Signs of MAGA Collapse

October 28, 2026. The story of how Flavio Bolsonaro arrived in the United States was odd and is becoming odd. After losing the election to become Brazil's president on Sunday, he suggested he would contest the results of the election, and Brazilian authorities asked him to give up his Brazilian passport because he is under investigation for laundering more than a billion dollars through an online gambling scheme, and for financial irregularities involving a bank regulators shut down for fraud. And then he disappeared. When he didn't turn in his passport, authorities canceled it and barred Bolsonaro from leaving the country. Ana Inava, Edward Wong, Alice Maciel, and Lucia Chalacian Herrera of the New York Times reported today that Bolsonaro, his wife and his two daughters, crossed from Brazil to Argentina in a van across a bridge between the two countries. In Argentina, they boarded a plane owned by a private company used by Argentina's president Javier Malay, an ally of Trump, and flew to Ecuador. In Ecuador, they boarded another private jet for Miami. A senior US State Department official said the U.S. will issue visas for Bolsonaro and his family, allowing them to enter the country. Flavio Bolsonaro is a son of Javier Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted of launching a coup against the duly elected Brazilian president, Luis Enacio Lula de Silva. In social media this afternoon, the younger Bolsonaro claimed he faced political prosecution in Brazil and declared himself the legitimate president-elect of Brazil, later changing that language to "leader of Brazil." He claimed the legal investigation against him was a witch hunt. Bolsonaro's defeat strikes a blow at Trump's evident plan to install right-wing leaders across Latin America as part of a move to create a U.S. dominated western hemisphere. Evidently Trump intends to shelter Bolsonaro in the U.S. Yesterday, Terrence McCoy, Marina Dias and Isaac Arndtorff of the Washington Post reported that a justice on the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered Brazilian police to investigate whether Rockbridge, a donor network co-founded by President J.D. Vance, illegally helped to finance Bolsonaro's presidential campaign. The Rockbridge network rejected the suggestion, saying, "The Brazilians made false representations about their relationship with Rockbridge and created documents representing or referencing Rockbridge without Rockbridge's knowledge or consent." While Trump allies are supporting those who share their authoritarian vision of government, abroad, MAGA is showing signs of collapsing at home. In status yesterday, Oliver Darcy reported a dramatic decline in the numbers of people watching the Fox News Channel. October's numbers will be down 27 percent in total viewers and 32 percent in the age group between 25 and 54 since October of last year. In contrast, MSNOW and CNN are picking up viewers. Brendan Roshus, of the Independent, reported that stores featuring Trump merchandise are shutting down around the country as interest in them flags. An owner of a Trump store told Roshus, "The store is kind of run its course." A sign of just how deep rejection of MAGA has reached in society was the October 19th article by New York Times' chief fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman, offering advice to a man who wrote in, "Consourn that his brioni suit made people think he was MAGA." Do I need to be concerned that what I'm wearing is sending the wrong message about my political proclivities? He asked. CNN suggested a number of tweaks to avoid being confused for a MAGA man, including the possibility of dressed sneakers, which would give the whole look a more casual vibe than the one team Trump usually conveys, which leans more toward New York in the 1980s. Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Tallerico is running ads featuring Republicans crossing the aisle to vote for him, rather than Republicans Senate candidate Ken Paxton. I truly believe that he is the most corrupt politician Texas has ever seen. Republican former Terrent County Judge Glenn Whitley says in one that features five former Republican officials. James Tallerico is by far, without a doubt, the best person in the race for the U.S. Senate. Our Texas state representative, Bennett Ratliffe, continues, "I'm a lifelong Republican and I know it's hard to go in and vote for a Democrat," Whitley says. We need to support the best person, not look at their party label, not look at what Jersey they're wearing, but who is going to represent us, Ratliffe ads? The Republicans urge voters to back Tallerico. In South Carolina, two former governors, Democrat Jim Hodges and Republican David Beasley, cut an ad together to urge voters to support Democratic candidate Dr. Annie Andrews for the U.S. Senate, rather than Republican candidate Darlene Graham, the late Senator Lindsey Graham's sister. This country is too divided, they say, and the political rhetoric has gotten way, way out of hand. Sanders understands that leadership isn't about making people angrier while it's about making things better. She's willing to put people ahead of politics. South Carolina deserves more than the same political fighting, they say. So join the two of us in supporting Dr. Annie Andrews. Let's send her to the U.S. Senate. In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski has endorsed Democrat Jonathan Christ Tomkins in the Alaska Governor's race, saying that our future is too important to be hamstrung by partisan divisions and that Christ Tomkins understands that governing requires listening to people with different perspectives and finding common ground to solve the problems all of us face. Murkowski urged Alaskans of every political stripe to consider voting for him. Today, Kalter McEw of Politico reported that open AI has created an election operation center to identify misinformation and efforts to disrupt the upcoming midterm elections. McEw writes that the company is trying to position itself as a defender of the democratic process. Positioning that suggests it expects such a defense, rather than support for MAGA, will put it on the right side of politics in the future. Katie Rogers of the New York Times reported tonight that the increasingly unpredictable president is isolated and angry, and as one official put it, feasting on a media diet of faunting press coverage, disparaging clips about his perceived enemies, and helpings of flattering photos and AI slop, served up by a small group of loyalists. As Lisa Lairer of the New York Times noted on Tuesday, his multiple rallies in states that until recently have been reliably Republican, underscore Republicans growing alarm over a political map that leaves Democrats with multiple paths to Senate control. And finally, it appears that authorities have found some voter fraud. Today, as Mark Van Cleve and Rebecca Boone of the Associated Press reported, right-wing activists James O'Keefe and Cam Higby were charged with voting unlawfully and stealing an identity after they gave false names to poll workers in Minnesota during the state's primary election. The men say they were testing the vouching process available in the state that enables voters who lack proof of their current address to vote in a new precinct after another voter in that precinct vouchers for them. The process is rarely used, and poll workers reported the men who posted a video to YouTube of their attempt to vote fraudulently. O'Keefe and Higby claimed they were simply exposing the lunacy of the system. But it turns out the system worked, and they are now charged with a felony. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Data Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.