Even as President Donald Trump celebrates the passage of his sweeping legislative package, frustration and anger have roiled some of his most loyal supporters, who fear he is going back on promises crucial to his MAGA movement.
Immigration, Epstein, Ukraine: Trump’s moves roil MAGA base
White House officials concede there’s unrest in the MAGA ranks but say it doesn’t seriously threaten Trump’s support.
July 9, 2025 The Washington Post
“I will tell you right now, MAGA has never been in more turmoil than the last 72 hours,” said a person close to Trump, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation.
White House officials disputed the idea that the unrest in MAGA ranks seriously threatens Trump’s support.
Trump’s apparent decision to avoid deportations of migrants working on farms, at hotels and potentially in other industries tops the list of issues that have caused prominent MAGA influencers to sound the alarm.
“I got myself into a little trouble because I said I don’t want to take people away from the farmers,” Trump said at a rally last week in Iowa, before announcing that legislation was underway to protect some migrants from being “thrown out pretty viciously” in his administration’s worksite immigration raids.
Trump acknowledged that “serious radical-right people” in his political base “may not be quite as happy” with the initiative. He added that he thought they would ultimately understand.
Trump’s comments led to intense public pushback from MAGA figures including Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former campaign strategist and White House adviser, and Charlie Kirk, the head of Turning Point USA, who warned about plans to offer “amnesty” to some migrant workers.
Tuesday morning, as Trump was shown social posts from MAGA influencers decrying his recent comments, he took issue with the amnesty claim.
“What are they talking about?” Trump asked aides upon seeing the posts, according to a person with knowledge of his private remarks. “I never talked about amnesty.”
He repeated that in public later in the day during a Cabinet meeting, but acknowledged that a new initiative is underway to protect some workers.
“There’s no amnesty,” Trump said, responding to a reporter’s question. “What we’re doing is getting rid of criminals. But we are doing a work program.”
White House communications staff plastered Trump’s “no amnesty” remark across social media within moments of his speaking.
A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the migrant worker program still being developed, dismissed “unfounded and baseless rumors” about the plans. No new legislative proposals are being drafted, the senior official said, despite Trump’s statement at the Iowa rally that legislation was being worked on.
The administration is now working to “streamline our existing visa programs to make sure they’re more efficient and that farmers have what they need,” the official said.
Trump is “realistic” about the fact that native-born American workers are unlikely to fill all the agriculture jobs currently filled by immigrant laborers, the White House official said.
“He wants farmers to retain their workforce, and he wants to make it easier for them,” the official said.
At the Cabinet meeting, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer referred to a new Office of Immigration Policy that her department has launched to help employees secure visas for workers.
The president in recent days has been under sustained pressure from donors over the migrant worker situation, fielding phone calls from wealthy industry leaders and acquaintances who are worried about being able to keep their workers, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations. Those calls recently have outnumbered the conversations Trump has had about immigration with top MAGA leaders, those people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Now that his signature bill has been passed, some of the donors told Trump, it was time to moderate policy on deportations and ensure that businesses that rely on immigrant workers continue to function.
Trump has also heard from Joe Rogan, a podcaster with a massive following of young men who endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, a move that Trump’s political aides credit with helping to bring younger voters to the president’s coalition.
Rogan has discussed immigration policy with Trump and pushed him to back off deporting workers who have not committed crimes, according to a person with knowledge of their conversations. Rogan and Dana White, a friend of Trump’s who is CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, had dinner with the president on June 30, according to a third person with knowledge of the meeting.
Rogan’s staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“President Trump is fulfilling his promise to the American people to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in history,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson. “There will be no amnesty. Only deportations of the violent, criminal illegal aliens that Joe Biden welcomed into the country.”
Jackson added that Trump is “more popular amongst the Republican base than any Republican was at this time in their Administration,” and that passage of his One Big Beautiful Bill fulfilled multiple campaign promises.
But a person involved in the MAGA pushback against the migrant worker carve-out, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the policy’s potential ramifications, said Trump would soon find out “there is no real way to thread this needle” and keep both sides happy.
“It’s a tug of war between the donor class and his base,” the person said. “It’s an existential threat to the coalition. If you even float in any serious way amnesty, by that name or any other, the base will revolt.”
The administration’s inability to make good on promises of new revelations about Epstein has also upset some MAGA figures.
Over the weekend, the Justice Department announced that its investigation had come up with nothing new to say about Epstein’s case, undermining years of conspiracy theories that some administration officials had previously pushed.
Some right-wing figures have accused the federal government of a massive cover-up to protect powerful associates of Epstein who may have abused teenage girls. They have also questioned the official account of Epstein’s death in custody, which was ruled a suicide.
During the Cabinet meeting, Trump criticized a reporter’s question about Epstein, saying the case was no longer important.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years,” Trump said. “I can’t believe you were asking a question on Epstein at a time like this. We’re having some of the greatest success, and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.”
Despite Trump’s dismissal, conspiracy theories about Epstein have been a major concern among a subset of his vocal supporters. White House staff on Monday strategized to try to keep the fallout to a minimum. The president’s own attempt to show support for FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino faced pushback from some of his supporters on Truth Social.
Some MAGA voices, including pro-Trump commentator Laura Loomer, called for firing Attorney General Pam Bondi. Loomer also called for Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ ouster over the migrant worker proposal.
“As someone who voted for the president, campaigned for the president a lot — I’m not attacking the president, but I think even people who are fully on board with the bulk of the MAGA agenda are like, ‘This is too much, actually,’” Tucker Carlson said about the administration’s Epstein memo in a taped conversation he posted Tuesday.
“I’m saying that with love, and I hope that they’re listening. Because I think this threatens to blow up the whole thing.”
Multiple White House officials dismissed such warnings, noting that polling does not show the Epstein case to be anywhere near the top issue animating voters. They also pointed to the Trump administration’s work to drive down prices and bring an end to various foreign conflicts, among other recent policy victories.
“If people want to leave Donald Trump — he was the founder of the MAGA movement, he’s sacrificed more than any person who’s ever run for office in our nation’s history, he almost lost his life twice, gave up his successful business, fought off more than 130 indictments, was threatened with imprisonment to lead our country — over a conclusion provided by the Department of Justice over Jeffrey Epstein, that does not seem like a rational choice,” the senior White House official said.
A second White House official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, told The Washington Post that although there will always be topics that Trump’s supporters disagree about, the president’s loyal base will not stop supporting him as a result of the Epstein investigation.
“They’re not going to hang up their MAGA hat and call it a day,” the official said, referring to the critics as a “vocal minority.”
“By no means are the loud people on X an accurate representation of the nearly 80 million people who voted for the president,” the official said.
The heartburn about immigration and Epstein comes on the heels of warnings last month from several prominent MAGA figures against striking Iran on behalf of Israel. When Trump ultimately did order an attack against Iran’s nuclear sites, the objections from his base were muted, in part because the president said the U.S. military would not be involved in a drawn-out conflict.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House this week raised eyebrows among some in the Trump’s “America First” coalition, who remain skeptical of the United States intervening in other countries’ wars.
Bannon, who hosts the daily “War Room” talk show popular with the MAGA base, urged his audience on Tuesday not to “curl up in the fetal position,” but to continue to push Trump to do what they elected him to.
“Let’s not say, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to war in Iran. He’s getting sucked into Ukraine. He’s pushing amnesty.’ It’s Epstein, yes, it’s all of those, and maybe more. That’s fine,” Bannon said. “You’re in the fight club. And in the fight club, what do we do? We fight.”