MAGA has several mutually exclusive tenets:

- Isolationism

- Increase US influence worldwide

- Exploit US influence worldwide

Each one will have a negative effect on the other two.

Authoritarianism is self-contradictory by design. Supreme leader is to be followed, not understood, so you have to refer to them in doubt.

MAGA is not a single entity. Different parts of it have different concerns. That is how politics works for better and worse.

Sure, but it seems there are references to incompatible goals within the Project 2025 document, which is meant to be a unified goal document.

For instance, one goal was that "The United States must regain its role as the 'Arsenal of Democracy'... the United States built its reputation as a reliable partner with a strong defense industrial base that could supply military articles and goods in a timely manner."

But as explained in the video below, "The last three months have seen the worst damage to that reputation since the post-WWII order came into force."

The video is worth watching: it does bring out a lot of what you're talking about (different parts w/ different concerns), and does actually make sense of a lot of what Trump is saying and doing wrt Ukraine and NATO. I do find it preferable that the administration has rational goals which are simply not compatible with each other, than that they're behaving completely randomly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDSz62i6F3Q

This is actually surprisingly a pro-union move by Trump.

If you aren't aware, they've shipped most IATSE jobs to Serbia since 2023.

They used to shoot most Disney and Netflix shows in LA and Atlanta. Now they're happening in Eastern Europe. They fly the cast out and film with crews that don't have labor laws or unions and that are an order of magnitude cheaper.

IATSE members have been forced to leave the industry, sell their homes, and move out of California. There are a few holdouts, but it's likely they'll have to exit the industry too.

Once that capacity goes, it'll never come back.

Studios are sitting vacant. CBRE is going to come in and turn them all into office parks and mixed use.

Yet the budgets keep going up and the "all movies make a loss" accounting continues. What are the chances the consumer will see any savings or the crew will see any raises?

IATSE = International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)

None of them expected the "I" bit to be used? Ever?

The hope is the "A" plays a role there too though

In American labor unions, “international” generally means “US and Canada”.

It's the same as World Series in the US :)