Freedom Conservatives plot a post-Trump Republican Party

Published May 21, 2026 12:41pm ET | Updated May 21, 2026 12:41pm ET



Welcome to Thursday’s edition of Washington Secrets. We spent Wednesday getting our FreeCon or something, hanging out with one of the factions in the Republican Party preparing for what comes after Donald Trump. Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) delivered a “fireside chat” — there was no fire or fireside — in which he said he wished things “sucked more.” That could be the boldest political slogan that Secrets has ever heard.

MAGA, “America First,” paleoconservatism, integralism, Christian nationalism, social conservatism, the disruptor Right, and fusionism all the way through to the Never Trumpers: The conservative Right is not short of labels to describe all its different factions and beliefs.

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