MAGA blindsided by ICE blowback

[marmar]

Right-wing media silos leave MAGA flailing on ICE
MAGA’s whack-a-mole defense of immigration raids is backfiring

By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published January 24, 2026 6:45AM (EST)


(Salon) The Trump administration has thoroughly failed the conservative information ecosystem credited with elevating Donald Trump back into the White House. Right-wing media wanted pictures of dangerous criminals being arrested for mass deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Instead, they’ve gotten images of toddlers detained, a 37-year-old mother shot dead, an elderly grandfather dragged from his home and minor U.S. citizens injured and in trauma units. A now-infamous story of Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old in Minneapolis taken by ICE on Tuesday, is the perfect illustration of how fractured the media landscape has become in the age of Trump — and how the right’s hermetically sealed system is now undermining the administration’s deportation policies.

To many Americans, the viral image of a child swept up in an enforcement dragnet is horrifying. Yet in the right-wing media silo, the reaction — if there has been any at all — is not concern but suspicion. Conservative outlets have insisted the story is a lie and are clearly exasperated by the widespread coverage of the child’s after-school arrest and transfer to a detention center over 1,300 miles away in Texas.

The most revealing aspect of the right’s current meltdown over anti-ICE protests is their confusion. MAGA world is flailing and sputtering, trapped inside a media ecosystem that no longer reaches reality. The result is a whack-a-mole defense of ICE that keeps collapsing under the weight of evidence, public outrage and even the testimony of people the right used to trust: cops.

That’s how impermeable the right’s narrative borders have become. When off-duty cops in Minneapolis revealed this week that ICE agents are stopping and handcuffing them, and even pointing guns at them, MAGA simply shrugged. Fox News made only passing mention. When the Minnesota Department of Corrections took the extraordinary step of releasing surveillance footage to accuse the Department of Homeland Security of spreading misinformation, falsely claiming to have arrested people during “operations” when they were actually transferred from state custody, right-wing media did not cover it. ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/24/right-wing-media-silos-leave-maga-flailing-on-ice/

[C_U_L8R]

1. Fascism is dandy until it punches you in the face

Even magats don’t like what they’re seeing, mostly because it’s a mirror reflection of who they are, what they believe and what they’ve empowered. They cannot deny how vile they’ve become.

[Martin68]

4. Fascism doesn't work unless you have total power.

[Bluetus]

11. Not true. Fascism doesn't punch everybody in the face at the same time.

Fascism has always operated incrementally. We are right in the middle of it. ICE wasn't going to affect white people. It wasn't going to affect citizens. It wasn't even going to affect undocumented people who were living productive, otherwise lawful lives. THAT was the premise for all that money in the budget.

But they started with "criminals" -- remember the MS13 bullshit? But in is incremental. They are now getting ANY brown people. They are now getting citizens. And they are at the stage of building a facial recognition database of protestors, many of whom are white citizens whose families have been here 4 generations or more. Maybe they aren't disappearing those white people yet, but it is coming.

They did not start with total power. But now they know the courts can't touch them, and they have a practically unlimited budget, so they are approaching total power.

We really have to stop denying what is happening right in front of our eyes.

[Martin68]

17. I beg to differ. We are moving towards a fascist state - are in danger of becoming a fascist country - but Trump by no

means has total power. He's backed down several times, he has failed to get everything he wants, and there is powerful resistance taking place all over the country. If Trump had total power, he would be mowing down protestors by the hundreds. If he successfully declares martial law and makes it stick we will probably have succumbed. The fact that Jack Smith is alive and testifying publicly is proof Trump does not have full control yet.

[Bluetus]

18. ICE *IS* mowing down protesters by the hundreds

When 4 people were shot at Kent State, that became the legend of generations. ICE is shooting people every day now. Killing some, and sending many to the hospital with serious injuries. And it is not even news most of the time.

Trump backed off Iceland because of the FOREIGN resistance, not by anything in our system that stopped him. That whole Iceland (and Venezuelan) thing was 100% unconstitutional, but our system is 100% broken. Trump will never face ANY consequences for stealing a half billion dollars of oil and putting that in his own private bank account.

Honestly, I have no idea what news you must be watching. This game is already over. ALL of our institutions have failed. Our only slim hope is that we can have enough of an election to contain the worst of this administration. But the fact is that they are totally ignoring Congress and the laws with zero consequences, so even that might not make a difference.

I hate to be so blunt, but this denial is not going to help us. We need all hands on deck with a clear understanding of what we are up against. Denial is not a solution.

[FoxNewsSucks]

6. I don't think more than 1% of them care how vile they are

Unless it directly happens to them, they don't care.

[ancianita]

12. But when it does, do the rest of fascism's dupes even know? Especially when they keep being told that pics/news they

see are "fake" or "lies"? Do they realize that they now have the minority view of reality in America? Like Lawrence said, the hardcore will stay where they are -- that's around 26%.

[chia]

2. I've been trying to post info and photos to them that I know they're not seeing, but it's a thankless job.

They don't believe the awful photos, they think DHS, ICE and Trump are telling the truth, they don't see anything unconstitutional happening...
I don't think it's possible to get through to the vast majority of them, they're too far gone.

[travelingthrulife]

7. They just pretend it is some sort of deep state plot by Democrats.

My MAGA brother insists this is what it is. They are just trapped in their delusions.

[IronLionZion]

3. There was a time when conservatives claimed to be against government tyranny

there was a lot of conservative complaints about Ruby Ridge and Waco back in the day.

Apparently MAGA did "not see" this coming. MAGA voters "not see" a lot of important things. We should call them "not sees" since it keeps on happening.

[MLWR]

5. "Conservative outlets have insisted the story is a lie"

Well then, I double-dog dare them to sue....

[in2herbs]

8. Was watching a video the other day that reported that Black Rock was telling "his followers" that P25 was

Last edited Sat Jan 24, 2026, 01:39 PM - Edit history (1)

not working the way they'd planned because they don't have enough people to join their fight. (Small comfort but nonetheless satisfying.)

Wall Street must be demolished because it's just a front for the mob.



EDIT: Black Rock not Blackstone.

[ancianita]

13. Interesting. Do you have a link?

[in2herbs]

14. Yes. Can I DM you with it???

[ancianita]

15. Can you send it through DU Mail? Otherwise, it's okay, I'll take your word for it.

[Upthevibe]

9. Kick. N/T

[Prairie Gates]

10. These are the people the Bill Maher fans want us to reach out to

Fucking clowns.

[SirReal69]

16. ICE need a new name...

I think TACO Gestapo has a certain ring to it.