MAGA Hunger Games: The Base Turns Feral

Here’s a direct link to Rick Wilson’s podcast Elephant in the Room. This is the April 24, 2026 podcast “MAGA Hunger Games: The Base Turns Feral.”

If you are unacquainted with Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project, and specifically his “Elephant in the Room” podcasts, this might be a good place to meet him.

Background for this podcast:

The MAGA meltdown is happening in real time—and it’s not subtle. What started as a fringe influencer ecosystem exploded into a full-blown political machine…and now it’s turning on itself.

In this episode of The Lincoln Project Podcast, Rick Wilson breaks down the rise, evolution, and collapse of the MAGA influencer infrastructure—starting with the forces that set it off before 2015. From early internet forums and outrage economics to the algorithm-fueled rise of viral grifters, this is the origin story of a movement that monetized rage—and is now choking on it.

Today, that same ecosystem is in open conflict: influencers feuding, audiences fracturing, and the feedback loop that once powered growth now driving internal chaos, panic-posting, and a full-on credibility collapse. The question isn’t whether it’s breaking—the question is how far it falls.

⚠️ In this episode:

How the MAGA influencer machine was built (pre-2015 roots) Why outrage became the most profitable content strategy online The algorithm’s role in scaling extremism and clout-chasing Why the current MAGA infighting was inevitable What this collapse means heading into 2026.

If you want to understand where this chaos came from—and where it’s going next—this is the episode.

Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.

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