Is This The End Of MAGA? — ft. Anthony Scaramucci

Democrats sweep both chambers and MAGA faces a reckoning

The midterm election gave Democrats both chambers of Congress, and Scaramucci reads it as a repudiation of Trump. Whether that ends MAGA is the harder question, and his answer is no, because the Republican Party has no household leader outside Trump's orbit and he cannot name a successor for 2028. He says he is not as objective as his host, having wanted these Republicans smashed politically and being happy it happened.

Takeaways

• Democrats won both chambers decisively. They hold 55 Senate seats and 250 House seats. Scaramucci says it is hard to imagine Republicans winning either chamber over the next six years, and credits Democratic Senate candidates with running as reasonable moderates inside the consensus.
• Republicans lost on prices, war and corruption. Scaramucci lists gas prices, an unauthorized war, corruption, incompetence and illegal tariffs, plus cruelty, aggressive deportations and aggressive redistricting. He calls the war a $500bn venture that cost $2,400 per family in energy and moved the 10-year Treasury yield from 3.96% to over 4.90%.
• No household Republican leader exists outside MAGA. Scaramucci says he cannot name one. Rubio and Vance are dipped in ruby red Donald Trump, McCormick is MAGA-adjacent and Youngkin was the least MAGA of the MAGAs. Reviving Christie, Cheney or Ryan would differentiate the party.
• Trump could reverse course on tariffs. Scaramucci calls him a transactionalist who might roll tariffs back even while pressing them, and says assuming he stays the course would be naive. He notes Bezos gave $1m to the inauguration and $40m for Melania, and Zuckerberg gave money.
• Markets rallied on divided government. The Dow rose more than 2%, its best day since April. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each gained more than 1%. Scaramucci cites The Stock Trader's Almanac on mixed government since 1896, and Deutsche Bank's head of FX research says gridlock lowers risk premia.
• Data centers became a ballot-box liability. Of 33 ballot measures, only one backed data centers, and 14 Ohio municipalities passed bans. Twenty-three percent of voters called the issue crucial. Scaramucci compares the backlash to letting China into the WTO and says a pause pending regulation would be good policy.
• Scaramucci advises against prosecuting Trump. He wants an omnibus ethics push instead, and cites Peter Schweizer's book on insider trading and Congress reinstating the practice by voice vote. Ed Elson wonders whether the brazenness of the moment might finally force change in Washington.

What Scaramucci predicts next

• Pete Hegseth is gone.