All Hail President Sanders
If Trump continues down this path, the next president will be a socialist.
He took a bullet to the ear for “fight, fight, fight”—but unless Donald Trump starts fighting for America First, the movement might be finished.
One year after the former president survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and almost a decade into a populist uprising that reshaped American politics, Donald Trump stands at a dangerous crossroads. On one side lies his legacy: the promise of national renewal, secure borders, and peace abroad. On the other is the graveyard of political movements betrayed by the very leaders they empowered.
The mood among young Trump voters is shifting. Many who risked everything to elect him in 2024—despite 90-plus criminal indictments and unprecedented media smears—now face two fears: that they’ll be shipped off to fight a war with Iran, or that they’ll never land meaningful work in a labor market swamped by foreign competition.
Let us be blunt. If Trump does not rein in both legal and illegal immigration and pull the U.S. back from another foreign war, he may go down not as the father of a populist revival—but as its final gravedigger.
A Crisis on the Farm and the Frontlines
President Trump’s immigration rhetoric has grown muddy just when clarity is needed most. On June 20, Trump told reporters, “We’re looking at doing something where in the case of good, reputable farmers, they can take responsibility for the people that they hire...we can’t put the farms out of business...they keep us happy and healthy and fat.”
This followed a brief, behind-the-scenes pause in ICE enforcement at agricultural sites—exactly the opposite of the kind of enforcement that the America First movement has demanded for years. Trump later reversed course. Now, he has reversed his reversal.
The confusion has rattled core supporters.
Meanwhile, the legal immigration system remains a firehose. Over 120,000 H-1B visa approvals are expected next year alone, according to DHS projections. Yet youth unemployment among college-educated men aged 18–25 is near 10%, with underemployment rates even higher. Seven percent of STEM workers are jobless and fighting for spots once held by Americans, now outsourced to imported labor.
These labor challenges say nothing of the looming specter of AI.
The numbers don’t lie: American youth are being undercut at home and now face the prospect of being maimed or drafted for a conflict overseas.
Another War, Another Betrayal?
If immigration defines Trump’s legacy, foreign policy may define its collapse.
Last Saturday, Trump announced from the White House that U.S. strikes had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s top nuclear sites. Standing with Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump declared the mission a “spectacular military success,” warning Tehran that “future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier” if it didn’t back down.
He did not seek congressional approval (some argue it was not necessarily required in this case). He made no mention of the America First voters who elected him to end foreign entanglements—not start new ones.
The base remembers 2016. They remember a candidate who ran on “no more stupid wars.” If Trump now leads them into one—based on the same WMD pretexts that Bush used in Iraq—many will never trust him, or anyone like him, again.
The Bernie Sanders Scenario
If Trump fails to deliver, the America First movement won’t die—it’ll defect.
Just as the Bernie Bros flipped to Trump in 2016 after Sanders bent the knee to Hillary Clinton, today’s MAGA youth could soon swing back—this time, to a new kind of left-wing populist. Not Bernie himself, of course—he’s far too old. But someone from his ideological lineage. Someone who, like Sanders in 2015, called mass illegal immigration a “Koch Brothers Policy” and championed the American worker above global capital.
Unlike the GOP’s donor class, the new populist Left opposes foreign wars; an adjustment on immigration could bring the MAGA base flooding over. If Trump loses the trust of disaffected voters now, they won’t just stay home—they’ll go somewhere else. And fast.
A Path to Redemption
All is not yet lost.
Trump has hired good people—some of them, at least. His deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has pushed for daily deportation targets of 3,000. The "Big Beautiful Bill" offers real funding for ICE, CBP, and the border wall. There is still a narrow window, before July 24, for Trump to lock down the border, reject the neocons whispering in his ear, and regain his footing.
But he must choose, and soon. No more half-measures. No more mixed messages about “reputable farmers” or ambiguous bombing runs against a country most Americans couldn't find on a map. He must become the president he once promised to be: a nationalist, a populist, a champion of peace and prosperity for Americans—not global interests.
One Way or Another, It Can’t Go On Like This
Even if Trump corrects course, the lesson remains: the MAGA base wants clarity, not chaos. Risk is acceptable—if it’s part of a vision. But flip-flopping between tough talk and corporate capitulation only breeds doubt. Doubt leads to desertion.
Trump must deliver. Or someone else will.
And next time, it might not be someone from Mar-a-Lago—but someone from Burlington, Vermont.
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