Save the Children
They're saving children, MAGA supporters would often say in defense of their policies and candidates. Yet, where are those voices now?
Saving children is one of those themes that tends bridge the diverse strains of MAGA world. Border-control-MAGA argues that shutting down the border will save children from sex traffickers. QAnon-MAGA seeks to save children from Democrats who they claim steal children and drink their blood in a ritualistic sacrifice. Evangelical-MAGA supports (or watches films about) organizations fighting child slavery.
The honorable goal of saving children can be a powerful motivator. Much can be justified when you believe your support for candidates or political parties contribute to actions that save the lives of children. This is why partisan operatives and conflict entrepreneurs often reference saving children.
But if you really care about children, you should be appalled at many recent actions taken by MAGA politicians.
A 10-y-o U.S. citizen suffering from brain cancer was deported with her undocumented parents while on her way to the hospital where she receives treatment.
Funding was canceled for a program tracking over 30,000 children who were abducted by Russia during its invasion of Ukraine1.
A global health organization that is estimated to have saved the lives of 19 million children by providing vaccinations in the developing world will no longer receive funding from the U.S.2, which provided 13% of its budget.
Florida Republicans are advancing legislation that would loosen child labor laws.
Where is the concern among the MAGA faithful for these children? If your partisan loyalties take priority over children, maybe you don't really care much about children.
What Else We’re Reading
Paul Miller: “A Confessing Church for America’s Weimar Moment”
It’s a relevant question for the American church in 2025. Whether you are on the left or the right, it is tempting to see ourselves as living through Germany in 1933, confronting the moral equivalent of the Nazis on the other side. There is a moral clarity to it, stark lines dividing the good guys from the bad. Our duty is obvious; the only question is whether we can muster the courage.
But the analogy can be misleading, and it excuses us from examining our own side. We should be able to spot injustices from both sides of the political aisle. It is harder, intellectually and spiritually, to confront a different historical analogy. Maybe we’re not living through the Nazi regime in 1933, but through the Weimar Republic of 1923.
Newsweek: “Russia Accused of Persecuting Christians in Ukraine”
The ISW said Russia is targeting in particular Evangelical Christian communities in Ukraine's occupied Kherson region "as part of a wider campaign in occupied Ukraine aimed at destroying independent Ukrainian national and religious identities."
The think tank cited a report by the Center of National Resistance of Ukraine on Sunday that Russian-installed officials in the occupied region are "forcibly converting and reconsecrating Ukrainian churches into the Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate (ROC MP)."
"The Ukrainian Resistance Center reported that ROC MP priests watch Russian occupation officials torture Ukrainian Protestant Christian believers and force Ukrainian children to pray for the 'Russkiy Mir' (Russian World)—a Kremlin-promoted geopolitical concept with amorphous parameters that broadly encompasses Russian language, culture, Orthodoxy, and media," the ISW said.
The Bulwark: “MAGA Influencers May Have Been Paid to Break With RFK”
The first indication that something was afoot came on Friday, when Blake Marnell, an online pro-Trump anchor who goes by “Brick Suit” (he wears a suit that looks like border-wall bricks), posted comparisons of the pro-soda tweets authored by MAGA influencers, illustrating what appeared to be some sort of coordinated campaign. The attention grew after Turning Point USA’s Riley Gaines claimed on X that she’d been offered money to oppose the soda bills that had earned praise from RFK Jr. She said that she’d turned the cash down.
Conservative sleuths claimed the campaign came from Influenceable, a social-media startup aimed at getting Gen-Z influencers to promote companies’ messaging. One sleuth, Nick Sortor, posted documents purporting to be from Influenceable that laid out talking points for the pro-soda campaign and how influencers could claim money for posting the messages. The documents encouraged influencers to use the picture of Trump drinking Diet Coke.
The Atlantic: “Why Right-Wing Influencers Keep Saying the Jews Killed JFK”
Given its implausibility, the “Jews killed JFK” theory was for decades relegated to the rantings of neo-Nazis and Iranian state television. The formerly fringe falsehood didn’t find its way to sudden celebrity because it became more convincing. Rather, the online conduits through which people get their information have supercharged this sort of material.
Today, many Americans turn to TikTok, X, YouTube, and podcasts to get their news and make sense of the world. These platforms have enabled talented creators to reach wide audiences. But without quality control or standards of practice, they also tend to privilege virality over accuracy and conspiracy theorists over more careful content creators. After all, novel content is cheapest and easiest to produce if you just make it up. And that includes anti-Jewish content.
Miami Herald: “Despite refugee status in the U.S., young Venezuelan was deported to Salvadoran prison”
Upon arrival, an immigration officer asked the young man the question that changed his life in moments.
“Do you have any tattoos?”
He had already been asked that by U.S. authorities in Colombia as part of an extensive background check, and he now gave the same answer. He lifted his shirt and pants and showed the immigration officer tattoos on his chest, legs and arms — a crown, a soccer ball and a palm tree.
At that point, it no longer mattered that he had no criminal record, and that he had been granted refugee status, with the full legal right to enter the United States. Immigration officials decided the tattoos were evidence enough to suspect he might be a member of Tren de Aragua, a prison-born Venezuelan gang whose members have earned a reputation in Latin America as fearless and ruthless.
Watch
CNN: “MAGA voter sends message to Trump in CNN interview”
Join the Next AVC Book Club!
The next AVC Book Club will be Mondays at 8pm from April 7 to May 19. Register here.
Thankfully, the database has been saved and will be transferred to another entity.
Cutting funds appropriated by Congress may be ruled unconstitutional by the courts.
 | A guest post by
|