Right-wing media figures with bizarre fixations and extreme views became an increasingly potent power center within the Republican Party in recent years. The rising influence of these conspiracy-minded propagandists led GOP politicians to seek their favor by mimicking their affects and obsessions, which are toxic to normal people, thus weakening the GOP’s electoral prospects.

Trump’s Tuesday debate performance encapsulated this trend, as he ranted about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets and spread other lies familiar only to those steeped in the deep lore of Fox News prime-time hosts and right-wing online subcultures.

But Trump shows no signs of breaking out of that right-wing bubble. And his willingness to embrace anyone willing to give him their loyalty — no matter how extreme their views — has helped make it impossible for the GOP to separate itself from even the most depraved and corrupt MAGA figures.

By way of contrast, there is one thing that will get you purged from the modern right: forcefully arguing that Trump’s 2020 election subversion effort renders him unfit for the presidency.

Tucker Carlson promoted Nazi apologia. JD Vance is standing by him.

Carlson may be the single right-wing media figure with the most influence within the GOP. He spoke at the Republican National Convention, has Trump’s ear, and helped secure Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s position as Trump’s running mate. Carlson is currently touring the country for events featuring numerous Republican power players, including Vance.

So when Carlson touted Daryl Cooper as “the most important historian in the United States” at the top of their two-hour interview published September 2, he was effectively giving the podcaster the imprimatur of the GOP.

He then proceeded to nod along as Cooper complained that purportedly legitimate German grievances are treated too unsympathetically by historians, argued British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was “the chief villain” of World War II, and blamed negligence for how “millions of people ended up dead” in Nazi concentration camps. In a follow-up thread on X, Cooper suggested Churchill should have taken Adolf Hitler up on an offer to “work with the other powers to reach an acceptable solution to the Jewish problem.”

Carlson has a long history of promoting white supremacist talking points — I noted a prominent neo-Nazi describing the then-Fox as “our greatest ally” more than seven years ago. But his eager platforming of Holocaust denial and Nazi apologia last week drew condemnations from some elected Republicans and numerous right-wing figures, with some suggesting that Vance and Trump should cut ties with him and that the right as a whole should cast him out.

“It is now incumbent on all decent people, and especially those on the right, to demand that Carlson no longer be treated as a mainstream figure,” wrote Jonathan S. Tobin, the editor-in-chief of Jewish News Syndicate and former executive editor at the conservative magazine Commentary. “Call it cancel culture, if you like, but the notion that someone who thinks it is acceptable or legitimate to question the truth about the Holocaust ought not to have access to a potential president, as Carlson appears to have with Trump, is entirely reasonable.”

But the revolt dissipated without forcing a break between Carlson and the upper echelon of the GOP. Carlson “laughed off the backlash,” while Vance “pointedly refused to join in the outrage over Carlson’s chat with Cooper” and even sat for an interview with the host. Kevin Roberts, the president of the powerful Heritage Foundation think tank which oversees Project 2025, kept his September 6 date on Carlson’s tour. Vance’s appearance is still on Carlson’s schedule for later this month.

By Tuesday, Carlson’s Republican critics were reduced to anonymously and impotently telling reporters that if Vance and Trump stick with the host, it might alienate “swing voters in the suburbs.”

Loomer’s Harris remarks are unprintable in a family publication. She campaigns with Trump.

The GOP’s situation grew more toxic that evening when an unexpected person disembarked from Trump’s plane when it arrived in Philadelphia for the night’s presidential debate: the pro-Trump influencer Laura Looomer, a notorious bigot and conspiracy theorist.

Loomer is a self-described “proud Islamophobe” who is “pro-white nationalism.” She has claimed there is a “genocide” of “native white populations,” which she says are “being replaced in this country by third-world invaders,” and accused “so many rich Jews” of having “a fixation on trying to destroy America.” She has accused the Biden administration of seeking to assassinate Trump; called for the execution of unnamed “Democrats who are guilty of treason”; said that “all of these communist secretaries of state who try to rig our elections” against Trump “belong in jail for election interference”; and shared a video which claimed “9/11 was an Inside Job!”

Loomer is “mentally unstable and a documented liar” who “can not be trusted” and is “toxic and poisonous,” according to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) (herself no stranger to bigoted and unhinged conspiracy theories).

But Loomer’s ardent support for Trump has made her a favorite of the former president, who has repeatedly praised her on the campaign trail, repeated her baseless smears on Truth Social, and reportedly attempted to hire her in the spring of 2023 before being dissuaded by “a firestorm” among some of his “most vocal conservative supporters.”

Loomer has in recent weeks described Harris, whose parents immigrated from India and Jamaica, as “a brain-dead bimbo who sucked so much c**k in order to get to the political position that she's in today,” said she “is NOT black and never has been,” said her election would ensure that “Ebonics will replace English as the language of our land,” and said that if she’s elected “the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center and the American people will only be able to convey their feedback through a customer satisfaction survey at the end of the call that nobody will understand.”

That last remark — which Loomer posted to X on Sunday, days before going on the campaign trail with Trump — led Greene to respond, “This is appalling and extremely racist. It does not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA. This does not represent President Trump.”

Loomer’s direct contact clearly has some Republicans unnerved. Some are suggesting to reporters that her presence on Trump’s plane led to his unhinged debate rant about migrants eating pets. But she remained on the campaign trail with the former president on Wednesday — including at ceremonies marking the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — and the X account of the National Republican Senate Committee promoted one of her videos that same day.

Benny Johnson took money from Russia, then hosted the RNC co-chair

One might have expected Trumpist influencer Benny Johnson to have had difficulty finding guests for his streaming coverage of Tuesday’s presidential debate.

He was one of several right-wing YouTubers revealed to have unwittingly received significant sums that originated with the Russian government after the Justice Department indicted two Russia propagandists last week for allegedly directing the scheme.

Johnson described himself and the other influencers as the “victims” of the effort. Its existence, however, suggests that Kremlin operatives believed paying Johnson and his colleagues would result in the kind of divisive and extreme content that redounds to Russia’s benefit.

But top Republicans aren’t treating Johnson as radioactive following that revelation.

His “STACKED” guest list on Tuesday featured Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, the former president’s election-denying daughter in law; Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who in his role as House Judiciary chair often pretends to be very concerned about the prospect of foreign money finding its way to Democrats; as well as Greene and Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL).

Lara Trump concluded her friendly interview by suggesting that Johnson had been the victim of a government conspiracy, saying, “You know we’re in election season, Benny, whenever they’re bringing Russia back up and trying to make some sort of a connection between Republicans and Russia.”