Over the last several months, many of the most powerful voices in MAGA-aligned politics have been mired in bitter, public infighting. But as a new year kicked off, shifting priorities have brought these once-warring camps back together, rallying around a shared new cause: a modern iteration of American “manifest destiny.”
From online creators to sitting politicians, key MAGA figures have clashed for months over Trump administration policy, ranging from H-1B visa rules and the planned release of Jeffrey Epstein documents to AI regulation, Israel’s conflict with Hamas, and even controversial white nationalist Nick Fuentes. But in recent weeks, these internal disputes have receded into the background: first following the U.S. raid on Venezuela that resulted in the arrest of sitting president Nicolás Maduro, and more recently, after Donald Trump openly floated the idea of seizing Greenland and dissolving NATO as the world currently knows it.
If Trump was searching for a single issue to unify his fractured base, he has found it. Right-wing content creators, pundits with millions of followers, and elected officials alike have all closed ranks to back this new expansionist push.
As newsletter writer Kyle Tharp of Chaotic Era pointed out this Tuesday, right-wing influencer Benny Johnson and popular Twitch streamer Asmongold have both publicly thrown their support behind a U.S. takeover of Greenland in recent days. “After everything America has done for Europe over the last 120 years, handing over Greenland is a modest request, and a no-brainer if the continent wants to keep relying on America for its national security,” Johnson wrote on X over the weekend. (Johnson also spent last week in California, where he pledged to release what he claims is evidence of widespread election fraud in the state.)
“What could be more aligned with the America First agenda than Manifest Destiny 2.0?” Steve Bannon, host of the War Room show, told NBC News earlier this month when asked about the Trump administration’s seizure and arrest of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
The original concept of manifest destiny emerged in the early 1800s, rooted in the belief that the U.S. was divinely destined to expand its control across the entire western half of the North American continent. Today, users on platforms like X are re-applying the term to the Trump administration’s push to take control of Greenland, sharing graphics that place the U.S. flag over neighboring territories including Greenland and Mexico. This Tuesday, Trump shared an image to his Truth Social platform, showing him in the Oval Office surrounded by global leaders, that included a similar map appearing to show the U.S. absorbing Canada as well.
“It’s our responsibility to keep pushing for orderly global governance through American imperialism,” right-wing commentator Mike Cernovich said this week on pundit Tucker Carlson’s podcast.
Major policy shifts from the Trump administration are almost always preceded by coordinated messaging campaigns from right-wing online creators. Take the recent surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers deployed to Minneapolis: right-wing creator Nick Shirley went viral with a video claiming he had uncovered $100 million in fraudulent childcare spending, a claim the White House later cited as justification for sending thousands of ICE agents into Minnesota.
Many of the creators now backing Trump’s push for Greenland have long identified as anti-interventionist, particularly when it comes to U.S. military and financial aid to Ukraine. That history has not stopped them from joining the growing call to seize the territory.
This unified embrace of an expansionist policy directly contradicts much of the messaging that defined Trump’s most recent presidential campaign and the first year of his second term, when he consistently positioned himself as the “peace president.” That branding is rapidly eroding as the administration’s rhetoric around Greenland grows more aggressive.
Over the weekend, reports emerged of a text message Trump sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, which read: “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.” He went on to write, “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
With an issue as unifying as Greenland’s seizure, Trump appears positioned to quickly rebuild the political momentum his party lost amid bitter internal fights over issues like the Epstein files. As the old saying goes, what is war good for? For MAGA, it’s increasingly looking like the perfect tool to unify a fractured base.
This is an edition of the Inner Loop newsletter. Read previous editions here.
