Beyond MAGA

There is an image at the heart of American politics: a sea of red-hat-wearing MAGA supporters at a Trump campaign rally, representing the millions of Americans who voted for him over the past three elections — 63 million in 2016, 74 million in 2020, and 77 million in 2024. Yet this image is misleading. President Trump has built a coalition, not a cult. This coalition shares many common concerns, from unregulated immigration to progressive overreach to American decline. But it also contains groups with distinct identities, competing priorities, and clashing worldviews. And while there is a strong core of ardent Trump supporters whose identity is wrapped up in the MAGA movement, they represent a minority: only 38 percent of Trump voters say that being MAGA is important to them.

Drawing on surveys, interviews and group conversations conducted with over 10,000 Trump voters over 10 months concluding in early 2026, this study finds four distinct types of Trump voters: MAGA Hardliners, Anti-Woke Conservatives, Mainline Republicans, and the Reluctant Right.

• MAGA Hardliners represent the fiery core of Trump’s base. They are fiercely loyal, deeply religious, and animated by a sense that America is in an existential struggle between good and evil, with God firmly on their side.
• Anti-Woke Conservatives are relatively well-off, politically engaged, and deeply frustrated by the perceived takeover of schools, culture, and institutions by the progressive left.
• Mainline Republicans are middle-of-the-road conservatives who play by the rules and expect others to do the same. Most do not follow politics closely. For them, Trump’s strength is that he advances familiar conservative priorities: securing the border, keeping the economy strong, and preserving a sense of cultural stability.
• The Reluctant Right is the most ambivalent cohort of Trump’s coalition, and the group most likely to have voted for Trump transactionally: the businessman who was “less bad” than the alternative. Many feel disconnected from national politics and believe politicians do not share their priorities.

This report reveals the diversity within the Trump coalition on key questions such as leadership, immigration, and “wokeness.” It also examines trends among younger Trump voters, and their competing impulses toward national unity and political dominance.

President Trump occupies a singular place in the conservative political landscape. When asked whom they most agree with about politics among public figures, 73 percent of Trump voters choose the president, nearly twice as many as anyone else. President Trump is also considered “the best American alive today” by nearly a quarter of his voters — far more than any other individual.