwald, Myron Gaines, Michael Flynn Jr., Shawn Ryan, Buckley Carlson, MAGA satirist JP Sears, the Hodgetwins, Grace Chong, Jimmy Dore and Theo Von — applauded Kent for his principled resignation.

But not everyone sang Kent’s praises. Ben Shapiro called Kent’s resignation letter “deeply, deeply conspiratorial,” questioned why Kent was appointed to the administration in the first place and wondered who else might be “working against Trump inside the administration.” Dave Rubin called Kent a political opportunist, accusing him of laying the groundwork for a future campaign for higher office.

Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino accused Kent of lying and called him inconsistent on Israel and Iran. Bongino also said:

“The conclusion drawn in Joe Kent’s resignation letter — this was some war for Israel and Iran is not a threat — folks, I gotta tell you something, I don’t know what intelligence he was reading to come to that conclusion. He clearly had a different opinion in the past, repeatedly in podcast appearances and tweets where he indicated it was a threat. I don’t know how you…read the intel which he had access to, especially the foreign stuff, and then come to the conclusion that Iran was not an imminent threat.”

President Trump went further, attacking Joe Kent during a press gaggle. Trump disputed Kent’s claim that there was no imminent threat to the United States, saying, “he said very strongly that Iran is not a threat. Iran’s been a threat for 47 years and there’s not a country in the world that doesn’t agree with me on that.” The president also mocked Kent’s two congressional losses and attacked his lack of loyalty to the administration, saying he gave Kent “a job in the White House, [and] this is the thanks I get.”

Stooping lower, Trump personally attacked Kent and his late wife, saying, “He was a man that I met at Dover [Air Force Base]. He came [when] his wife was killed. He remarried fairly quickly.”

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Then came Joe Kent’s press tour. Less than 48 hours after resigning from the Trump administration, Kent launched a MAGA media blitz, appearing on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” “The Megyn Kelly Show,” “The Shawn Ryan Show,” and even — in a notably contentious appearance — “The Mark Levin Show.” He also joined “The Young Turks,” the left-wing YouTube show hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian.

Kent told Tucker Carlson that “the Israelis drove the decision to take this action.” He described an “ecosystem of information laundered through a lot of prominent neoconservative types” — Mark Levin, Mark Dubowitz and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, specifically — that shifted Trump’s red line on Iran from “no nuclear weapon” to “no enrichment,” effectively torpedoing negotiations and guaranteeing war.

Kent accused the Israelis, including their intelligence services and what he referred to as the pro-Israel “media echo chamber,” of lying to the U.S. government in an effort to lead them to war, saying, “I know the Israeli officials, some in intelligence, some in government, will come to U.S. government officials and they will say all kinds of things that we know from our intelligence just simply isn’t true.”

Yet perhaps Kent’s most explosive revelation was his conspiratorial insinuation that there was a link between the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the Iran war:

“The last time I saw Charlie Kirk on this earth was in June, in the West Wing in the stairway…He said, ‘Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran.’…When one of President Trump’s closest advisors who is vocally advocating for us to not go to war with Iran and for us to rethink, at least, our relationship with the Israelis, and then he’s suddenly publicly assassinated and we’re not allowed to ask any questions about that, it’s a data point — it’s a data point that we need to look into.”

He went on to say, “We’ve been told that this individual, [Tyler] Robinson, was a lone gunman and maybe he is, but the investigation that I was a part of, the National Counterterrorism Center was a part of, we were stopped from continuing to investigate.”

Kent similarly told Megyn Kelly that the FBI shut down its investigation prematurely after arresting Robinson, claiming “There were additional leads that we needed to run down and fully investigate. And that simply was not done.” He added that “there were people posting about Charlie Kirk being killed before Charlie Kirk was killed” and called it “a data point that we need to look into.”

In a testy radio interview on “The Mark Levin Show,” Levin pressed Kent on his claim that the assassination of Charlie Kirk was a “data point that we need to look into.” In response, Kent told Levin, “What I know is that there were foreign leads that we did not get a chance to look into, that we did not thoroughly investigate.”

Levin asked, “Do you have any country in mind?” to which Kent responded, “No. I think we need to fully investigate the potential of any foreign nexus.”

And he’s serious. On Tuesday, Kent told Michael Shellenberger he’d even be willing to testify in Tyler Robinson’s defense that the FBI mishandled the investigation into Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

We surely haven’t seen the end of Joe Kent — much to the administration’s chagrin.

PICKUP ARTISTS PUT DOWN

A new Netflix documentary by BBC documentarian Louis Theroux explores the “manosphere,” a growing genre of content catering to young men that promotes masculinity, misogyny and opposition to feminism. “Inside the Manosphere” (2026) follows influencers HSTikkyTokky (Harrison Sullivan), Sneako (Nicolas Kenn De Balinthazy), Myron Gaines (of “The Fresh & Fit Podcast”) and Justin Waller through their lives as content creators. Despite their recent spat over the Iran war, Piers Morgan and Ben Shapiro found themselves aligned in opposition to those in the manosphere and what they view as a “scam” propagated, according to Morgan, by individuals whose “only real motivation seems to be social media clout.”

Piers Morgan invited HSTikkyTokky onto his show to discuss the documentary, but the segment soured rapidly, spiraling into a heated exchange featuring name-calling and unsubstantiated accusations that Morgan engaged in wrongdoing on Epstein’s island before Morgan cut the interview short.

HSTikkyTokky: “I don’t agree with you going to Epstein’s island and having freak-offs with Ghislaine Maxwell and the rest of them…I’m comparing you to Epstein, then, because you are in his files.”
Morgan: “You’re making yourself look an even bigger idiot than you did on the Netflix show…I think you’re a fucking idiot. I think you’re a sexist, misogynist, homophobic twerp who got exposed in a global way by Netflix… You’re a little halfwit… I don’t care about your silly insults.”

Ben Shapiro opted to “factmog” the influencers in the documentary:

On Myron Gaines… “Gaines happens to be an idiot who picks on people even dumber than he is — largely, similarly vile female influencers who are also desperate for attention. It’s a sort of never-ending cycle of loathsome garbage.”
On Sneako… “Speaking of morons, there’s also Sneako… the newly-minted Muslim who spends his days online ranting about — wait for it — the Jews…At a certain point, Sneako admits that the manosphere is basically a giant scam.”

Sneako and Gaines fired back at Morgan and Shapiro, accusing them of using accusations of bigotry and ad hominem attacks as a shield to shut down substantive debate on the merits:

Sneako: “Stupid Ben [Shapiro]… Ben, you’re losing a lot of subscribers cause people are sick of being labeled with these ‘-isms’ to prevent conversations from happening. You cannot constantly be on this moral high ground while running cover for Epstein.”
Myron Gaines: “[Piers] Morgan got a harsh reality check that reminded him that being a progressive liberal is not gonna work. You can only get the mask on for so long… He believes in feminism. He believes in multiculturalism. He believes in immigration to a degree. He doesn’t like racism. He doesn’t like bigotry. He doesn’t like Anti-Semitism. Basically, he goes against every single thing that I talk about.”

While the circular firing squad raged, Benny Johnson felt compelled to weigh in, but he trained his sights on a different target — the documentarian. He insulted Theroux, calling him a “skinny noodle arm, fat-belly, weakling, limp-wristed sniffling lib” working to “denigrate, humiliate, demoralize and ultimately replace the men who hold up Western civilization.”

While this passing battle has largely subsided, the war to win the hearts and minds of young conservative men rages on, with the manosphere’s influence over the next generation of conservative men only growing.

BEST OF THE REST

Influencers take Cuba. The antiwar group Code Pink organized a delegation to Cuba to deliver humanitarian aid and protest Trump’s oil blockade. The convoy, which visited the island last week, included a number of left-wing media figures and activists opposed to U.S. military interventionism such as streamer Hasan Piker, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi, Northern Ireland rap group Kneecap and Ryan Grim.

As reported by Fox News, the group stayed at luxury hotels while the rest of the island suffered rolling blackouts, leading to accusations of gross hypocrisy by The Washington Post. The Free Press labeled the group “Cuba’s useless idiots.” Ben Shapiro called Piker and Code Pink “morons” doing “true poverty tourism.” He criticized the group for diverting power from local hospitals to run a concert, and criticized Piker for “giving sensual massages to the Cuban communist government” while “wearing $1,500 designer Cartier glasses.”

Got $500? Buy a Daily Caller article. During the first Trump administration, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his business partner Marcus Andrade launched a new cryptocurrency called “Anti-Money Laundering BitCoin” — AML BitCoin. According to The Bulwark’s Will Sommer, “To drum up investor interest, the duo effectively purchased free, positive press by making undisclosed payments to journalists in conservative and financial media. Many of the payments were organized by Brian Darling, a former staffer for Sen. Rand Paul, who now works as a lobbyist at a firm he founded called Liberty Government Affairs.”

When Abramoff and Andrade were indicted by the Department of Justice for making “false and misleading statements to potential purchasers” about AML BitCoin, Darling’s ledger tracking payments to journalists was introduced as evidence in Andrade’s criminal trial. In total, it was revealed that Darling spent $12,800 through his lobbying shop to buy positive coverage of AML, mostly in conservative outlets such as The Daily Caller, Townhall, Newsmax, The Washington Times, RedState and The American Spectator. For just $1,000, AML BitCoin was able to land two articles in The Daily Caller, the outlet Tucker Carlson founded in 2012. Additionally, for just $250 Newsmax published a since-deleted article which “breathlessly claimed that the NFL and NBC had rejected a Super Bowl ad from AML BitCoin because it was ‘too political.’”

“The MAGA Movement Is Surely Dead”

Cesspool — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 21:34:12 GMT

Since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, right-wing media influencers have been jockeying for political power and wrestling to define Kirk’s legacy. This fight has only grown as MAGA media is increasingly divided by the war in Iran.

So, would Charlie Kirk have supported the war with Iran?

Leading up to the 12-Day War in June 2025, Kirk criticized those within his party pushing for a regime change war in Iran, saying, “that’s pathologically insane. I’m sorry, it is…Yeah, the Ayatollah is awful, but maybe he’s one of the few guys that can keep that country together and not have a 90-million-person civil war.”

When the United States went to war with Iran in late February 2026, Kirk’s comments resurfaced and were used by those opposed to U.S. interventionism to argue that Charlie Kirk would not have supported this war. In response, Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet attempted to clarify what he believes Charlie Kirk’s position on the war would have been if he were still alive, stating:

“Charlie was, by instinct and by default, against regime change wars…But Charlie was also a realist. I remember on multiple occasions he told me something along the lines of ‘Listen, the world is a very dark place without American military leadership.’ Didn’t mean he was in favor of foreign adventurism or regime change wars, because he wasn’t. But he was also a realist and President Trump had earned his respect. President Trump had earned a big, long leash — not an unlimited one, but a very long one — to make tough decisions…I am not saying that I think this war has been properly sold to the American public, I don’t think it has been. But if there was additional information that we are not privy to that would have in their minds necessitated an urgent, aggressive attack…then President Trump would act and we always knew that would be the case.”

But not everyone agrees with Kolvet’s assessment of Kirk’s legacy. MAGA media has splintered into multiple feuding factions with conflicting views on the war in Iran. There are at least five main groups, which we’re referring to here as:

Regime Change Hawks: those who support the war.
MAGA Allies: those expressing skepticism about the war, but not willing to oppose it or the administration outright.
The America First Faction: those who claim this war “is not America First.”
“The Bros”: podcaster-comedian types who feel betrayed by Trump given his campaign promise of “no new wars.”
Fringe Figures: those who peddle conspiracy theories about Zionism, Armageddon and an Epstein blackmail operation, and use these theories as their basis to criticize the war.

THE REGIME CHANGE HAWKS

Unsurprisingly, old-school foreign policy hawks have been cheering on the war, including those in the Murdoch media-verse. The Wall Street Journal and New York Post editorial boards both expressed support for the war, as have pundits on Fox News. Mark Levin, for one, argued that U.S. military intervention was necessary because the U.S. was in imminent danger as, he claimed, “[Iran’s] nuclear ICBMs,” that is intercontinental ballistic missiles, “aren’t aimed for Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. They’re aimed for New York and Los Angeles and Chicago and everywhere in between and around the United States of America.”

Beyond the confines of Murdoch-owned news outlets, perhaps the media’s biggest cheerleader for this war is Ben Shapiro. As he said last week, “I’m extremely pro what he’s doing. What Trump is doing is the bravest foreign policy decision of my lifetime.”

Shapiro has also gone out of his way to defend the administration against criticism over the war. He dismissed concerns that the U.S. targeted the Iranian girls’ school where a Tomahawk missile strike killed at least 175 people, mostly children, rhetorically asking, “Do you really believe that the Trump administration knew there were girls at a school and they decided to hit it with a Tomahawk? Do you really believe that? If you do, you hate not only Trump but America, truly. Because that is a scurrilous lie.”

He also derided those complaining that this will be yet another forever war as “legitimately insane,” noting that he’s “got cottage cheese in [his] fridge that is older than this war.”

Steven Crowder, another online political commentator, has similarly defended the administration and hit back at the war’s critics, saying that “anyone who voted for Donald Trump and believes that they are being betrayed if he bombs Iran or if he takes military action was an uninformed voter.” Laura Loomer likewise expressed support for the war, even promoting hats reading “Make Iran Persian Again.”

MAGA ALLIES

Many MAGA loyalists are deeply skeptical of this war, even if they still support the administration. Usually a loyal cheerleader for the president and his policies, conservative YouTuber Benny Johnson called out Trump for backtracking on his campaign promises: “Trump said no new wars, no forever wars, and that this was going to be a domestic policy season…That’s what I was promised. And it sure as hell doesn’t seem like that’s what’s going on here…I hate it.”

However, Johnson added that he maintains hope that this could be like the 12-Day War and the military campaign Trump launched in Venezuela to depose Nicolás Maduro, which “seemingly worked out just fine.”

Social media personality Mike Cernovich, who continues to support the administration, likewise expressed reservations about the war and its political consequences: “I don’t believe that the Trump administration has given an explanation. I don’t think this is a popular measure. I don’t think this is what people want.”

Michael Knowles is certainly more skeptical of the war than Ben Shapiro, his colleague at The Daily Wire. Knowles stated that “If I had been on the [National Security Council], I would have made all the arguments I could have against the Iran strike.” He also cautioned that “President Trump has put himself in a very similar position to George Bush in Iraq. It was the same justification for going to war.” Nevertheless, he remains loyal to the administration, clarifying, “I support the president with some reservation on Iran, but I support the strategy.”

Likewise, Tim Pool expressed mixed feelings about the war, noting the U.S. does “not [have] a good track record on regime change.” However, Pool has not lost faith in Trump or totally disavowed the war. To the contrary, Pool said he “loved the masculinity of Trump’s response to look [Khomeini] in the eye and being like ‘I’m going to kill you,’ and then he did.”

Steve Bannon, meanwhile, said he is “not a wildly enthusiastic supporter of this war,” and noted that it could be hard to gain Americans’ support for it because a war with Iran “was not pitched in the 2024 campaign. It just wasn’t.” While he remains loyal to Trump, Bannon’s position on the war is almost nihilistic: “If it’s a chaotic mess, I just don’t care. I don’t care about Iran, I don’t care about the Persians, I just don’t. We got enough problems here.”

THE AMERICA FIRST FACTION

Conversely, Nick Fuentes, a de facto leader of the America First ideological movement which holds anti-interventionism as a core principle, concluded that “Trump utterly betrayed MAGA” by starting a war with Iran. Fuentes warned, “We are in a state of distress. This is not a republic anymore. That’s over, and the MAGA movement is surely dead.” He labeled the administration as “wicked. It’s evil. It’s doing evil things. It’s covering up the Epstein files. It’s prosecuting a war in Iran. It’s lying to us about the war. It sold it under false pretenses. There’s all kinds of embezzlement and corruption.”

Fuentes, however, is not surprised that Trump led the country to war with Iran. Having not voted for Donald Trump in 2024 — fearing that the MAGA movement had been hijacked by lobbyists, consultants, donors and “the neocons” — Fuentes boasted, “Don’t kid yourself when you say ‘Trump failed us, MAGA died.’ MAGA didn’t die. This is what it always was.”

Other America First advocates — including allies of the administration who campaigned for Trump — have also expressed their opposition to the war, noting it flies in the face of Trump’s campaign promise that “I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop wars.”

Tucker Carlson has taken a leading role in the conservative charge against the war. In the past year, he has used his platform to rail against U.S. military intervention in Iran. In June, Carlson hosted Sen. Ted Cruz for a contentious interview about regime change in Iran. In a widely shared exchange, Carlson scolded Cruz for not being able to recite how many people live in Iran — “You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?”

Carlson revealed that his lobbying against war with Iran even brought him to the White House three times in recent months, “to try to convince Trump not to do this.” His efforts, however, proved unsuccessful, because, according to Carlson:

“[Trump] is being shown polling that this war is like a 90-10 win for him…I don’t know where that poll is coming from. I guess you can make any kind of poll. He’s watching Fox News, which is telling him the same thing, and he’s getting fake polling — I guess they’re only polling Sean Hannity’s viewers or something.”

Passionately opposed to the Iran war, Carlson seized on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments suggesting that the U.S. couldn’t stop Israel from attacking Iran, and therefore had to strike Iran, too. Carlson concluded the war “was not America First. This was at least America second.” He added, “This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States' war. This is not being waged on behalf of American national security objectives…No, this war is waged purely because Israel wanted it to be waged.”

And it’s not just Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson — many of Trump’s once stalwart supporters in the America First movement are also unhappy, including former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is “irate” about Trump’s decision to take the country to war. In an appearance on “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Greene said, “I am furious about this. We are nearly $40 trillion in debt. How much is this war going to cost us? We have seen enough of our American troops dead and murdered for foreign countries, and now we’ve had four dead and murdered…for Israel and for the Iranian people, not for the American people.” She went on:

“What is happening to the man that I supported?…The man that said no more foreign wars, no more regime change, promised it on the campaign. JD Vance promised it. Tulsi Gabbard promised it. All of them promised it. And we’re a year in, a year in, and we’re in another fucking war…We need to have a serious conversation about what the fuck is happening to this country…Who in the hell are these decisions being made for and who is making these decisions?”

Megyn Kelly expressed similar frustration with the war and the appearance that Israel forced the U.S. into it. Just days before fighting broke out, Kelly told Tucker Carlson, “We’ve done enough for Israel. We’re allies with Israel, we’ve done a lot for Israel. I am firmly in the camp that we don’t need to do this.” She later added that this “is an isolationist or non-interventionist’s worst nightmare. It is exactly the opposite of what President Trump ran on, exactly the opposite.”

Saagar Enjeti, co-host of the show “Breaking Points,” similarly denounced the war, telling The Bulwark’s Tim Miller that it is a “strategic catastrophe…We’ve basically given up our sovereign ability to act to save Israel.” He further revealed on “The Megyn Kelly Show” that “the vice president and a significant part of the higher echelon of the national security establishment…lied to [his] face…They said that war with Iran is not in our interest.” He called the administration’s reversal on this “the greatest professional disappointment of [his] life.”

“THE BROS”

Also feeling lied to are Joe Rogan and the other comedy podcast “bros” who oppose the war. These podcasts are not explicitly political or ideological, but they lined up behind Trump in large part due to his promise to avoid foreign entanglements. Now, Rogan has called the war “terrifying” and “the exact opposite of what we were told leading into this administration, that it’s gonna be America First and no more unnecessary wars.” This broken campaign promise, Rogan claimed, “is why a lot of people feel betrayed” by Trump.

Libertarian podcaster Dave Smith also denounced the war and noted, “the justification for this war is totally incoherent.” In addition to rebuking Trump, he took aim at JD Vance, saying, “You fucking liar. You’re just an unbelievable liar…You’re lying us into a war against a country of 92 million people.”

Like Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, Smith faulted Israel for provoking U.S. involvement in the war. He remarked, “This was the Israelis’ plan and they’re just much smarter than Donald Trump and so they were able to con him into this.”

In a similar vein, comedian Theo Von claimed the war was caused by Trump being “beholden” to the Israeli government. He elaborated, “I don’t understand how our relationship with [Israel] is helping America.”

Comic Tim Dillon also responded with outrage, speculating that this war was initiated to distract from Trump’s domestic issues. He said, “I believe they want World War III. I think the Epstein documents, it started to expose things that could not see the light of day. I think this economy is in much deeper trouble than people think. And I think that this is the plan. The plan is we need some kind of prolonged conflict.”

Dillon continued to criticize Trump, saying, “this guy is basically letting Jared Kushner and Bibi Netanyahu just carve up the Middle East, do whatever the hell they want.” He also attacked Pete Hegseth for his defense of the war, saying Hegseth is “a truly contemptible figure who should resign, war criminal Pete Hegseth.”

THE FRINGE

Those further out on the fringes of the alternative media ecosystem have offered a range of conspiracy theories to explain the war and why it is bad. Candace Owens, with her deeply held opposition to Israel, is passionately opposed to the war. She remarked, “Make no mistake, Trump will, if they tell him to, at the behest of Bibi or Miriam Adelson, send your sons and daughters to die for Israel. Israel expects that. They look at the goyim and they say, ‘That’s ours. Those are our cattle.’” Owens said that “no American son or daughter should die for Israel,” and encouraged non-Jews to leave the U.S. military, telling them, “Goyim, stand down. Go home. Find legal means to exit the military.”

Owens, who has turned on the administration in recent months following the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the administration’s mishandling of the Epstein files, skewered Trump for the war, saying, “Trump allowing this to happen, allowing this to go forward, it makes him a traitor and it also makes him a coward.” She added, “His legacy is going to be a person who could not stand up to Bibi Netanyahu, a person who just loves money and loves the idea of his name on anything.”

Furthermore, Owens asked her audience, “Which guaranteed constitutional right [do] you believe that Trump would not violate for Israel? Can you name one? Because I feel like right now we are all being forced into the servitude of a foreign nation.” She even alleged that Charlie Kirk’s assassination was engineered to pave the way for this war with Iran: “Charlie Kirk was the first casualty of the war in Iran. I’m certain of that and it’s deeper than that. I am now of the opinion that he was likely sacrificed.”

Controversial streamer Nicolas Kenn De Balinthazy, better known as Sneako, is also fiercely opposed to the war. He speculated that “Trump is probably doing this because he’s in the Epstein files and he doesn’t wanna get blackmailed.” He continued, “He’s 80 years old and he’s more afraid of the blackmail coming out. He would rather bring us into another war in the Middle East…because he does not want his reputation to be tarnished by the blackmail footage being released from Epstein’s island.”

Alex Jones, meanwhile, blamed Trump’s decision to go to war on a lack of independent judgment by the president. Jones argued that Sen. Lindsey Graham, JD Vance and Marco Rubio, as well as foreign countries including Israel and Saudi Arabia, pushed Trump to launch the attacks on Iran. He concluded, “Trump has walked us directly into a trap.”

British actor-turned-podcaster Russell Brand noted that “this is not, I don’t think, the Trump that you lot all voted for…What happened to America First non-interventionism?” Brand went further, catastrophizing about the ramifications of the war. “Armageddon, here it comes,” he said, noting, “We must regard any regional war in the Middle East as potentially apocalyptic.”

He told his audience, “What’s perhaps more alarming than the centralized propaganda is that members of the Trump Cabinet appear to be buying nuclear bunkers.” Fearing the end times, Brand offered some advice to his supporters — “I’d start looking at properties in New Zealand, [nuclear] bunkers in New Zealand.”

THE FRACTURES RUN DEEP

As Tucker Carlson noted, the online right might be “permanently fractured” by this war with Iran. Indeed, what’s striking isn’t just the disagreements themselves but the nature of the disagreements. These aren’t debates or objections about troop levels or strategy, but fundamental divisions about:

Who controls U.S. foreign policy? Trump? Bibi Netanyahu? The Israel lobby? The neocons? Isolationists? An Epstein-connected blackmail network?
What is the war actually about? Protecting the U.S.? Freeing Iran through regime change? Dismantling Iran’s nuclear threat? Advancing Israel’s interests?
Did Trump betray Americans who voted for him? Is this war consistent with Trump’s commitment to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon? Is Trump turning his back on his pledge to put America first?

These questions remain disputed, and the divisions among the different factions aren’t going away.

And it’s not just factions of talking heads and media personalities that are divided on Trump’s war in Iran. According to a CNN poll, 59 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s decision to carry out military action against Iran. While support for the war is higher among self-identified Republicans, still roughly one in four opposes the war. Without the strong backing of allies in the media, this administration may struggle to turn around public sentiment about the war.