There are indications this year’s MAGA family Thanksgiving gathering may be contentious.
Pre-Thanksgiving arguments and disagreements threaten to spill into scraps and splits at the family meal. After more than 10 years of party loyalty and unity, the MAGA family finds themselves at odds with their leader.
Real headlines blare: “Inside MAGA’s Impending Implosion.” And “MAGA’s Mutually Assured Destruction.” And this: “MAGA Is Imploding in Real Time.” Or this ominous headline: “MAGA Meltdown Tests Its Creator.”
Rodney Kennedy
Maybe it’s all wishful thinking by the media, but something’s not quite festive about Mar-a-Lago’s Thanksgiving.
The wildfire in Trump’s Thanksgiving is the Epstein Files. Trump has been the master of putting out fires threatening to consume his political career. He has been Fireman of the Year for a decade.
He has escaped multiple political wildfires that would have consumed more honest politicians. He has put out dozens of fires by lighting backfires to quell the wildfires he himself started.
At MAGA gatherings, Trump savages those in his base who are falling for what he now calls “the Jeffrey Epstein hoax,” saying, “My PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line and sinker.”
The press secretary, Trump’s junior firefighter, runs around with his small fire extinguisher assuring MAGA that Thanksgiving dinner prices are down 25%. There’s no inflation, the economy is in a “Golden Age,” the polls on Trump are wrong, and there’s nothing to see in the Epstein files. None of this is reality, of course.
MAGA has swallowed every one of these morsels whole, but something is different this Thanksgiving. The Epstein files are burning holes in MAGA minds.
“The president has tried to put out the fire of rising grocery prices by insisting prices are 25% less this Thanksgiving than they were under Joe Biden in 2024.”
Adding fuel to the flames, “America First” is imploding. The president’s tariff policy has been a full-sized yo-yo of fancy moves up and down, back and forth. Trump has supported the side of H-1B proponents, including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, even claiming the U.S. does not have the talent to fill those jobs.
The president has tried to put out the fire of rising grocery prices by insisting prices are 25% less this Thanksgiving than they were under Joe Biden in 2024. He received a friendly assist from Walmart’s announcement that their Thanksgiving basket would be 25% cheaper this Thanksgiving. No mention was made of the basket having only 22 items this year compared to 29 items last year.
Even the president’s signature campaign promise to deport “21 million illegal immigrants” has been a disappointment. Instead of millions deported, millions of Americans witness the nightly videos of ICE agents acting like thugs as they rumble through the streets of American cities.
In MAGA eyes, Trump has slaughtered the sacred cow. He swore he would demolish the “Deep State.” Yet his dance around the Epstein files has made him an ally of the “Deep State.”
The National Fire Protection Association reports deep-frying turkeys causes 1,000 fires, five deaths and $15 million in property damages every year. Deep fried turkey cookers can turn into projectiles when they explode.
That’s fair warning to anyone who tries to deep-fry the turkey of lies Donald Trump has served up.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.