PENCE: MAGA Has No “Moral Foundation”

Former Vice President Mike Pence recently suggested that

MAGA has become a dangerous shift within the conservative movement, warning that it is at risk of losing its philosophical foundation. In an essay for National Affairs, Pence cautioned that the American right is being overtaken by a force antithetical to traditional conservatism.

“The question for today’s conservatives is clear: Will we remain a party of enduring principles, or will we succumb to populism unmoored from conservative ideals?” Pence wrote in the piece, co-authored with a founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“A political movement once united by a commitment to limited government, moral order, and a robust defense of American ideals now appears fractured, its purpose clouded by populist grievances and ideological drift,” he wrote.

He continued: “By the time [President] Donald Trump won his second term, much post-election analysis correctly framed his victory not as a triumph of conservative ideals, but as a mere repudiation of a decadent and debauched Democratic Party.”

“While such opposition can attract allies and can even win elections when Republicans are out of power, it cannot serve as a movement’s moral foundation. Conservatism cannot be defined solely by what it isn’t,” the former vice president added.

Last month, Pence said during an interview that it was disheartening to see Trump revert to the same kind of rhetoric in his second term that had contributed to the

2021 Capitol riot.

“The initial reciprocal tariffs that he unveiled would be the largest peacetime tax hike on the American people in the history of this country,” Pence said at the time, referencing the broad tariffs Trump introduced on the nation’s major trading partners in early April.