MAGA’s problems with the administration continue to grow. One of the disputes regards Israel and the American ambassador Mike Huckabee. He visited with Jonathan Pollard, who spent 30 years in prison for having spied for Israel while working in the Defense Department. Huckabee had no problem cavorting with a convicted traitor whose first allegiance was to Tel Aviv and not Washington.

Jack Posobiec, a top MAGA influencer, has emphasized the affair and is not pleased. Once more, add in the Epstein scandal, mixed with preferential treatment given to a foreign techno specialist for Visas, Ghislaine Maxwell’s preferential treatment in prison, and Trump’s new “Gilded Age.” MAGA is confused. Marjorie Taylor Greene is exiled, but the rich and powerful are given preference.

Does this mean a total break with Trump and MAGA? No, but it is a fraying at the edges, leaving some of his most faithful supporters confused about where the administration is heading. However, Trump has tried to appease some of his coalition. In the case of Pollard, he was unaware that Huckabee was playing court to the former American official.

It also demonstrates that the strains between Trump and the Christian Right are increasing. Huckabee is 100% pro-Israel without question, which includes supporting Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Trump, whose peace accord gives the United States more control, is committed to Israel’s security but not to its supremacy.

This is clear with Trump’s Abraham Accords, which give the Arabs a major role in shaping a new Middle East. His visit with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman assured the kingdom that they may receive A-35 fighter bombers, a move opposed by Israeli defenders in Congress. As well, support for the economic deals between Saudi Arabia and the United States is divided by those who see Israel as our closest ally in the Middle East.

But the concerns within MAGA are mostly focused on privilege. The idea that Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Howard Lutnick have more influence reminds many of “the swamp,” which is the government, in their view. In their universe, Trump was not supposed to go in that direction.

As well, the style grates with Trump’s recent emphasis on money, money, money. His MAGA supporters, such as Greene, feel scorned and deserted. For Trump, if he is displeased, regardless of a supportive past, it is easy for him to threaten them with being primaried. He treats his base as if they are disposable. Until they stood up to him over Epstein and the files, he had every reason to dismiss them. Now, attention must be paid to their grievances.

Trump never totally believed in populism. He remains a businessman and a salesman at his core. He gives the Christian Right a great deal of lip service, but never wholly embraces their causes. Trump’s choices for judges ended the effort to remove Roe v. Wade, but his Health and Human Services Department approved the so-called abortion pill. As with Ronald Reagan, he supports the Christian Right in concept. MAGA better get used to the fact that Trump is his own man.